281 / 308
ツボる tsuboru
It hit my exact funny spot.
What does tsuboru mean?
From 笑いのツボ, your personal laughter pressure point. Everyone's sits in a different place, which is why nobody else understands why you are crying.
Example
その言い間違い、ツボって笑いが止まらない。
That slip of the tongue hit my funny bone and I can't stop laughing.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Friends only Casual. Natural with friends, out of place at work or with strangers.
The story behind tsuboru
ツボ is a pressure point, the term from East Asian medicine for the precise spots on the body where a needle or a thumb does something disproportionate. Japanese borrowed that image for humour: 笑いのツボ, the exact place where a person's laughter lives.
The metaphor is unusually accurate, because these points really are personal and non-transferable. Everyone has met the friend who collapses at something the rest of the table finds merely fine, then cannot explain why. That is the whole content of ツボる. You are not claiming the thing was funny in general. You are reporting, slightly helplessly, that it landed on your spot and now you cannot stop.
Get tsuboru in your pocket
ツボる is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
