Translation
ratto means "Rat" in English.
It's a katakanization, a loan-word.
- Rat vs. nezumi ネズミThe word nezumi can refer to all sorts of rodents, rats and mice. And even some animals that aren't technically rodents but look like rodents.
- Common Nezumihatsuka-nezumi ハツカネズミ refers to the common House Mouse, while dobu-nezumi 溝鼠 refers to the common Brown Rat.
- mausu usually refers to mice used in laboratory experiments. It's also the only "mouse" word that refers to a computer mouse.
- ratte usually refers to a pet rat or mouse, or a lab rat.
| Romaji | ra | tto | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katakana | ラ | ッ | ト |
| Hiragana | ら | っ | と |
Orthography Notes
- ット contains a small tsu ッ which makes the consonant of the syllable longer.
Synonyms
Beware: some kanji that are difficult to handwrite are easy to type on the computer, which may skew the usage statistics.