Quick question: 林 vs. 森 vs. 森林, what’s the technical difference?

4 comments

1. *hayashi* has more to do with the individual trees in a group

   http://www.google.com/search?q=林&psj=1&biw=1390&bih=746&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi

   *mori* is more like “woods” in the poetic sense, the group of trees as a whole

   *shinrin* is “forest” more in the technical sense

   (this is just my general impression)

2. 林 is a grove or a man-made forest

   森 a forest

   森林 is the Chinese word for forest. It’s usually only used for technical terms “forestry services” etc or as a synonym for jungle implying a denser forest

   Edit: formatting

3. 木 = a tree
   林 = trees
   森 = more trees

   Both 林 and 森 mean woods/forest, but 森 is denser than 林.

   森 also has different meanings.

   – 森 is dense, so it means “dense”. (e.g. 森林[shinrin] “dense forest”.)
   NOTE: 森林 is used in all of CJK, and rarely used in daily conversation

   – 森 is dense enough to block the sun light, so it also means “eerie” or “scary”. (e.g. 森嚴[shingen], which is rarely used IMO)

4. Thanks for asking this question ten years ago, u/capnbrown <3