詰む (tsumu): Japanese Slang ‘Stuck in a Difficult Situation’

Pronunciation

Definition

詰む (tsumu) indicates when you get stuck with something and find yourself in a fix. This word is often used as “詰つんだ” (tsunda), the past form of “詰む” when you’ve found yourself in a hopeless situation. In particular, “人生じんせい詰んだ” (jinsei tsunda; my life is tsunda) is a common phrase meaning “got stuck in life”, or more simply, “f*ck my life”.

When you feel “詰んだ” (tsunda)

Here are some examples when you may feel “詰んだ”:

• you’ve lost your passport at airport
• it has started raining and you’ve realized you forgot your umbrella
• you’ve realized you have a hard assignment due tomorrow
• you’ve left your laptop charger at school and can’t chill at home watching Netflix/YouTube, etc.

and so on.

As you can see, 詰む can describe either a serious or trivial situation. When you want to emphasize, you can say “マジ詰んだ” (maji tsunda), where マジ (maji) is a very common and casual intensifier similar to “really” or “literally” in English.

Word Origin

Originally, “詰む” means being checkmated in Shogi, Japanese chess. For instance, “詰つめ将しょう棋ぎ“ (tsume shougi) is a Japanese-chess problem whose goal is to 詰める (tsumeru; checkmate) the opponent’s king.

The kanji “詰” generally means “be stuck” or “be clogged”, as in “トイレが詰まった” (toire ga tsumatta) meaning “The toilet is clogged”. This kanji also means “fill”, as in “ものを袋ふくろに詰める” (mono wo hukuroni tsumeru) meaning “fill a bag with things”, “距離きょりを詰める” (kyori wo tsumeru) meaning “fill a distance ( = approach)”, and “議論ぎろんを詰める” (giron wo tsumeru) meaning “thrash out a discussion”, that is “fill a gap between a goal and current situation.”

Example Sentences

Ex1
明日あした沖縄おきなわ行いくのに台風たいふうが来きてるとかマジ詰んだ
Tomorrow I have a flight to Okinawa but a typhoon is coming. I maji tsunda (have got in a terrible jam/pickle).

Ex2
プログラミング嫌きらいな人ひとが情報じょうほう学科がっかに入はいると間ま違ちがいなく詰む
People who hate programming will definitely tsumu (be in a fix) if they enroll in the department of information science at university.

Ex3
あのゲームはラスボスが倒たおせなくて詰む人ひとが多おおい。
A lot of people tsumu (get stuck) in the game because they can’t beat the ラスボス (final boss).

(Note)
ラスボス (rasu bosu) stands for “ラストボス” (rasuto bosu) literally meaning “the last boss”.

Synonyms: 終おわった (over, finished, became hopeless)
Synonyms in English: get stuck in a jam, find oneself in a fix, get checkmated
Related words and phrases: 将しょう棋ぎ (Japanese chess), 詰つめ将しょう棋ぎ (a Japanese-chess problem), 詰つめる (fill, cram)