Origin and usage of とにかく and ともかく in modern Japanese

From their shared origins in Old Japanese to their modern semantic divergence: history, meaning, register, and usage of とにかく and ともかく

Category: History of Grammar

What do とにかく and ともかく mean in modern Japanese?

In contemporary Japanese grammar, とにかく (tonikaku) and ともかく (tomokaku) are adverbs and, in many contexts, also function as discourse markers that close or suspend one line of reasoning in order to open another: “setting everything else aside”, “in any case”, “for now, let’s focus on this.”

The relationship between the two forms is very close, and dictionaries often define each partly in terms of the other; however, their historical development and practical usage profiles do not perfectly coincide.

An important point, often overlooked in teaching materials, is that the modern characteristics of とにかく and ともかく can only be fully understood when they are placed within the broader historical family of とかく / とにかくに / ともかくも / とにもかくにも.

A second preliminary point concerns classification. Modern grammar treats them as adverbs, but recent research on discourse language also associates them with “connective expressions” and markers of textual development.

Indeed, とにかく and ともかく often appear as a distinct subclass within these studies, suggesting that their role is not merely lexical but also organizational and interactional.

とにかく (tonikaku)/ともかく (tomokaku) - Overview

Today, とにかく and ともかく are near-synonyms in the general sense of “anyway” or “in any case,” but they are not simply interchangeable. Their history reveals two distinct yet converging genealogical lines:

とにかく derives from the older form とにかくに;
ともかく derives from ともかくも.

Both, however, belong to the same historical family of と〜かく expressions, which the 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten) traces back to a compound formed from the deictic adverb (demonstrative adverb) と and the adverb かく.

The lexical ancestor of this family is とかく, already attested in the 竹取物語 (Taketori monogatari) with the meaning “this and that” or “in various ways,” later developing the meanings “in any case” and even “to tend to” or “easily.”

From a modern perspective, とにかく is more frequent and more forceful. It readily pushes the discourse toward a decision, an action, an instruction, or a sense of urgency. ともかく is generally more “discursive” and sounds more natural when setting one issue aside in order to discuss another, especially in the fixed pattern X はともかく.

Historical Origins

The most solid historical starting point is とかく.

The 日本国語大辞典 (Nihon Kokugo Daijiten) explicitly explains that the adverb とかく is formed from the combination of the adverb と and the adverb かく, and notes that the spellings 兎角 and 左右 are ateji, that is, phonetic-semantic spellings with no etymological significance.

This is important because the same dictionary entry distinguishes the adverb とかく from the Sino-Japanese noun 兎角 (“rabbit horns”), an image referring to something nonexistent, already attested in the 三教指帰 (Sangō Shiiki) of 797. The shared spelling therefore does not imply a shared etymology.

The annotation manuals for CHJ/UniDic (Chūnagon Search Interface) likewise treat 兎角, 兎に角, 兎も角, and とにもかくにも as members of the same formal family built around the elements と and かく, further confirming the historical transparency of the series.

According to the 日本国語大辞典, とかく is attested very early as an adverb meaning “this and that” or “various things” in the 竹取物語 (Taketori Monogatari) (late 9th–early 10th century).

It later developed a meaning involving the suspension of alternatives and a pragmatic decision, glossable as “anyway” or “in any case,” with the earliest attestation cited in the 謡曲・丹後物狂 (Tango Monogurui, c. 1430).

During the late medieval period, it also developed the meaning “to tend to,” “easily,” or “with a tendency toward,” attested in 賽の目 (Sainome, literally “The Dots on Dice”).

In other words, the base form とかく already encompasses three major semantic strands:

vague reference to a plurality of things;
setting alternatives aside;
habitual tendency.

From this base, two branches emerge that eventually lead to the modern forms. The branch leading to とにかく passes through とにかくに.

The 日本国語大辞典 records two meanings for とにかくに:

the older meaning is “in various ways” or “this and that,” attested in the 落窪物語 (Ochikubo Monogatari, 10th century);
the second meaning is “anyway,” “in any case,” or “ultimately,” with its earliest attestation given in the 続拾遺和歌集 (1278).

The modern shortened form とにかく is defined as “a development of とにかくに.” The earliest attestation cited for the meaning corresponding to the older sense “in any case” appears in 虎清本狂言・猿座頭 (Torakiyobon Kyōgen: Saru Zatō, late Muromachi to early Edo period), while a usage closer to the modern sense “at any rate” or “anyhow” is attested in 1895 in 国語のため (Kokugo no Tame) by Ueda Kazutoshi.

This means that the shortening from とにかくに to とにかく is relatively old and became established long before the shortened form ともかく.

The branch leading to ともかく, by contrast, passes through ともかくも. Here the chronology is different. The 日本国語大辞典 records an older meaning for ともかくも of “in whatever way” or “one way or another,” with its earliest attestation in the 落窪物語 (Ochikubo Monogatari, 10th century*), and a second meaning of “setting everything else aside” or “in any case,” first attested in the 金刀比羅本保元 (Kotohira-bon Hōgen, c. 1220).

The shortened form ともかく is likewise defined by the same source as “a development of ともかくも.” However, its independent attestation is much later. As a free adverb (“in any case”), it first appears in 坑夫 (Kōfu) by Natsume Sōseki (1908), whereas the now extremely common construction X はともかく already appears at the end of the nineteenth century in 愛弟通信 (Aitei Tsūshin – Letters to My Beloved Younger Brother, 1894–95) by Kunikida Doppo, and is further confirmed by examples from 1907.

What emerges is an asymmetrical history: the “to-ni” branch contracted during the premodern period, whereas the “to-mo” branch became established as a stable shortened form only in the modern era, particularly in argumentative and narrative prose.

Recent research on the history of Japanese adverbs places とかく, とにかく, and ともかく（も） among the modern forms derived from older deictic adverbs.

From this same perspective, とかく tends to develop meanings related to “tendency” or “inclination,” whereas とにかく and ともかく become specialized in “discourse progression,” that is, the organization of text and the pragmatic orientation of an utterance. This historical interpretation is entirely consistent with the lexicographical evidence examined above.

The Evolution of とにかく and ともかく

If we summarize their development as a continuous historical process, the picture is as follows: the と〜かく family originated as a deictic and inclusive series, centered on the meaning “this and that” or “in various ways.”

From there, it branched into a decision-oriented usage meaning “whatever the case may be, let’s proceed,” and a suspensive or dismissive usage meaning “let’s set this point aside and move on to something else.”

とにかく primarily inherited the decision-making and directive force of the family; ともかく primarily inherited the function of discursive parenthesis and topic reorientation, especially in constructions with は (e.g., 結果はともかく – “putting the result aside”).

The historical examples clearly illustrate this progression. In the 竹取物語 (Taketori Monogatari), とかく is used within the semantic domain of “various things” or “this and that.”

The 落窪物語 (Ochikubo Monogatari) records both とにかくに and ともかくも in forms still closely connected to a sense of vague totality. The 続拾遺和歌集 and 金刀比羅本保元 show the shift toward the meaning “anyway” or “in any case.”

Late medieval Kyōgen texts attest the shortened form とにかく, while prose from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries established ともかく and, above all, the pattern X はともかく.

From the perspective of historical grammar, therefore, we are not dealing with a simple pair of contemporary variants, but rather with a genuine process of differential grammaticalization within the same lexical family.

One visible consequence of this history is frequency. The fact that the shortened form とにかく is continuously attested from the premodern period onward, whereas ともかく as an independent adverb is essentially a modern development, is plausibly reflected in their contemporary distribution as well.

In the combined corpora used for A Frequency Dictionary of Japanese, とにかく is vastly more frequent than ともかく. This is a case in which historical chronology and present-day usage data point in the same direction.

Meaning in Modern Japanese

In modern Japanese, とにかく has two main functions. The first is as an adverb of suspension and progression: “setting other considerations aside,” “in any case,” or “first of all.”

Dictionaries provide examples with sentences such as “let’s at least talk about it” or “let’s go, whether we arrive on time or not,” that is, contexts in which deliberation is interrupted and action takes precedence.

The second function, also recorded in dictionaries, is its use in constructions with …はとにかく, where a particular element is explicitly treated as non-central to the matter at hand. However, the usage note in the 大辞泉 is especially instructive: when a speaker wants to convey “let’s put the details aside and do something for now,” the appropriate expression is とにかく rather than なにしろ. In this sense, とにかく is inherently more oriented toward practical action, decision-making, and directive force.

ともかく, by contrast, is currently defined in two ways: as a general synonym of “in any case” or “anyway,” and, more importantly, as the construction X はともかく, meaning “as for X, let’s set it aside” or “regardless of X.”

The 日本国語大辞典 clearly shows that this second function is not marginal. It records it as a distinct meaning in its own right, with independent attestations dating back to the late nineteenth century.

For this reason, in present-day Japanese, ともかく is particularly strong in concessive contexts and cases of evaluative “bracketing.” Typical examples include statements such as “the result, regardless of that, is not the point” or “setting transportation convenience aside, the place itself is beautiful.”

For learners, therefore, the most useful modern distinction is not a strict dictionary-level difference but rather a difference in pragmatic profile:

とにかく tends to push the discourse toward its practical continuation: it decides, urges, instructs, recommends, and closes off alternatives;
ともかく tends to restructure the focus: it suspends a point, relativizes it, shifts the topic, or introduces a partial concession.

Both expressions can appear at the beginning of a sentence and mean “anyway” or “in any case.” However, the specialization of ともかく is more evident in constructions with は, whereas the forcefulness of とにかく sounds more natural in contexts involving urgency, proposals, instructions, or imperatives.

This interpretation is consistent both with dictionary usage notes and with recent scholarship, which places とにかく and ともかく among discourse-development expressions used to set an alternative aside or remove it from consideration.

As for sentence structure, both forms are highly flexible. They can appear in sentence-initial position, before or after a topical segment, and can by themselves signal a shift in perspective within the discourse, as in それはともかく.

The kanji spellings 兎に角 and 兎も角 are now primarily lexicographical or stylistic. Dictionaries record them as possible spellings, but standard contemporary usage overwhelmingly favors kana.

Usage and Register

The data show a clear difference in frequency. In A Frequency Dictionary of Japanese, based on a corpus of more than 107 million words, とにかく appears roughly five times more often than ともかく: 186 occurrences versus 34. This suggests that, in contemporary Japanese, とにかく is by far the more common form.

As for usage contexts, the distinction is less clear-cut. Many studies analyze とにかく and ともかく together, treating them as two expressions that are functionally very close.

Research has focused primarily on their role in discourse organization and the textual genres in which they appear, while paying less attention to possible differences related to speakers’ age groups or geographical regions. As a result, the available literature provides a fairly detailed picture of the functional differences between the two forms, but offers relatively little information about any systematic sociolinguistic distinctions.

For learners, a practical guideline is the following: if the speaker wants to say “enough discussion for now—let’s do what matters most,” とにかく is usually the better choice; if, on the other hand, the speaker wants to say “let’s put this aspect aside for the moment and focus on something else,” ともかく is often more idiomatic, especially in constructions with は. The overlap between the two remains considerable, but the difference in their “interactional drive” is real.

Usage Examples

With とにかく

とにかく、今日は早く寝よう。

“Anyway, let’s go to bed early today.”

間に合うかどうかは分からないが、とにかく行ってみる。

“I don’t know whether we’ll make it in time, but I’ll go anyway and see.”

説明はあとでいいから、とにかくボタンを押してください。

“The explanation can wait—just press the button for now, please.”

理由はとにかく、今は安全を確保することが先だ。

“Whatever the reasons may be, ensuring safety comes first right now.”

とにかく一度、専門家に相談したほうがいい。

“In any case, it would be best to consult a specialist at least once.”

With ともかく

結果はともかく、準備の段階で多くを学んだ。

“Regardless of the result, I learned a great deal during the preparation stage.”

値段はともかく、この椅子は座り心地がいい。

“Putting the price aside, this chair is very comfortable.”

それはともかく、次の議題に移りましょう。

“That aside, let’s move on to the next agenda item.”

見た目はともかく、味は本当にいい。

“Setting its appearance aside, it really tastes good.”

細部はともかく、全体の方針には賛成です。

“Leaving the details aside, I agree with the overall policy.”

Conclusion

The main conclusion is simple but important:

These two forms are not simply “the same word with two different pronunciations.”

Historically, とにかく and ともかく converge because they originate from the same と〜かく family, but they reach modern Japanese through two different developmental paths: とにかくに > とにかく and ともかくも > ともかく.

Their present-day similarity is therefore the result of functional convergence rather than complete identity.

For practical usage, the most reliable advice for learners of Japanese and for translators is the following:

If the sentence implies urgency, priority, instruction, decision-making, or a move toward action, choose とにかく first.

If, on the other hand, the goal is to relativize one factor and shift attention to another, especially in the pattern X はともかく、Y, choose ともかく first.

When in doubt, it is often helpful to remember the following pair of formulas:

とにかく = “let’s just do it first and worry about the rest later”;
ともかく = “let’s put that part in brackets for now.”

This does not eliminate all overlap between the two expressions, but it reflects the available historical and lexicographical evidence quite accurately.