N5 Paraphrase & Synonyms (言い換え類義)
言い換え類義 (paraphrase) asks you to swap a word for its closest synonym. On JLPT N5 it's a direct check of how wide and precise your vocabulary is — do you know not just a word, but its near-neighbours?
How the question works
A sentence contains a target word, and you choose the option that could replace it with the closest meaning. The trick is that the wrong choices have clearly different meanings — so this isn't about grammar fit, it's about knowing which word genuinely means the same thing.
Strong performance here comes from learning words in small meaning-families rather than one at a time, so that a synonym feels obvious instead of unfamiliar.
Strategy & common traps
Define the target word in your head first, then look for the option that matches that definition — don't let a word that merely "feels related" pull you in. A frequent trap is choosing a word from the same topic (e.g. another cooking word) that isn't actually a synonym.
When two options seem close, think about register and nuance: is one more formal, stronger, or more specific than the target? The best answer matches not just the rough meaning but the flavour of the original.
About this N5 drill
The 238 questions use synonyms mined from overlapping dictionary meanings, with distractors chosen to have no meaning overlap with the target — so the correct answer is a real synonym and the wrong ones are clearly not. Each explanation shows the pairing and the shared meaning.
Practice now
Which word is closest in meaning to 「そこ」 in this sentence?
１時間かそこらで帰ってきます。
I'll be back in an hour or so.