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Why JLPT N1 learners mix up 退化 (たいか, “degeneration, retrogression”) and 辟易 (へきえき, “wince; shrink back; succumbing to; being frightened; disconcerted”).
Both imply a negative shift or retreat. A learner might confuse "degeneration" (退化) with "wincing" (辟易) because both describe a state of regression or shrinking back when faced with difficult conditions.
On JLPT N1, this pair shows up as a vocabulary meaning question. You see one word and pick its English equivalent from four options — one of which will be the other word in this pair, chosen as a distractor precisely because of the overlap.
Reading the explanation is step one. Targeted practice is what actually moves a confusion pair out of your weak list. Free, no signup needed to try.
Practice N1 confusion pairsSpot a mistake in this explanation? Email us. Explanations are AI-generated and human-reviewed; corrections welcome.