Engrish
name
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Proper Noun
- 1 Ungrammatical, unorthographical or nonsensical English of the kind found in East Asia, notably in Japan. derogatory, sometimes
"'Why you not teach Engrish more? I must aspeak^([sic]) Engrish.' The Chelsea's resident mad painter was angry at the way Jeremy had been ignoring him."
Example
More examples"Hiroshi has been living in Canada for a long time, but he still speaks Engrish."
Etymology
From the mispronunciation of the word English common to Japanese speakers, who have difficulty distinguishing "L" and "R" sounds. The Japanese transliteration of the word "English", イングリッシュ (Ingurisshu) is often used for teaching purposes. In that word, /ɾ/ (romanised as "r") is pronounced instead of the English /l/.
Related phrases
More for "engrish"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.