Japanese
adj, name, noun ·Moderate ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A person living in or originating from Japan, or of Japanese ancestry. countable, in-plural
"A Japanese will typically have black hair, brown eyes, and pale skin."
- 2 the language (usually considered to be Altaic) spoken by the Japanese wordnet
- 3 Ellipsis of Japanese food. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis, uncountable
"Let’s go out to eat. I’m in the mood for Japanese."
- 4 a native or inhabitant of Japan wordnet
- 1 Of, relating to, derived from, or characteristic of Japan, its people, language, or culture.
"A Japanese saw is one that cuts on the pull stroke rather than on the push stroke."
- 2 Of, relating to, derived from, or characteristic of Japan, its people, language, or culture.; Of or relating to the Yamato people.
"The Ainu were subject to forced assimilation by the Japanese since at least the 18th century."
- 1 of or relating to or characteristic of Japan or its people or their culture or language wordnet
- 1 A language that is primarily spoken in East Asia and is the official language of Japan.
"I’ve been studying Japanese for three years, and I still can’t order pizza in Tokyo!"
Example
More examples"A Japanese would never do such a thing."
Etymology
Etymology tree Hokkien 日本 /Ji̍t-púnbor. Malay Jepangbor. Portuguese Japãobor. ▲ Malay Jepangbor. Dutch Japanbor. English Japan Proto-Indo-European *-iskos Proto-Germanic *-iskaz Proto-West Germanic *-iskbor. Late Latin -iscus ▲ Vulgar Latin -iscus Latin -ēnsis Old French -eisbor. Middle English -eys English -ese English Japanese From Japan + -ese after the model of earlier Portuguese japonês, New Latin japonensis, French japonais, etc.
Related phrases
More for "japanese"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.