Kata
adv, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Any of a sequence of positions and movements used in many martial arts.
"judo kata"
- 2 Ellipsis of kata thermometer. abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis
- 3 Alternative form of gata (“type of Armenian pastry”). alt-of, alternative
- 4 A short programming exercise to improve one's skills through practice and repetition. broadly
"These kata will give you the C# syntax for inheritance."
- 5 A drop (in temperature). in-compounds
"kata factor"
- 1 In a direction analogous to down, but along the additional axis added by the fourth dimension.
"Your right half would move ana, let us say, and your left half would move kata. The two halves would, in their parallel spaces, move past the plane of rotation, and then they would swing back into our space."
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"About fifty kata, or "formal exercises," are practiced at the present time, some having been passed down from generation to generation, others having been developed fairly recently."
Etymology
From Japanese 型 (literally “pattern, model”). In English use since the 1950s.
From Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “downwards”). Compare cata-.
Related phrases
More for "kata"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.