Kendama
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A traditional Japanese toy with an attached ball that can be caught in any of three cups or on a spike.
"An especially haunting work, “If the Moment Came,” is a waist-high black box with a top made of wired glass and a murky interior that shows a looping video of a hand playing with a kendama, a Japanese toy featuring a wooden handle and a small ball."
Example
More examples"An especially haunting work, “If the Moment Came,” is a waist-high black box with a top made of wired glass and a murky interior that shows a looping video of a hand playing with a kendama, a Japanese toy featuring a wooden handle and a small ball."
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese けん玉 (けんだま, kendama), from 拳 (けん, ken, “game played with the hands; fist”) or 剣 (けん, ken, “sword”) + 玉 (たま, tama, “ball”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.