Pachinko

//pəˈt͡ʃɪŋkəʊ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A mechanical ball-dropping game similar to pinball, popular in Japan. countable, uncountable

    "Two teen-age boys, after selling their personal belongings to play pachinko, sold their blood to "gamble.”"

  2. 2
    a Japanese pinball game played on a vertical board wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To tumble down through a series of obstacles. intransitive

    "She drizzled them in slowly and listened to the susurration of the bolts pachinkoing their way through the refrigerators and fax machines, on their way to some illegal dump."

Example

More examples

"I don't have good luck, so I don't play pachinko or buy lottery tickets."

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese パチンコ (pachinko), from ぱちん (pachin, onomatopoeic sound of the machines) + こ (ko, diminutive). Compare etymology of gacha, from Japanese ガシャポン.

Related phrases

pachinko allocationpachinko machinetumble down

More for "pachinko"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.