Zaibatsu
//zaɪˈbætsuː// noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A large business conglomerate founded under the Empire of Japan, generally controlled by a single family or individual. historical
"He wondered briefly what it would be like, working all your life for one zaibatsu. Company housing, company hymn, company funeral."
- 2 Any large corporation. US, broadly
"Near-synonyms: megacorporation, supercorporation"
Example
More examples"He wondered briefly what it would be like, working all your life for one zaibatsu. Company housing, company hymn, company funeral."
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 財閥(ざいばつ) (zaibatsu), coined from Middle Chinese 財 (d͡zoj, “wealth”) + 閥 (bjot, “powerful family”). Doublet of chaebol.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.