japan
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A country and archipelago of East Asia.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
juhpanSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
dʒəˈpæn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A string of more than 3,000 islands to the east of Asia extending 1,300 miles between the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean
A country and archipelago of East Asia. Capital and largest city: Tokyo.
Lacquerware decorated and varnished in the Japanese manner with a glossy durable black lacquer
A hard black enamel varnish containing asphalt.
verb
Coat with a lacquer, as done in Japan
To varnish (something) with japan.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Lacquerware decorated and varnished in the Japanese manner with a glossy durable black lacquer
Used this way, japan is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- japanese archipelago , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use japan
- “I would love to visit Japan someday and experience its unique culture.”noun
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: string of more than 3,000 islands to the east of Asia extending 1,300 miles between the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.