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japanese

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

Of or about or characteristic of Japan or its people or their culture or language.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

japuhneez

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

dʒæpəˈniz

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.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. countablechiefly in the plural

    A person living in or originating from Japan, or of Japanese ancestry.

  2. A language that is primarily spoken in East Asia and is the official language of Japan.

  3. The language (usually considered to be Altaic) spoken by the Japanese

  4. uncountable

    Ellipsis of Japanese food.

adjective

  1. Of or relating to or characteristic of Japan or its people or their culture or language

  2. Of or relating to the Yamato people.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency
Very Common
Typical Use
Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A person living in or originating from Japan, or of Japanese ancestry.

Used this way, japanese 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

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

japanese governmentjapanese economyjapanese armyjapanese societyjapanese culturejapanese occupationmodern japanesesome japanese

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • japanese allspicenounCompound term

    Deciduous Japanese shrub cultivated for its fragrant yellow flowers.

  • japanese andromedanounCompound term

    Broad-leaved evergreen Asiatic shrub with glossy leaves and drooping clusters of white flowers.

  • japanese angelica treenounCompound term

    Deciduous clump-forming Asian shrub or small tree.

  • japanese apricotnounCompound term

    Japanese ornamental tree with fragrant white or pink blossoms and small yellow fruits.

  • japanese archipelagonounCompound term

    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.

  • japanese banananounCompound term

    Asiatic banana plant cultivated especially as a foliage plant in Japan.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: person living in or originating from Japan

nipponeseDated

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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.