"-fu" meaning in English

See -fu in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Suffix

IPA: /fuː/ [UK]
Rhymes: -uː Etymology: Back-formation from kung fu. Etymology templates: {{back-form|en|kung fu}} Back-formation from kung fu Head templates: {{head|en|suffixes}} -fu
  1. (slang) Used to form nouns indicating expertise or mastery of specified skill or area of knowledge. Tags: morpheme, slang Derived forms: Google-fu Related terms: fu

Alternative forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "kung fu"
      },
      "expansion": "Back-formation from kung fu",
      "name": "back-form"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Back-formation from kung fu.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "suffixes"
      },
      "expansion": "-fu",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English back-formations",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 4 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "derived": [
        {
          "word": "Google-fu"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Google + -fu → Google-fu",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "script + -fu → script-fu",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              9,
              12
            ]
          ],
          "text": "My Google-fu is weak!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              19,
              22
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Aragorn uses Ranger-fu to figure out that Sam and Frodo have taken a boat.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to form nouns indicating expertise or mastery of specified skill or area of knowledge."
      ],
      "id": "en--fu-en-suffix-Ar3WbhvW",
      "links": [
        [
          "expertise",
          "expertise#English"
        ],
        [
          "mastery",
          "mastery#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) Used to form nouns indicating expertise or mastery of specified skill or area of knowledge."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "fu"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/fuː/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-uː"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "foo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-fu"
}
{
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "Google-fu"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "kung fu"
      },
      "expansion": "Back-formation from kung fu",
      "name": "back-form"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Back-formation from kung fu.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "suffixes"
      },
      "expansion": "-fu",
      "name": "head"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "suffix",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "fu"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English back-formations",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English slang",
        "English suffixes",
        "English terms with homophones",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "Pages with 4 entries",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Rhymes:English/uː"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Google + -fu → Google-fu",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "script + -fu → script-fu",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              9,
              12
            ]
          ],
          "text": "My Google-fu is weak!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              19,
              22
            ]
          ],
          "text": "Aragorn uses Ranger-fu to figure out that Sam and Frodo have taken a boat.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to form nouns indicating expertise or mastery of specified skill or area of knowledge."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "expertise",
          "expertise#English"
        ],
        [
          "mastery",
          "mastery#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang) Used to form nouns indicating expertise or mastery of specified skill or area of knowledge."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "morpheme",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/fuː/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-uː"
    },
    {
      "homophone": "foo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "-fu"
}

Download raw JSONL data for -fu meaning in English (1.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-07 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (92124b4 and f1c2b61). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.