"seppuku" meaning in English

See seppuku in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /sɛˈpuː.kuː/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈsɛ.pu(ˌ)ku/ [General-American], /ˈsɛ.pə-/ [General-American], /sɛˈpu-/ [General-American], /səˈpu-/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav [Southern-England] Forms: seppukus [plural], seppuku [plural]
enPR: sĕpʹo͞o-ko͞o(') Etymology: Borrowed from Japanese 切腹 (seppuku), from Middle Chinese 切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”). Compare Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹) and Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|ja|切腹|tr=seppuku}} Japanese 切腹 (seppuku), {{uder|en|ltc|-}} Middle Chinese, {{affix|ltc|切|腹|nocat=1|t1=to cut|t2=belly|tr1=t͡set|tr2=pjuwk}} 切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”), {{cog|yue|切腹}} Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹), {{cog|cmn|切腹|tr=qiēfù}} Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù) Head templates: {{en-noun|~|s|seppuku}} seppuku (countable and uncountable, plural seppukus or seppuku)
  1. A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment using a blade, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame, as a means of protest, or, formerly, as a method of capital punishment. Wikipedia link: seppuku Tags: countable, uncountable Categories (topical): Suicide Synonyms: hara-kiri Related terms: bushido, hara-kiri, kamikaze, suicide Translations (ritual suicide by disembowelment): هَارَا كِيرِي (hārā kīrī) [masculine] (Arabic), 切腹 (qiēfù) (Chinese Mandarin), harakiro (Esperanto), harakiri (Finnish), Seppuku [neuter] (German), सेप्पुकू (seppukū) (Hindi), 切腹 (seppuku) (alt: せっぷく) (Japanese), 腹切り (harakiri) (alt: はらきり) (Japanese), 할복 (halbok) (Korean), सेप्पुकु (seppuku) [neuter] (Marathi), seppuku [neuter] (Polish), seppuku [masculine] (Portuguese), хараки́ри (xarakíri) [neuter] (Russian), сэппу́ку (sɛppúku) [neuter] (Russian), seppuku (Swedish), seppuku (Tagalog), سیپکو (seppukū) (Urdu), thiết phúc (Vietnamese), seppuku (Vietnamese)

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for seppuku meaning in English (6.4kB)

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ja",
        "3": "切腹",
        "tr": "seppuku"
      },
      "expansion": "Japanese 切腹 (seppuku)",
      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ltc",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Chinese",
      "name": "uder"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ltc",
        "2": "切",
        "3": "腹",
        "nocat": "1",
        "t1": "to cut",
        "t2": "belly",
        "tr1": "t͡set",
        "tr2": "pjuwk"
      },
      "expansion": "切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”)",
      "name": "affix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "yue",
        "2": "切腹"
      },
      "expansion": "Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cmn",
        "2": "切腹",
        "tr": "qiēfù"
      },
      "expansion": "Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Japanese 切腹 (seppuku), from Middle Chinese 切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”). Compare Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹) and Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "seppukus",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "seppuku",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~",
        "2": "s",
        "3": "seppuku"
      },
      "expansion": "seppuku (countable and uncountable, plural seppukus or seppuku)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "sep‧pu‧ku"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English undefined derivations",
          "parents": [
            "Undefined derivations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Korean terms with redundant script codes",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant script codes",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with redundant transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Middle Chinese terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Suicide",
          "orig": "en:Suicide",
          "parents": [
            "Death",
            "Body",
            "Life",
            "Human",
            "Nature",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023 February 12, Motoko Rich, Hikari Hida, quoting Yusuke Narita, “A Yale Professor Suggested Mass Suicide for Old People in Japan. What Did He Mean?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "“I feel like the only solution is pretty clear,” he said during one online news program in late 2021. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment using a blade, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame, as a means of protest, or, formerly, as a method of capital punishment."
      ],
      "id": "en-seppuku-en-noun-CQi7advp",
      "links": [
        [
          "ritual",
          "ritual"
        ],
        [
          "suicide",
          "suicide"
        ],
        [
          "disembowelment",
          "disembowelment"
        ],
        [
          "blade",
          "blade"
        ],
        [
          "Japanese",
          "Japanese"
        ],
        [
          "samurai",
          "samurai"
        ],
        [
          "rid",
          "rid"
        ],
        [
          "shame",
          "shame"
        ],
        [
          "protest",
          "protest"
        ],
        [
          "capital punishment",
          "capital punishment"
        ]
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "bushido"
        },
        {
          "word": "hara-kiri"
        },
        {
          "word": "kamikaze"
        },
        {
          "word": "suicide"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "hara-kiri"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "ar",
          "lang": "Arabic",
          "roman": "hārā kīrī",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "هَارَا كِيرِي"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "qiēfù",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "切腹"
        },
        {
          "code": "eo",
          "lang": "Esperanto",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "harakiro"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "harakiri"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "Seppuku"
        },
        {
          "code": "hi",
          "lang": "Hindi",
          "roman": "seppukū",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "सेप्पुकू"
        },
        {
          "alt": "せっぷく",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "seppuku",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "切腹"
        },
        {
          "alt": "はらきり",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "harakiri",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "腹切り"
        },
        {
          "code": "ko",
          "lang": "Korean",
          "roman": "halbok",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "할복"
        },
        {
          "code": "mr",
          "lang": "Marathi",
          "roman": "seppuku",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "सेप्पुकु"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "seppuku"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "seppuku"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "xarakíri",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "хараки́ри"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "sɛppúku",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
          "word": "сэппу́ку"
        },
        {
          "code": "sv",
          "lang": "Swedish",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "seppuku"
        },
        {
          "code": "tl",
          "lang": "Tagalog",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "seppuku"
        },
        {
          "code": "ur",
          "lang": "Urdu",
          "roman": "seppukū",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "سیپکو"
        },
        {
          "code": "vi",
          "lang": "Vietnamese",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "thiết phúc"
        },
        {
          "code": "vi",
          "lang": "Vietnamese",
          "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
          "word": "seppuku"
        }
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "seppuku"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/sɛˈpuː.kuː/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɛ.pu(ˌ)ku/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɛ.pə-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/sɛˈpu-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/səˈpu-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cb/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cb/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    },
    {
      "enpr": "sĕpʹo͞o-ko͞o(')"
    }
  ],
  "word": "seppuku"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ja",
        "3": "切腹",
        "tr": "seppuku"
      },
      "expansion": "Japanese 切腹 (seppuku)",
      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ltc",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Middle Chinese",
      "name": "uder"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "ltc",
        "2": "切",
        "3": "腹",
        "nocat": "1",
        "t1": "to cut",
        "t2": "belly",
        "tr1": "t͡set",
        "tr2": "pjuwk"
      },
      "expansion": "切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”)",
      "name": "affix"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "yue",
        "2": "切腹"
      },
      "expansion": "Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cmn",
        "2": "切腹",
        "tr": "qiēfù"
      },
      "expansion": "Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Japanese 切腹 (seppuku), from Middle Chinese 切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”). Compare Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹) and Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù).",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "seppukus",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "seppuku",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "~",
        "2": "s",
        "3": "seppuku"
      },
      "expansion": "seppuku (countable and uncountable, plural seppukus or seppuku)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "sep‧pu‧ku"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "bushido"
    },
    {
      "word": "hara-kiri"
    },
    {
      "word": "kamikaze"
    },
    {
      "word": "suicide"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English 3-syllable words",
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English indeclinable nouns",
        "English lemmas",
        "English nouns",
        "English nouns with irregular plurals",
        "English terms borrowed from Japanese",
        "English terms derived from Japanese",
        "English terms derived from Middle Chinese",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English uncountable nouns",
        "English undefined derivations",
        "Korean terms with redundant script codes",
        "Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations",
        "Middle Chinese terms with non-redundant manual transliterations",
        "Requests for gender in Swedish entries",
        "en:Suicide"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2023 February 12, Motoko Rich, Hikari Hida, quoting Yusuke Narita, “A Yale Professor Suggested Mass Suicide for Old People in Japan. What Did He Mean?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "“I feel like the only solution is pretty clear,” he said during one online news program in late 2021. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?”",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment using a blade, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame, as a means of protest, or, formerly, as a method of capital punishment."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "ritual",
          "ritual"
        ],
        [
          "suicide",
          "suicide"
        ],
        [
          "disembowelment",
          "disembowelment"
        ],
        [
          "blade",
          "blade"
        ],
        [
          "Japanese",
          "Japanese"
        ],
        [
          "samurai",
          "samurai"
        ],
        [
          "rid",
          "rid"
        ],
        [
          "shame",
          "shame"
        ],
        [
          "protest",
          "protest"
        ],
        [
          "capital punishment",
          "capital punishment"
        ]
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
        "uncountable"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "seppuku"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/sɛˈpuː.kuː/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɛ.pu(ˌ)ku/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈsɛ.pə-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/sɛˈpu-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/səˈpu-/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cb/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/c/cb/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-seppuku.wav.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    },
    {
      "enpr": "sĕpʹo͞o-ko͞o(')"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "hara-kiri"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "ar",
      "lang": "Arabic",
      "roman": "hārā kīrī",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "هَارَا كِيرِي"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "qiēfù",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "切腹"
    },
    {
      "code": "eo",
      "lang": "Esperanto",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "harakiro"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "harakiri"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "Seppuku"
    },
    {
      "code": "hi",
      "lang": "Hindi",
      "roman": "seppukū",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "सेप्पुकू"
    },
    {
      "alt": "せっぷく",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "seppuku",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "切腹"
    },
    {
      "alt": "はらきり",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "harakiri",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "腹切り"
    },
    {
      "code": "ko",
      "lang": "Korean",
      "roman": "halbok",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "할복"
    },
    {
      "code": "mr",
      "lang": "Marathi",
      "roman": "seppuku",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "सेप्पुकु"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "seppuku"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "seppuku"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "xarakíri",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "хараки́ри"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "sɛppúku",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "сэппу́ку"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "seppuku"
    },
    {
      "code": "tl",
      "lang": "Tagalog",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "seppuku"
    },
    {
      "code": "ur",
      "lang": "Urdu",
      "roman": "seppukū",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "سیپکو"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "thiết phúc"
    },
    {
      "code": "vi",
      "lang": "Vietnamese",
      "sense": "ritual suicide by disembowelment",
      "word": "seppuku"
    }
  ],
  "word": "seppuku"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.