"tanuki" meaning in English

See tanuki in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /təˈnʊkɪ/ [UK], /tɑˈnuki/ [US], /ˈtɑnuki/ [US] Forms: tanuki [plural], tanukis [plural], tanooki [alternative]
Rhymes: -ʊki, -uːki Etymology: Borrowed from Japanese 狸(たぬき) (tanuki, “raccoon dog”). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|ja|-}} Japanese, {{ja-r|狸|たぬき|raccoon dog}} 狸(たぬき) (tanuki, “raccoon dog”) Head templates: {{en-noun|tanuki|s}} tanuki (plural tanuki or tanukis)
  1. A raccoon dog, Nyctereutes viverrinus. Synonyms: mangut
    Sense id: en-tanuki-en-noun-6FdJn979 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 4 entries, Pages with entries, Canids, Mythological creatures Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 43 5 Disambiguation of Pages with 4 entries: 63 28 6 1 1 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 54 38 5 1 1 Disambiguation of Canids: 66 29 4 Disambiguation of Mythological creatures: 57 37 6
  2. (Japanese mythology) A folkloric figure in the form of a tanuki, regarded as a shapeshifter and renowned for its enormous scrotum and testicles. Tags: Japanese
    Sense id: en-tanuki-en-noun-afAWmzk1 Categories (other): Japanese mythology, English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 52 43 5 Topics: human-sciences, mysticism, mythology, philosophy, sciences
  3. The joining of a living bonsai tree to a piece of dead wood for aesthetic effect.
    Sense id: en-tanuki-en-noun-ip72jlur

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
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      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ja",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Japanese",
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    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "狸",
        "2": "たぬき",
        "3": "raccoon dog"
      },
      "expansion": "狸(たぬき) (tanuki, “raccoon dog”)",
      "name": "ja-r"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Borrowed from Japanese 狸(たぬき) (tanuki, “raccoon dog”).",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "tanuki",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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        "plural"
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    {
      "form": "tanooki",
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      ]
    }
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  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "tanuki",
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      "expansion": "tanuki (plural tanuki or tanukis)",
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    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "ta‧nuki"
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "52 43 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "63 28 6 1 1",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 4 entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "54 38 5 1 1",
          "kind": "other",
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          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "66 29 4",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Canids",
          "orig": "en:Canids",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "57 37 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Mythological creatures",
          "orig": "en:Mythological creatures",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              76,
              82
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          ],
          "ref": "2023 May 28, Nadia Asparouhova, “Remembering GitHub's Office, a Monument to Tech Culture”, in Wired, →ISSN:",
          "text": "At my onboarding, I was told that one of GitHub's employees identified as a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog—this was fine.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A raccoon dog, Nyctereutes viverrinus."
      ],
      "id": "en-tanuki-en-noun-6FdJn979",
      "links": [
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          "raccoon dog",
          "raccoon dog"
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      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "mangut"
        }
      ]
    },
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      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "52 43 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A folkloric figure in the form of a tanuki, regarded as a shapeshifter and renowned for its enormous scrotum and testicles."
      ],
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      "links": [
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        ],
        [
          "scrotum",
          "scrotum"
        ],
        [
          "testicles",
          "testicles"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Japanese mythology) A folkloric figure in the form of a tanuki, regarded as a shapeshifter and renowned for its enormous scrotum and testicles."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Japanese"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "mysticism",
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        "philosophy",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The joining of a living bonsai tree to a piece of dead wood for aesthetic effect."
      ],
      "id": "en-tanuki-en-noun-ip72jlur",
      "links": [
        [
          "bonsai",
          "bonsai"
        ],
        [
          "tree",
          "tree"
        ],
        [
          "dead",
          "dead"
        ],
        [
          "wood",
          "wood"
        ],
        [
          "aesthetic",
          "aesthetic"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/təˈnʊkɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/tɑˈnuki/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtɑnuki/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʊki"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-uːki"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "tanuki"
  ],
  "word": "tanuki"
}
{
  "categories": [
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    "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",
    "Pages with 4 entries",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Rhymes:English/uːki",
    "Rhymes:English/uːki/3 syllables",
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    "Rhymes:English/ʊki/3 syllables",
    "en:Canids",
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      },
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    }
  ],
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      "form": "tanuki",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "tanooki",
      "tags": [
        "alternative"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {
        "1": "tanuki",
        "2": "s"
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      "expansion": "tanuki (plural tanuki or tanukis)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "hyphenation": [
    "ta‧nuki"
  ],
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
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        "English terms with quotations",
        "Entries using missing taxonomic name (species)"
      ],
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              76,
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          "text": "At my onboarding, I was told that one of GitHub's employees identified as a tanuki, a Japanese raccoon dog—this was fine.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A raccoon dog, Nyctereutes viverrinus."
      ],
      "links": [
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          "raccoon dog",
          "raccoon dog"
        ]
      ],
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        {
          "word": "mangut"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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      ],
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        "A folkloric figure in the form of a tanuki, regarded as a shapeshifter and renowned for its enormous scrotum and testicles."
      ],
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          "Japanese",
          "Japanese#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "mythology",
          "mythology"
        ],
        [
          "folkloric",
          "folkloric"
        ],
        [
          "shapeshifter",
          "shapeshifter"
        ],
        [
          "scrotum",
          "scrotum"
        ],
        [
          "testicles",
          "testicles"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Japanese mythology) A folkloric figure in the form of a tanuki, regarded as a shapeshifter and renowned for its enormous scrotum and testicles."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Japanese"
      ],
      "topics": [
        "human-sciences",
        "mysticism",
        "mythology",
        "philosophy",
        "sciences"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "The joining of a living bonsai tree to a piece of dead wood for aesthetic effect."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "bonsai",
          "bonsai"
        ],
        [
          "tree",
          "tree"
        ],
        [
          "dead",
          "dead"
        ],
        [
          "wood",
          "wood"
        ],
        [
          "aesthetic",
          "aesthetic"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/təˈnʊkɪ/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/tɑˈnuki/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈtɑnuki/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-ʊki"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-uːki"
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "tanuki"
  ],
  "word": "tanuki"
}

Download raw JSONL data for tanuki meaning in English (2.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-06-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-06-01 using wiktextract (9c82c1c 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.