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Growing up as a kid, I wanted to be a ninja. In martial arts, even though I did Chinese kung fu, I always wanted to be this secret samurai or a ninja. There's something about ninjas that was very appealing to me as a kid. So of course, I was climbing a lot of trees and other things and getting up to mischief - good mischief.
Ray Park

Meaning of "samurai" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD SAMURAI

From Japanese.
info
Etymology is the study of the origin of words and their changes in structure and significance.
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PRONUNCIATION OF SAMURAI

samurai  [ˈsæmʊˌraɪ] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF SAMURAI

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Samurai is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES SAMURAI MEAN IN ENGLISH?

samurai

Samurai

Samurai, usually referred to in Japanese as bushi or buke, were the military nobility of medieval and early-modern Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany persons in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean "those who serve in close attendance to the nobility," the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, an early reference to the word "samurai" appears in the Kokin Wakashū, the first imperial anthology of poems, completed in the first part of the 10th century. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, and the word was closely associated with the middle and upper echelons of the warrior class. The samurai followed a set of rules that came to be known as bushidō. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of Japan's population, their teachings can still be found today in both everyday life and in modern Japanese martial arts.

Definition of samurai in the English dictionary

The definition of samurai in the dictionary is the Japanese warrior caste that provided the administrative and fighting aristocracy from the 11th to the 19th centuries. Other definition of samurai is a member of this aristocracy.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH SAMURAI


acari
ˈækəˌraɪ
aftereye
ˈɑːftəˌraɪ
caravansarai
ˌkærəˈvænsəˌraɪ
caravanserai
ˌkærəˈvænsəˌraɪ
cry
kraɪ
dry
draɪ
eleutheri
ɛˈljuːθəˌraɪ
ephori
ˈɛfəˌraɪ
fry
fraɪ
humeri
ˈhjuːməˌraɪ
Madurai
ˈmædjʊˌraɪ
outcry
ˈaʊtˌkraɪ
pry
praɪ
rai
raɪ
retry
riːˈtraɪ
rhinoceri
raɪˈnɒsəˌraɪ
rye
raɪ
tori
ˈtɔːraɪ
try
traɪ
uteri
ˈjuːtəˌraɪ

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE SAMURAI

sample point
sample section
sample space
sample survey
sampler
samplery
sampling
sampling frame
sampling statistic
Sampras
samsara
samshoo
samshu
Samson
Samsun
Samuel
samurai bond
samurai sword
samurai tradition
samurai warrior

WORDS THAT END LIKE SAMURAI

ai
Cambrai
chai
Chennai
Courtrai
Dubai
hetairai
jai
kai
Moirai
Mumbai
pirai
sai
shanghai
Tai
Terai
Thai
the Moirai
Tsvangirai
Weihai

Synonyms and antonyms of samurai in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

Translation of «samurai» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF SAMURAI

Find out the translation of samurai to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of samurai from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «samurai» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

武士
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

samurai
570 millions of speakers

English

samurai
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

समुराई
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

الساموراي
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

самурай
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

samurai
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

আধুনিক জাপানের যে-কোন সেনাধ্যক্ষ
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

samouraï
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Samurai
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Samurai
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

사무라이
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Samurai
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

samurai
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

சாமுராய்
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

सामुराई
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

samuray
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

samurai
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

samuraj
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

самурай
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

samurai
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

σαμουράι
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

Samurai
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

samurai
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

samurai
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of samurai

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «SAMURAI»

The term «samurai» is very widely used and occupies the 10.730 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Very widely used
95
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «samurai» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of samurai
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «samurai».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «SAMURAI» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «samurai» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «samurai» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about samurai

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «SAMURAI»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word samurai.
1
David Carradine
Quentin wanted to create this special world in which everybody walks around with a samurai sword, extras in the airport, a special little place in the airplane to stick your samurai sword.
2
Yvon Chouinard
I'm kind of like a samurai. They say if you want to be a samurai, you can't be afraid of dying, and as soon as you flinch, you get your head cut off. I'm not afraid of losing this business.
3
Tony Jaa
I watch mostly every martial arts movie... I really like movies that aren't just martial arts. I like movies that have spiritual meaning behind them, like samurai movies, or movies that have meditation.
4
George Lucas
The influence of 'Hidden Fortress' comes up a lot because it was printed in a book once. The truth is, the only thing I was inspired by was the fact that it's told from the point of view of two peasants, who get mixed up with a samurai and princess and a lot of very high-level people.
5
Al Madrigal
You re-watch 'Napoleon Dynamite', and there's a lot of thrift shopping that goes on in that movie; there's a lot of funny stuff. It's definitely amusing, and paying 99 cents for a samurai sword is amazing.
6
Masaharu Morimoto
I'm not a fighter, but in my mind I'm fighting every day. 'What's new? What am I doing?' I'm fighting myself. My soul is samurai. My roots aren't samurai, but my soul is.
7
Ray Park
Growing up as a kid, I wanted to be a ninja. In martial arts, even though I did Chinese kung fu, I always wanted to be this secret samurai or a ninja. There's something about ninjas that was very appealing to me as a kid. So of course, I was climbing a lot of trees and other things and getting up to mischief - good mischief.
8
Stan Sakai
A samurai should always be prepared for death - whether his own or someone else's.
9
Quentin Tarantino
I am a genre lover - everything from spaghetti western to samurai movie.
10
Edward Zwick
Samurai culture did exist really, for hundreds of years and the notion of people trying to create some sort of a moral code, the idea that there existed certain behaviors that could be celebrated and that could be operative in a life.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «SAMURAI»

Discover the use of samurai in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to samurai and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai
Hagakure ('In the Shadow of Leaves') is a manual for the samurai classes consisting of a series of short anecdotes and reflections that give both insight and instruction-in the philosophy and code of behavior that foster the true spirit of ...
Yamamoto Tsunetomo, 2002
2
The Samurai
One of the late Shusaku Endo's finest works, The Samurai tells of the journey of some of the first Japanese to set foot on European soil and the resulting clash of cultures and politics.
Shūsaku Endō, 1997
3
Young Samurai: The Way of the Warrior
Orphaned by a ninja pirate attack off the coast of Japan in 1611, twelve-year-old English lad Jack Fletcher is determined to prove himself, despite the bullying of fellow students, when the legendary sword master who rescued him begins ...
Chris Bradford, 2011
4
Samurai: The Code of the Warrior
Above all, this sublime work illuminates the samurai’s unwavering Bushido philosophy—the strict code of honor that required absolute loyalty to their master above all else, and ritual suicide in preference to dying a dishonorable death.
Thomas Louis, Tommy Ito, 2008
5
Samurai
Learn about the Japanese samurai, history's most storied and courageous warriors.
Caroline Leavitt, 2006
6
Heart of a Samurai
" --Booklist, starred review *STARRED REVIEW* "Illustrated with Manjiro's own pencil drawings in addition to other archival material and original art from Tamaki, this is a captivating fictionalized (although notably faithful) retelling of ...
Margi Preus, 2011
7
Samurai: World of the Warrior
The samurai is playing a biwa, the Japanese lute, but he is also fully armed and ready for action. Note the tigerskin cover of his scabbard and the spare bowstring reel attached to it. The samurai were the legendary warriors of old Japan who ...
Stephen Turnbull, 2012
8
Samurai
Examines the history, culture, training, gear, and fighting styles of Japanese samurai, with information about notable samurai, the survival of the samurai code of honor, and their role in popular culture.
Rachael Hanel, 2008
9
The Samurai Sword: A Handbook
Explores the origins and development of the famous samurai sword as a work of art and a weapon and discusses its identification, evaluation, and care
John M. Yumoto, 1958
10
The Samurai's Tale
In turbulent sixteenth-century Japan, orphaned Taro is taken in by a general serving the great warlord Takeda Shingen and grows up to become a samurai fighting for the enemies of his dead family. An ALA Notable Book. Reissue.
Erik Christian Haugaard, 2005

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «SAMURAI»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term samurai is used in the context of the following news items.
1
Man pleads guilty to samurai sword killings of 5, including 2 children
A Los Angeles man has unexpectedly pleaded guilty in the samurai sword stabbing and bludgeoning deaths of a woman, her two children, her boyfriend and a ... «6abc.com, Jul 15»
2
UDA man Colin 'Bap' Lindsay murdered in samurai sword horror in …
On arrival at a house in the estate they arrested 46-year-old Albert Armstrong and recovered a Samurai-type sword in a blue Mazda 6 car parked nearby. «Belfast Telegraph, Jul 15»
3
Bright-red Samurai hell-burgers on the menu for Burger King
We're talking about a glowing-red bun, a slice of tomato for dramatic effect and matching bright-red cheese. It's called the Aka Samurai Burger. "Aka" means "red. «CNET, Jun 15»
4
E3 2015: For Honor Is Ubisoft's Knights vs. Vikings vs. Samurai Game
By Mitch DyerUbisoft Montreal has revealed its next big new game. Announced during the Ubisoft E3 2015 press conference, For Honor is a melee-only combat ... «IGN, Jun 15»
5
Swordsman vs. Machine: Robotic Arm and Samurai Face Off
The swordfighting skills of the Japanese samurai are the stuff of legend, but are they in danger of being replaced by robots, like so many others? «NBCNews.com, Jun 15»
6
Arizona man wielding samurai sword fatally shot by police
An Arizona man wielding a samurai sword was fatally shot after charging at police Friday, authorities said. Shaun Johnson's wife called 911 to report a domestic ... «New York Daily News, May 15»
7
'Samurai Ghost': Photo Shows Mysterious Boots Behind Girl
Many are speculating the photo shows a Samurai ghost because the beach the girl and her dad were on was across a samurai graveyard. 8 Ghost Towns Worth ... «ABC News, Apr 15»
8
Suspect in sword attack, officer-involved shooting identified
Santa Rosa County deputy Matt Ray is recovering after he was attacked with a samurai sword in Navarre Thursday. Around 5:30 p.m. deputies with the Santa ... «Pensacola News Journal, Apr 15»
9
Goat beheaded in kiddie pool with samurai-style sword: SPCA
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Louisiana SPCA says it is investigating New Orleans' second goat beheading in two months — this one with a samurai-style sword, ... «New York's PIX11 / WPIX-TV, Mar 15»
10
Former Power Rangers Star Arrested for Murdering Roommate with …
Medina launched his acting career as the Red Ranger on Power Rangers Wild Force in 2002 and later played Deker on Power Rangers Samurai. «People Magazine, Feb 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Samurai [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/samurai>. Apr 2024 ».
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