Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A Japanese battle cry or patriotic cheer.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In Japan, a shout of patriotic joy or encouragement: somewhat like the English hurrah. Often used, in English books, as a noun.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- interjection Japan Lit., May you live ten thousand years; -- used in salutation of the emperor and as a battle cry.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Thrill -seeking;wild . - interjection A
cry orcheer ofenthusiasm , or to celebratevictory .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a Japanese cheer of enthusiasm or triumph
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word banzai.
Examples
-
At Grand Rounds one morning, he showed us slide after slide of his success stories, post-op patients in what he called the banzai position: arms raised high, standing on one leg.
Archive 2005-11-01 Douglas Hoffman 2005
-
At Grand Rounds one morning, he showed us slide after slide of his success stories, post-op patients in what he called the banzai position: arms raised high, standing on one leg.
Neurosurgery for dummies Douglas Hoffman 2005
-
Now from Guadalcanal and out to the jungle islands and so on, the Japanese military doctrine was destruction of the enemy at the water's edge, and the tactic they used was what we call the banzai charge.
-
So he will go for the maximum demands bare-headed — what a commenter prevously called a banzai charge.
-
"There is a sport called banzai skydiving," he says.
unknown title 2009
-
Originally, Kring wanted to use the word 'banzai', but Masi lobbied against it for its war-like connotations, and 'yatta' was selected.
September 2007 2007
-
Originally, Kring wanted to use the word 'banzai', but Masi lobbied against it for its war-like connotations, and 'yatta' was selected.
-
On this latter occasion the ministers are said to have "uttered reiterated cries of 'banzai'" *, which has come into vogue once more in modern times as the equivalent of "hurrah."
A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era Dairoku Kikuchi 1886
-
When the Japs pulled one of their so-called banzai charges, we’d just sit there and mow ’em down.
Brotherhood of Heroes Bill Sloan 2005
-
When the Japs pulled one of their so-called banzai charges, we’d just sit there and mow ’em down.
Brotherhood of Heroes Bill Sloan 2005
sionnach commented on the word banzai
BANZAI : Japanese war-cry, 1893, literally "(may you live) ten thousand years," originally a greeting addressed to the emperor, from ban "ten thousand" + sai "year."
April 19, 2008