Japanese

From Japan +‎ -ese after the model of earlier Portuguese japonês, New Latin japonensis, French japonais, etc.

• IPA^(key): /ˌd͡ʒæpəˈniːz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːz

Japanese (comparative more Japanese, superlative most Japanese)

1. Of, relating to, derived from, or characteristic of Japan, its people, language, or culture.

   A Japanese saw is one that cuts on the pull stroke rather than on the push stroke.

   In the United States, Japanese animation has had a tremendous surge in popularity over the last few years.

   • 2010 March 8, Fred A. Bernstein, “Culture Shock | A Taste of Japan Off the 405”, in The New York Times‎^[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 March 2010:

     Then, as I walked back to the Miyako Hybrid, the snow-white hotel, with its perfectly black parking lot and perfectly trimmed palm trees, looked more like a computer rendering of a building than a building itself. And that is very Japanese.

   • 2013 February 6, Hideo Otake, “Revising the Interpretation of the Japanese Economy”, in Michio Muramatsu, Frieder Naschold, editors, State and Administration in Japan and Germany: A Comparative Perspective on Continuity and Change‎^[2], page 319:

     Japanese retail stores have strove to, and have succeeded in, fulfilling these severe demands, and in doing so, have constantly had to innovate both technologically and institutionally in order to keep up with the competition.

   • 2020 March 7, Brad Lendon and Emiko Jozuka, “History’s deadliest air raid happened in Tokyo during World War II and you’ve probably never heard of it”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     As many as 100,000 Japanese people were killed and another million injured, most of them civilians, when more than 300 American B-29 bombers dropped 1,500 tons of firebombs on the Japanese capital that night.

   1. Of or relating to the Yamato people.

      The Ainu were subject to forced assimilation by the Japanese since at least the 18th century.

• Japonian (obsolete), Japonic, Nipponese, Nipponic

Japanese (countable and uncountable, plural Japanese or Japaneses)

1. (countable, chiefly in the plural) A person living in or originating from Japan, or of Japanese ancestry.

   A Japanese will typically have black hair, brown eyes, and pale skin.

   • 2007 October 16, Madeleine Brand, “Japan Struggles to Meet Its CO2 Emissions Limits”, Day to Day, National Public Radio,

     Motoyuki Shibata isn’t a typical Japanese.

   • 1938, Ogden Nash, The Japanese:

     How courteous is the Japanese;
     He always says, "Excuse it, please."

2. (uncountable) Ellipsis of Japanese food.

   Let’s go out to eat. I’m in the mood for Japanese.

• As with other terms for people formed with -ese, the countable singular noun in reference to a person (as in "I am a Japanese", "writing about Japanese cuisine as a Japanese") is uncommon and often taken as grammatically incorrect. In its place, the adjective is used, by itself (as in "I am Japanese") or before a noun like person, man, or woman ("writing about Japanese cuisine as a Japanese person"). See also -ish, which is similarly only primarily used as an adjective or as a plural noun. However it is rather frequent in East Asia as a translation for the demonym written 日本人 (rìběnrén) in Chinese or 日本人 (Nihonjin) in Japanese.

• (person): Japanee (archaic), Japanner (obsolete), Japonian (obsolete), Nipponese (dated)

Japanese

2. A language that is primarily spoken in East Asia and is the official language of Japan.

   I’ve been studying Japanese for three years, and I still can’t order pizza in Tokyo!

   • 2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN‎^[4]:

     What Japanese you speak also depends on your gender. There’s a “rough” language for men and a more “ladylike” language for women, but you must understand both.

• Nipponese (dated), Nihongo

• Japan
• Japanophile
• Nipponize
• Jap
• Wiktionary’s coverage of Japanese terms
• Appendix:Japanese Swadesh list for a Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words in Japanese

• ISO 639-1 code ja, ISO 639-3 code jpn (SIL)
• Ethnologue entry for Japanese, jpn ⁠

• Japanees

Japanese

1. attributive form of Japanees

Japanese

1. plural of Japanees

From Japan +‎ -ese, after the model of earlier Portuguese japonês, New Latin japonensis, etc.

Japanese m (weak, genitive Japanesen, plural Japanesen)

1. (obsolete) synonym of Japaner (“Japanese person”)