Definitions for samurai
ˈsæm ʊˌraɪsamu·rai

Princeton's WordNet(3.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. samurainoun

   a Japanese warrior who was a member of the feudal military aristocracy

2. samurainoun

   feudal Japanese military aristocracy

GCIDE(3.37 / 8 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Samurain. pl. & sing.

   In the former feudal system of Japan, the class or a member of the class, of military retainers of the daimios, constituting the gentry or lesser nobility. They possessed power of life and death over the commoners, and wore two swords as their distinguishing mark. Their special rights and privileges were abolished with the fall of feudalism in 1871. They were referred to as

   Etymology: [Jap.]

Wiktionary(5.00 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. samurainoun

   In feudal Japan, a samurai was a soldier of noble birth who followed the code of bushido and served a daimyo.

   Etymology: From 侍 (さむらい, samurai).

Freebase(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. 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.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Samurai

   sam′ōō-rī, n. sing. (also pl.) a member of the military class in the old feudal system of Japan, including both daimios, or territorial nobles, and their military retainers: a military retainer, a two-sworded man. [Jap.]

The New Hacker's Dictionary(1.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. samurai

   A hacker who hires out for legal cracking jobs, snooping for factions in corporate political fights, lawyers pursuing privacy-rights and First Amendment cases, and other parties with legitimate reasons to need an electronic locksmith. In 1991, mainstream media reported the existence of a loose-knit culture of samurai that meets electronically on BBS systems, mostly bright teenagers with personal micros; they have modeled themselves explicitly on the historical samurai of Japan and on the “net cowboys” of William Gibson's cyberpunk novels. Those interviewed claim to adhere to a rigid ethic of loyalty to their employers and to disdain the vandalism and theft practiced by criminal crackers as beneath them and contrary to the hacker ethic; some quote Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings, a classic of historical samurai doctrine, in support of these principles. See also sneaker, Stupids, social engineering, cracker, hacker ethic, and dark-side hacker.

Matched Categories

1. • Japanese
   • Aristocracy
   • Warrior

Anagrams for samurai »

1. Masuria

How to pronounce samurai?

1. Alex

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

How to say samurai in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of samurai in Chaldean Numerology is: 9

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of samurai in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of samurai in a Sentence

1. Chadwick Boseman:

   The legend of Yasuke is one of history's best kept secrets, the only person of non-Asian origin to become a samurai, that's not just an action movie, that's a cultural event, an exchange, and I am excited to be part of it.

2. Pablo Kuntz:

   I got started with a website( in 2006) selling traditional arts and crafts, from dolls to kitchen knives, i printed a catalog for U.S. armed forces in Jidai Japanese and they all went crazy for the knives. Someone said' can you get me a samurai sword ?'.

3. Jason Connell:

   There are instances of, when you look through history, that there were female samurai, and even in this time period, there were these stories, so Read MoreAs players wanted to make sure that they exist, i think that was an important thing to put in to show that the world is real and they're humans.

4. Thomas Lockley:

   Yasuke was initially viewed as a source of entertainment as he was a novelty, but within a month he'd become a valued samurai and member of Oda's entourage, according to the sources, Nobunaga Oda just loved talking with Yasuke.

Images & Illustrations of samurai

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