Standard Lemma guide

seppuku

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /sɛˈpuː.kuː/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: sĕpʹo͞o-ko͞o '
  • General-American: sĕpʹə-
  • General-American: sĕ-po͞oʹ-
  • General-American: sə-po͞oʹ-
  • General-American: /ˈsɛ.pu(ˌ)ku/
  • General-American: /ˈsɛ.pə-/
  • General-American: /sɛˈpu-/
  • General-American: /səˈpu-/

1

noun

Meaning 1

A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment using a blade, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame, as a means of protest, or, formerly, as a method of capital punishment.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

ritual suicide by self-disembowelment on a sword; practiced by samurai in the traditional Japanese society

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: harakiri, hara-kiri, harikari

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: suicide, self-destruction, self-annihilation

History

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese 切腹 (seppuku), from Middle Chinese 切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”). Compare Cantonese 切腹 (cit3 fuk1) and Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù).

Across languages

Translations

26 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: هَارَا كِيرِي (hārā kīrī) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Arabic: سِيبُّوكُو (sībbūkū) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Armenian: սեպպուկու (seppuku) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Armenian: խարակիրի (xarakiri) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Armenian: հարակիրի (harakiri) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Chinese Mandarin: 切腹 (qiēfù) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Dutch: seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Esperanto: harakiro — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Finnish: harakiri — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • German: Seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Hindi: सेप्पुकू (seppukū) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Japanese: 切腹 (seppuku) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Japanese: 腹切り (harakiri) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Korean: 할복 (halbok) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Marathi: सेप्पुकु (seppuku) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Norwegian: seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Polish: seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Portuguese: seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Russian: хараки́ри (xarakíri) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Russian: сэппу́ку (sɛppúku) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Spanish: seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Swedish: seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Tagalog: seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Urdu: سیپکو (seppukū) — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Vietnamese: thiết phúc — ritual suicide by disembowelment
  • Vietnamese: seppuku — ritual suicide by disembowelment