JAPAN (japanned, japanning)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: japanned    , japanning   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does Japan mean? 

• JAPAN (noun)
  The noun JAPAN has 4 senses:

1. a string of more than 3,000 islands to the east of Asia extending 1,300 miles between the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean

2. a constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship building

3. lacquerware decorated and varnished in the Japanese manner with a glossy durable black lacquer

4. lacquer with a durable glossy black finish, originally from the orient

  Familiarity information: JAPAN used as a noun is uncommon.

• JAPAN (verb)
  The verb JAPAN has 1 sense:

1. coat with a lacquer, as done in Japan

  Familiarity information: JAPAN used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• JAPAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A string of more than 3,000 islands to the east of Asia extending 1,300 miles between the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific Ocean

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Japan; Japanese Archipelago; Japanese Islands

Instance hypernyms:

archipelago (a group of many islands in a large body of water)

Meronyms (parts of "Japan"):

Ezo; Hokkaido; Yezo (the second largest of the four main islands of Japan; to the north of Honshu)

Hondo; Honshu (the central and largest of the four main islands of Japan; between the Sea of Japan and the Pacific Ocean; regarded as the Japanese mainland)

Kyushu (the southernmost of the four main islands of Japan; contains coal fields)

Shikoku (the smallest of the four main islands of Japan; to the south of Honshu and to the east of Kyushu; separated from Honshu by the Inland Sea; forested and mountainous)

Osaka Bay (a bay of the western Pacific in southern Honshu)

Holonyms ("Japan" is a part of...):

Pacific; Pacific Ocean (the largest ocean in the world)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A constitutional monarchy occupying the Japanese Archipelago; a world leader in electronics and automobile manufacture and ship building

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Synonyms:

Japan; Nihon; Nippon

Instance hypernyms:

Asian country; Asian nation (any one of the nations occupying the Asian continent)

Meronyms (parts of "Japan"):

Asahikawa (a city on western Hokkaido that is the center of a fertile agricultural area)

Fukuoka (a city in southern Japan on Kyushu)

Kitakyushu (a Japanese city on northern Kyushu)

Nagasaki (a city in southern Japan on Kyushu; a leading port and shipbuilding center; on August 9, 1945 Nagasaki became the second populated area to receive an atomic bomb)

Sapporo (a commercial city in northern Japan on western Hokkaido)

Kyoto (a city in central Japan on southern Honshu; a famous cultural center that was once the capital of Japan)

Ryukyu Islands (a chain of 55 islands in the western Pacific to the to the southwest of Japan (returned by United States to Japan in 1972))

Naha City (the chief city in the Ryukyu Islands)

Yokohama (port city on southeastern Honshu in central Japan)

Osaka (port city on southern Honshu on Osaka Bay; a commercial and industrial center of Japan)

Omiya (a city of east central Honshu; a suburb of Tokyo)

Nagoya (an industrial city in southern Honshu)

Nagano (a city in central Honshu to the northwest of Tokyo; site of a Buddhist shrine)

capital of Japan; Edo; Japanese capital; Tokio; Tokyo; Yeddo; Yedo (the capital and largest city of Japan; the economic and cultural center of Japan)

Toyonaki (a Japanese city in southern Honshu; main residential suburb of Osaka)

Toyota (an industrial city of Japan in southern Honshu)

Kammon Strait Bridge (a suspension bridge between Kyushu and Honshu)

Asama; Mount Asama (a volcano in central Honshu near Nagano; one of the largest volcanoes in Japan (8,340 feet))

Volcano Islands (a group of Japanese Islands in the northwestern Pacific Ocean to the north of the Marianas)

Iwo Jima (the largest of the Volcano Islands of Japan)

Fuji; Fuji-san; Fujinoyama; Fujiyama; Mount Fuji (an extinct volcano in south central Honshu that is the highest peak in Japan; last erupted in 1707; famous for its symmetrical snow-capped peak; a sacred mountain and site for pilgrimages)

Toyohashi (a Japanese city in southern Honshu on the Pacific shore)

Meronyms (members of "Japan"):

Japanese; Nipponese (a native or inhabitant of Japan)

Domain member region:

kamikaze (a pilot trained and willing to cause a suicidal crash)

koto player (a musician who plays the koto)

sumo wrestler (a wrestler who participates in sumo (a Japanese form of wrestling))

yakuza (a Japanese gangster)

Esaki; Leo Esaki (physicist honored for advances in solid state electronics (born in Japan in 1925))

Ozawa; Seiji Ozawa (United States conductor (born in Japan in 1935))

Anti-Imperialist International Brigade; Japanese Red Army; JRA (a terrorist group organized in 1970 to overthrow the Japanese government and monarchy and to foment world revolution; is said to have close ties with Palestinian terrorists)

diet (a legislative assembly in certain countries (e.g., Japan))

hara-kiri; harakiri; harikari; seppuku (ritual suicide by self-disembowelment on a sword; practiced by samurai in the traditional Japanese society)

sumo (a Japanese form of wrestling; you lose if you are forced out of a small ring or if any part of your body (other than your feet) touches the ground)

go; go game (a board game for two players who place counters on a grid; the object is to surround and so capture the opponent's counters)

shogi (a form of chess played on a board of 81 squares; each player has 20 pieces)

acupressure; G-Jo; shiatsu (treatment of symptoms by applying pressure with the fingers to specific pressure points on the body)

jiujitsu; jujitsu; jujutsu (a method of self-defense without weapons that was developed in China and Japan; holds and blows are supplemented by clever use of the attacker's own weight and strength)

ninjitsu; ninjutsu (the traditional Japanese method of espionage; involves stealthy movements and the use of camouflage)

karate (a traditional Japanese system of unarmed combat (in Japanese, karate means 'empty hand'); sharp blows and kicks are given to pressure-sensitive points on the body of the opponent)

origami (the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes representing objects (e.g., flowers or birds))

chanoyu; tea ceremony (an ancient ritual for preparing and serving and drinking tea)

futon (mattress consisting of a pad of cotton batting that is used for sleeping on the floor or on a raised frame)

kamikaze (a fighter plane used for suicide missions by Japanese pilots in World War II)

shoji (a translucent screen made of a wooden frame covered with rice paper)

Shingon (a form of Buddhism emphasizing mystical symbolism of mantras and mudras and the Buddha's ideal which is inexpressible)

Japanese (the language (usually considered to be Altaic) spoken by the Japanese)

Ryukyuan (the language (related to Japanese) that is spoken by the people of the Ryukyu Islands)

miso (a thick paste made from fermented soybeans and barley or rice malt; used in Japanese cooking to make soups or sauces)

wasabi (the thick green root of the wasabi plant that the Japanese use in cooking and that tastes like strong horseradish; in powder or paste form it is often eaten with raw fish)

sukiyaki (thin beef strips (or chicken or pork) cooked briefly at the table with onions and greens and soy sauce)

sashimi (very thinly sliced raw fish)

sushi (rice (with raw fish) wrapped in seaweed)

tempura (vegetables and seafood dipped in batter and deep-fried)

rice beer; sake; saki (Japanese alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice; usually served hot)

Aum; Aum Shinrikyo; Supreme Truth (a terrorist organization whose goal is to take over Japan and then the world; based on a religion founded in 1987 that combines elements of Buddhism with Christianity)

Chukaku-Ha (an ultra-leftist militant group founded in 1957 from the breakup of the Japanese Communist Party; includes a covert action wing)

yakuza (organized crime in Japan; an alliance of criminal organizations and illegal enterprises)

prefecture (the district administered by a prefect (as in France or Japan or the Roman Empire))

Holonyms ("Japan" is a part of...):

Asia (the largest continent with 60% of the earth's population; it is joined to Europe on the west to form Eurasia; it is the site of some of the world's earliest civilizations)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Lacquerware decorated and varnished in the Japanese manner with a glossy durable black lacquer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("japan" is a kind of...):

lacquerware (a decorative work made of wood and covered with lacquer and often inlaid with ivory or precious metals)

Derivation:

japan (coat with a lacquer, as done in Japan)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Lacquer with a durable glossy black finish, originally from the orient

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("japan" is a kind of...):

lacquer (a hard glossy coating)

Derivation:

japan (coat with a lacquer, as done in Japan)

• JAPAN (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Coat with a lacquer, as done in Japan

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "japan" is one way to...):

lacquer (coat with lacquer)

Domain category:

handicraft (a craft that requires skillful hands)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

japan (lacquer with a durable glossy black finish, originally from the orient)

japan (lacquerware decorated and varnished in the Japanese manner with a glossy durable black lacquer)

 Context examples 

In six days I found a vessel ready to carry me to Japan, and spent fifteen days in the voyage.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Researchers from Japan and China studied the serrations in the leading edge of owls’ wings, gaining new insight into how they work to make the birds’ flight silent.

(Owls' Wings Key to Beating Wind Turbine Noise, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

I could sail them better than make them, and I had no doubt of my power to bring the schooner to some northern port of Japan.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Some red seaweeds are major crops in Japan, Korea and China, where they serve as sushi wrap, among other uses.

(Red seaweeds, including those in sushi, thrive despite ancestor's loss of genes, National Science Foundation)

The wreck was located about 50 miles (80 km) south of Okinawa, Japan at a depth of over 1400 feet (about 430 meters), far from where the Navy's records initially predicted it would be.

(Lost 52 Project announces discovery of wrecked sub near Okinawa, Wikinews)

It has been studied in Japan as a treatment for cancer.

(Lentinan, NCI Dictionary)

A country in eastern Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula, bordering the Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan, between China and South Korea.

(Korea, Democratic People's Republic of, NCI Thesaurus)

An adverse reaction terminology created in Japan, based on the World Health Organization's Adverse Reaction Terminology.

(Japanese Adverse Reaction Terminology, NCI Thesaurus)

A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Japan..

(Japanese, NCI Thesaurus)

GPM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA.

(France's Flooding Rains Examined by NASA’s IMERG, NASA)