geisha
Americannoun
-
geisha,
plural
-
geishas
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of geisha
1890–95; < Japanese, equivalent to gei arts (< Chinese ) + -sha person (< Chin)
Vocabulary lists containing geisha
Japanese History - Middle School and High School
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Japanese History - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The tradition-steeped city, just a couple of hours from Tokyo on the bullet train, is famed for its kimono-clad geisha performers and increasingly crowded Buddhist temples.
From Barron's ● Jan. 20, 2026
At a hot-springs resort in the snowiest mountains of Japan, a wealthy and bored man named Shimamura becomes involved with Komako, a geisha.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 12, 2025
Hemingway “swearing they’d been served by geisha girls,” according to Gellhorn.
From Salon ● Jul. 12, 2025
The women also appeared in a Japanese-inflected boudoir scene in her “Rich Girl” music video in which Stefani at times sports a white bustier and geisha hairstyle.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2023
Ivanito watches as his mother powders her face like a geisha and rubs rouge high on her cheeks.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
"Just as cherry blossoms bloom when spring approaches, the Miyako Odori is a spring tradition in Kyoto," Kyoko Sugiura, head of the Yasaka Nyokoba Gakuen, a school for geishas in Kyoto's Gion district, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
Osaka was second and Kyoto, with its narrow streets, geishas and towering temples, was third, with around 12 million.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 4, 2025
In addition to his real estate business, Miyamoto also runs an entertainment-related business involving maikos, or apprentice geishas.
From BBC ● Mar. 27, 2023
But ninjas and geishas programmed with narrative loops similar to their gun-slinging counterparts wasn’t the only highlight of the Japanese theme park.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 24, 2018
Here and there were groups of geishas or dancing girls.
From The Motor Maids in Fair Japan by Katherine Stokes
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
