geisha
Americannoun
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.
In Japanese, the word geisha means "person of the arts", and can refer to a woman or man trained in traditional Japanese performing arts.
From Barron's • Apr. 3, 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
To Frances O’Meara, that made her mother a sort of modern-day geisha, “someone always knowing her audience, always knowing how to communicate, knowing how to relate.”
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 3, 2025
From the back of a yellow house, two girls emerge, playing geisha.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
