samurai

American  

[sam-oo-rahy] / ˈsæm ʊˌraɪ /

noun

Japanese History.

samurai plural

1. a member of the hereditary warrior class in feudal Japan.

2. a retainer of a daimyo.

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samurai British  

/ ˈsæmʊˌraɪ, ˈsæmjʊ- /

noun

1. the Japanese warrior caste that provided the administrative and fighting aristocracy from the 11th to the 19th centuries

2. a member of this aristocracy

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• samurai
  plural

Etymology

Origin of samurai

1720–30; < Japanese, earlier samurafi to serve, equivalent to sa- prefix + morafi watchfully wait (frequentative of mor- to guard)

Explanation

Use the noun samurai when you're talking about the elite Japanese warriors who practiced martial arts in pre-industrial Japan. These days you'll only see samurai in movies about Japan, and it's easy to think of them as fictional superheroes. They really did exist, though, and played an important part in Japanese history, as members of the nobility from the tenth century all the way through the 1800s. In Japanese, the word samurai means "warrior or knight."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

samurai

Younger kids gravitate to “Musashi,” a celebrated epic based on a famous samurai.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026

Although such an act would require blade skills beyond even the greatest of samurai, federal authorities have arrested five people.

From Salon ● Jun. 24, 2026

"One day he stumbles upon a samurai sensei who teaches him...about real discipline and how he can not only protect himself, but protect other people too."

From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026

For the latter half of samurai history, armor was a facade, a largely symbolic display of authority for an archetypal military class whose members became bureaucrats and eventually pop-culture icons.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 7, 2026

Twelve-year-old Kaori Tanaka—a proud Gemini—liked to tell people her parents were born in the high, misty mountains of a samurai village.

From "Hello, Universe" by Erin Entrada Kelly