seppuku
Americannoun
noun
Etymology
Origin of seppuku
First recorded in 1900–05; from Japanese, earlier s(y)et-puku, from Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese qiè “cut” + fù “belly”
Vocabulary lists containing seppuku
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.
“Each time samurai would commit the ritual suicide of seppuku, they would first read the death poem they had prepared in order to summarize their life and make sense of it,” Murakami said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2026
As a result, I was more familiar with Mishima’s life — the turn to ultraright nationalism, the attempted coup and his ensuing death by seppuku — than with his art.
From New York Times ● Nov. 23, 2024
Cicadas have a much higher-stakes conundrum when it comes to their sort of reproductive seppuku: they die shortly after mating, offering themselves up in order to ensure the continuation of the next generation.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 14, 2021
It sounds as if she would gladly commit seppuku, if only that didn’t require the sin of cultural appropriation: “I am wholly sorry for the pain and anger I caused you,” she wrote.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2016
The ancient tradition of seppuku," continued the Chinaman, "or hara-kira, still rules, as you know, in the great families of Japan.
From The Devil Doctor by Sax Rohmer
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.
