Word.ws English Dictionary

gambaru

gambaru noun: perseverance even with the hardest of tasks, in the context of Japanese culture.

Noun

gambaru (uncountable)

  1. Perseverance even with the hardest of tasks, in the context of Japanese culture.
    • The do-or-die mentality gambaru permeates Japanese society, where the pursuit of a goal can carry more significance than the outcome.2020 August 24, Kaori Enjoji, “‘Do or die’ mentality brings Japanese PM Shinzo Abe to the brink”, in CNN, archived from the original on 23 May 2025

Proper noun capitalized: Gambaru

Gambaru

  1. A town in Borno, Nigeria.
    • A pickup loaded with Chadian troops crosses the bridge into Gambaru to reinforce their peers locked in an hours-long heavy exchange of gunfire with Boko Haram fighters.2015 February 20, Ngala Killian Chimtom, “Soldiers from Cameroon, Chad take on Boko Haram at Nigerian border”, in CNN
    • In January, Boko Haram struck Fotokol, a Cameroonian town separated by only a bridge from Gambarou^([sic]), Nigeria, a stronghold of the Islamist extremists. The attackers killed more than 400 people.2015 March 3, Ngala Killian Chimtom, “Cameroon in for long fight as its youth join Boko Haram”, in CNN

Origin of gambaru

Borrowed from Japanese 頑張る (ganbaru, “work hard, do one's best”).

Questions about gambaru

What does gambaru mean?
Gambaru means perseverance even with the hardest of tasks, in the context of Japanese culture.
What part of speech is gambaru?
Gambaru can be a noun or a proper noun.

Words near gambaru in the dictionary

  1. Gambales
  2. gambang
  3. gambangs
  4. Gambardella
  5. Gambardellas
  6. gambaru
  7. gambas
  8. gambe
  9. gambeer
  10. gambeers
  11. Gambel

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gambaru (page history and authors); Gambaru (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “gambaru.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gambaru. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.