Word.ws English Dictionary

hentak kaki

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Singapore[ˈhənt˭aʔ ˌk˭ak˭i]

hentak kaki verb: to march on the spot (a drill command sometimes used as form of punishment).

Verb

hentak kaki (invariable)

  1. (Singapore, invariable) To march on the spot (a drill command sometimes used as form of punishment).
  2. (Singapore, Singlish, figuratively, invariable) To be stuck in the same role or career with very little prospects of advancement.
    • Are you sure they’re gonna give you someting more kilat? I think ah, they put you here to hentak kaki, know!2011, James Khoo, directed by James Khoo, Hentak Kaki (short film), spoken by SSG (NS) Rajendran (P. Muruganandan / Richard Muru)

Origin of hentak kaki

Unadapted borrowing from Malay hentak kaki (literally “stomp one’s feet”), referring to a punitive military drill command in the Singapore Armed Forces requiring soldiers to march on the spot. The full drill command is hentak kaki, cepat hentak.

Questions about hentak kaki

What does hentak kaki mean?
Hentak kaki means to march on the spot (a drill command sometimes used as form of punishment).
What part of speech is hentak kaki?
Hentak kaki is a verb.
How do you pronounce hentak kaki?
Hentak kaki is pronounced [ˈhənt˭aʔ ˌk˭ak˭i] (Singapore).

Words near hentak kaki in the dictionary

  1. hent
  2. hentai
  3. hentaigana
  4. hentais
  5. hentak
  6. hentak kaki
  7. hented
  8. Hentenian
  9. hentetracontane
  10. Henthorn
  11. Henthorne

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hentak kaki (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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