japa
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Nigeria/d͡ʒá.k͡pā/
japa verb: to emigrate from a country for better pay or working conditions.
Verb
japa (third-person singular simple present japas, present participle japaing, simple past and past participle japaed or japa'd)
- to emigrate from a country for better pay or working conditions.
- I am japa-ing, leaving the country because of the opportunities that are available to me abroad.2023 February 27, Larry Madowo, Bethlehem Feleke, Fridah Okutoyi, “Nigeria's 'japa' trend: Halting exodus of talented Nigerians is a task for the next president.”, in CNN.com, retrieved 25 Mar 2023
Noun
japa (uncountable)
- the emigration of Nigerians, usually for economic opportunities.
Forms of japa
| third-person singular present | japas |
|---|---|
| present participle | japaing |
| past participle | japaed |
| past | japaed |
| past participle | japa'd |
| past | japa'd |
| alternative abbreviation | JP |
| alternative form | jakpa |
Origin of japa
Borrowed from Yoruba jápa and Nigerian Pidgin japa.
Questions about japa
- What does japa mean?
- Japa means to emigrate from a country for better pay or working conditions.
- What part of speech is japa?
- Japa can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce japa?
- Japa is pronounced /d͡ʒá.k͡pā/ (Nigeria).
- What is the past tense of japa?
- The past tense of japa is japaed.
Words near japa in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: japa (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “japa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/japa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.