Word.ws English Dictionary

jodo

jodo noun: a Japanese martial art using a short staff, originally as a defence against swords.

Noun (1)

jodo (uncountable)

  1. A Japanese martial art using a short staff, originally as a defence against swords.
    • Every Saturday after the karate class there was a jodo class (not judo, but jodo—the way of the short staff).2007, Paul Walker, Lessons with the Master, page 15
    Synonyms:
    jojutsu

Noun (2)

jodo (uncountable)

  1. (Japanese) Synonym of pure land: the various realms of the buddhas and boddhisattvas.
    Synonyms:
    pure land

Proper noun capitalized: Jodo

Jodo

  1. (Japanese) Synonym of Pure Land: a sect of Buddhism and its primary afterlife, the seat of the Amida Buddha.
    • ...zealous persons, chiefly the followers of the Sect of Siodo...1727, Engelbert Kaempfer, translated by John Gaspar Scheuchzer, History of Japan, volume I, page 287
    • The Jō-do-shū, or Pure Land sect.1886, Bunyiu Nanjio, chapter IX, in A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects
    Synonyms:
    Pure Land

Noun (3) capitalized: Jodo

Jodo (uncountable)

  1. (Japanese) Alternative letter-case form of jodo: any of various other pure lands.
    • Simple faith in Buddha's grace was all that one needed to cross this ocean of samsara to the Jodo or 'Pure Land'.1999 Nov., Prabuddha Bharata, p. 877

Synonyms of jodo

Forms of jodo

Noun
alternative formJodo
Proper noun
alternative formjodo

Origin of jodo

A borrowing of Japanese 杖道 (jōdō, literally “way of the staff”).

A borrowing of Japanese 浄土 (jōdo, literally “pure land”), q.v.

A borrowing of Japanese 浄土 (Jōdo, literally “Pure Land”), q.v.

Phrases with jodo

Questions about jodo

What does jodo mean?
Jodo means a Japanese martial art using a short staff, originally as a defence against swords.
What part of speech is jodo?
Jodo can be a noun or a proper noun.

Words near jodo in the dictionary

  1. jodhpurs
  2. jodhs
  3. jodi
  4. Jodie
  5. jodies
  6. jodo
  7. Jodo Shinshu
  8. Jodoigne
  9. Jodoin
  10. Jodoins
  11. Jodrell

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: jodo (page history and authors); Jodo (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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