kaiju
/ˈkai.d͡ʒu/
kaiju noun: a fictional giant monster, particularly of the kind found in Japanese science fiction films and other media, like Godzilla, King Kong or Gamera.
Noun
kaiju (plural kaijus or kaiju)
- A fictional giant monster, particularly of the kind found in Japanese science fiction films and other media, like Godzilla, King Kong or Gamera.
- The resurrections of Mothra, the giant butterfly in Japanese kaiju movies, are treated as colourful religious events, glitter falling upon fat children as the fluffy-faced behemoth dries its wings.2015, Steve Aylett, Heart of the Original, Unbound, page 117
Forms of kaiju
| plural | kaijus |
|---|---|
| plural | kaiju |
Origin of kaiju
From Japanese 怪獣 (かいじゅう, kaijū), from Middle Chinese 怪 (kweajᴴ, “strange, fantastic”) + 獸 (syuwᴴ, “beast”) (compare Mandarin 怪獸 /怪兽 (guàishòu)).
Questions about kaiju
- What does kaiju mean?
- Kaiju means a fictional giant monster, particularly of the kind found in Japanese science fiction films and other media, like Godzilla, King Kong or Gamera.
- What part of speech is kaiju?
- Kaiju is a noun.
- How do you pronounce kaiju?
- Kaiju is pronounced /ˈkai.d͡ʒu/.
- What is the plural of kaiju?
- The plural of kaiju is kaijus.
Words near kaiju in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: kaiju (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-kaiju.wav.
Cite this entry: “kaiju.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kaiju. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.