kamikaze

Syllables: ka·mi·ka·zeUK/ˌkɑː.mɪˈkɑː.ziː//ˌkɑ.mɪˈkɑ.zi/

kamikaze noun: an attack requiring the suicide of the one carrying it out, especially when done with an aircraft.

Noun

kamikaze (countable and uncountable, plural kamikazes)

An attack requiring the suicide of the one carrying it out, especially when done with an aircraft.
(countable) One who carries out a suicide attack, especially with an aircraft.
(countable) A vehicle used for a suicide attack, especially an aircraft.
- Coupled with this were issues involving actually getting enough torpedoes out there to the fleet in the first place! Whilst they were a munition, a torpedo is far more complex and took far longer to build than a shell for a naval gun, even a battleship shell. Torpedoes, remember, are effectively...2020 February 12, Drachinifel, 8:16 from the start, in The Mark 14 Torpedo - Failure is Like Onions, archived from the original on 24 Nov 2022
- The Ukrainians themselves have been using kamikaze drones to strike against Russian targets – and asked their allies to supply them with more of these deadly weapons.2022 October 17, Ivana Kottasová, “‘Kamikaze’ drones are the latest threat for Ukraine. Here’s what we know”, in CNN
(colloquial, countable) One who takes excessive risks, as for example in a sporting event.
(countable) A cocktail made of equal parts vodka, triple sec and lime juice.
- Only top-shelf liquor is served, though Sasha refuses to serve drinks he deems fratlike. These include woo woos, kamikazes and shots of any kind.2000 May 7, Julia Chaplin, “Buzz Off: Secret Bars That Spurn Hype”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 26 May 2025
(countable) A deliberate wipeout.

Verb

kamikaze (third-person singular simple present kamikazes, present participle kamikazeing, simple past and past participle kamikazed)

(transitive) To destroy (a ship, etc.) in a suicide attack, especially by crashing an aircraft.
(intransitive) To carry out a suicide attack, especially by crashing an aircraft.
(intransitive, slang) To fail disastrously.

Adjective

kamikaze (not comparable)

Suicidal, risking one's own life.
- Sheathed in helmets, gloves, and jackets, they look more like manic video game figures than humans. They weave through traffic and around double-decker buses at kamikaze velocity.2018 February, Robert Draper, “They are Watching You—and Everything Else on the Planet: Technology and Our Increasing Demand for Security have Put Us All under Surveillance. Is Privacy Becoming just...
Having or showing reckless disregard for safety or personal welfare.

kamikaze meaning in Tamil, Arabic, Malay and Indonesian

kamikaze in Arabic

suicidal attack: هُجُومٌ إِنْتِحَارِيّ hujūmun ʔintiḥāriyy, كَامِيكَازِي kāmīkāzī
suicidal attacker: اِنْتِحَارِيّ intiḥāriyy, كَامِيكَازِي kāmīkāzī

kamikaze in Malay

suicidal attack: kamikaze
suicidal attacker: kamikaze

kamikaze in Indonesian

suicidal attack: kamikaze
suicidal attacker: kamikaze

More languagesFewer languages

kamikaze in Persian: کامیکازه kâmikâze
kamikaze in Vietnamese: thần phong

Forms of kamikaze

Noun
plural	kamikazes
Verb
third-person singular present	kamikazes
present participle	kamikazeing
past participle	kamikazed
past	kamikazed

Plural of kamikaze: kamikazes

Origin of kamikaze

Borrowed from Japanese 神風(かみかぜ) (kamikaze, “divine wind”), from 神(かみ) (kami, “divine”) + 風(かぜ) (kaze, “wind”); which originally referred to the typhoon that destroyed the Mongol navy attacking Japan in 1281.

Words formed from kamikaze

Phrases with kamikaze

kamikaze drones

Questions about kamikaze

What does kamikaze mean?: Kamikaze means an attack requiring the suicide of the one carrying it out, especially when done with an aircraft.
What is kamikaze in Tamil?: Kamikaze in Tamil is தற்கொலைப்பாங்கான போர் முறை. See Kamikaze meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is kamikaze?: Kamikaze can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce kamikaze?: Kamikaze is pronounced /ˌkɑː.mɪˈkɑː.ziː/ (UK).
What is the plural of kamikaze?: The plural of kamikaze is kamikazes.

Words near kamikaze in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: kamikaze (page history and authors); kamikaze (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Ookap-kamikaze.wav, En-au-kamikaze.ogg.

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