Word.ws English Dictionary

kango

/ˈkɑŋɡoʊ/

kango noun: a Sino-Japanese word, a Japanese word of Chinese origin or a Japanese word coined along Chinese lines. Also the alternative form of kago.

kango: a Sino-Japanese word, a Japanese word of Chinese origin or a Japanese word coined along Chinese...
Image: versement et modifications ː G.Garitan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

kango (plural kango)

  1. A Sino-Japanese word, a Japanese word of Chinese origin or a Japanese word coined along Chinese lines.

Noun (2) capitalized: Kango

Kango (plural Kangos)

  1. A jackhammer.

Also used as

kango is also the alternative form of kago.

Forms of kango

pluralkango
pluralkangos
pluralKangos

Origin of kango

From Japanese 漢(かん)語(ご) (kango), from Middle Chinese 漢語 (MC xanH ngjoX, “Han, Chinese + speech, language”), compare modern Mandarin 漢語／汉语 (Hànyǔ, “Chinese language”).

Originally a trademarked name, now sometimes used for any type of jackhammer regardless of manufacturer.

Questions about kango

What does kango mean?
Kango means a Sino-Japanese word, a Japanese word of Chinese origin or a Japanese word coined along Chinese lines.
What part of speech is kango?
Kango is a noun.
How do you pronounce kango?
Kango is pronounced /ˈkɑŋɡoʊ/.
What is the plural of kango?
The plural of kango is kango.

Words near kango in the dictionary

  1. Kanglish
  2. Kanglu
  3. Kanglung
  4. Kanglus
  5. Kangnam
  6. kango
  7. kangooroo
  8. kangooroos
  9. kangos
  10. Kangpar
  11. Kangpokpi

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kango (page history and authors); Kango (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: “kango.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kango. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.