Word.ws English Dictionary

karoshi

/kəˈɹəʊʃi/

karoshi noun: death, such as from heart attack or stroke, brought on by overwork or job-related stress.

karoshi: death, such as from heart attack or stroke, brought on by overwork or job-related stress
Image: Ly.n0m, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

karoshi (uncountable)

  1. Death, such as from heart attack or stroke, brought on by overwork or job-related stress.
    • For a while he began to speak Japanese, rather slangy, never having seemed to learn it — karoshi for death from overwork, yakitaori-ya for eatery, and gaijin for clumsy foreigner.1976, Bill Henderson, The Pushcart Prize: Best of the Small Presses, Pushcart Press, page 207
    • Second, we discuss the problem of karoshi, which is unique to Japan. Karoshi has become an increasingly serious problem.2006, Ronald J. Burke, Research Companion to Working Time and Work Addiction, page 158
    Synonyms:
    guolaosi, gwarosa

karoshi meaning in Indonesian

karoshi in Indonesian

death from overwork
karosi

Examples of karoshi in a sentence

  • In Japan there is a word for the consequences of extreme busyness: karoshi, which means 'death from overwork'.2008, Tony Crabbe, Busy, Preface, at page xi
  • Since the 1980s, labor lawyers and citizens groups have been pushing for changes to the law to recognize karoshi as a serious social issue.2016 November 30, Emiko Jozuka and Yoko Wakatsuki, “Death by overwork: Pressure mounts on Japan to act”, in CNN Business, archived from the...

Synonyms of karoshi

Origin of karoshi

Borrowed from Japanese 過労死 (karōshi), from 過労 (karō, “overwork”) + 死 (shi, “death”). Doublet of guolaosi and gwarosa.

Questions about karoshi

What does karoshi mean?
Karoshi means death, such as from heart attack or stroke, brought on by overwork or job-related stress.
What is karoshi in Indonesian?
Karoshi in Indonesian is karosi. See Karoshi meaning in Indonesian.
How do you use karoshi in a sentence?
In Japan there is a word for the consequences of extreme busyness: karoshi, which means 'death from overwork'.
What part of speech is karoshi?
Karoshi is a noun.
How do you pronounce karoshi?
Karoshi is pronounced /kəˈɹəʊʃi/.

Words near karoshi in the dictionary

  1. karooid
  2. Karoola
  3. karoos
  4. karoro
  5. karoros
  6. karoshi
  7. kaross
  8. karosses
  9. karotype
  10. Karow
  11. Karows

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: karoshi (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)-Vealhurl-karoshi.wav.

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