katsu
katsu interjection: a word shouted out in Zen Buddhism (as well as other sects of Buddhism), and in East Asian martial arts schools, used to help focus the energy (気 (ki)), and thereby induce an enlightened state.
Interjection
katsu
Noun
katsu (countable and uncountable, plural katsus)
- Panko breaded and deep-fried Japanese food
- Japanese curry, which may or may not contain a panko breaded and deep-fried food.
- Things like yakisoba and katsu curry are all examples of this western mixing, while omurice has both French and American influences. I’m 50 now and I remember growing up in the 1970s with my mother making me omurice.2026 July 26, Ammar Kalia, “‘I panic. It turns to rubber’: could I learn to make omurice, the ‘world’s hardest omelette’?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
Forms of katsu
| plural | katsus |
|---|
Origin of katsu
From Japanese 喝 (katsu).
From Japanese カツ (katsu, “cutlet”), shortening of カツレツ (katsuretsu), itself from English cutlet. Thus a doublet of English cut.
Questions about katsu
- What does katsu mean?
- Katsu means a word shouted out in Zen Buddhism (as well as other sects of Buddhism), and in East Asian martial arts schools, used to help focus the energy (気 (ki)), and thereby induce an enlightened state.
- What part of speech is katsu?
- Katsu can be an interjection or a noun.
Words near katsu in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: katsu (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-katsu.wav.
Cite this entry: “katsu.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/katsu. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.