Word.ws English Dictionary

koto

koto noun: a Japanese stringed instrument having numerous strings, usually seven or thirteen, that are stretched over a convex wooden sounding board and are plucked with three plectra, worn on the thumb, index finger, and middle finger of one hand.

koto: a Japanese stringed instrument having numerous strings, usually seven or thirteen, that are...
Image: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

koto (plural kotos)

  1. A Japanese stringed instrument having numerous strings, usually seven or thirteen, that are stretched over a convex wooden sounding board and are plucked with three plectra, worn on the thumb, index finger, and middle finger of one hand.
    • Seated on the soft carpet with their drinks, they listened to a recording of koto, Japanese thirteen-string harp.1962, Philip K. Dick, “The Man in the High Castle”, in Four Novels of the 1960s, Library of America, published 2007, page 94

Proper noun capitalized: Koto

Koto

  1. A special ward in Tokyo prefecture, Japan.

koto meaning in Marathi and Vietnamese

koto in Marathi

a Japanese stringed instrument
कोतो koto

koto in Vietnamese

a Japanese stringed instrument
koto, cô tô

Forms of koto

Noun
pluralkotos
Proper noun
alternative formKōtō
alternative formKoto City

Origin of koto

From Japanese 箏 (koto).

Words formed from koto

Phrases with koto

Questions about koto

What does koto mean?
Koto means a Japanese stringed instrument having numerous strings, usually seven or thirteen, that are stretched over a convex wooden sounding board and are plucked with three plectra, worn on the thumb, index finger, and middle finger of one hand.
What is koto in Marathi?
Koto in Marathi is कोतो (koto). See Koto meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is koto?
Koto can be a noun or a proper noun.
What is the plural of koto?
The plural of koto is kotos.

Words near koto in the dictionary

  1. kotleti
  2. kotlety
  3. Kotlin
  4. kotlovina
  5. Kotlyne
  6. koto
  7. Koto City
  8. Kotoe
  9. kotoist
  10. kotoists
  11. kotoite

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: koto (page history and authors); Koto (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.

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