Word.ws English Dictionary

kuromaku

kuromaku noun: in Japan, an éminence grise or secret decision-maker.

Noun

kuromaku (plural kuromaku)

  1. In Japan, an éminence grise or secret decision-maker.
    • The “black mists” of Japan did not die with Yoshio Kodama. In the spirit of the late kuromaku, questionable payments and mob connections still stretch far and wide among Japan's elected officials […]2012, David E. Kaplan, Alec Dubro, Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld, page 97

Forms of kuromaku

pluralkuromaku

Origin of kuromaku

From Japanese 黒幕, literally "black curtain", alluding to the unseen operators in puppet theater; compare pull strings.

Questions about kuromaku

What does kuromaku mean?
Kuromaku means in Japan, an éminence grise or secret decision-maker.
What part of speech is kuromaku?
Kuromaku is a noun.
What is the plural of kuromaku?
The plural of kuromaku is kuromaku.

Words near kuromaku in the dictionary

  1. Kuroda
  2. Kurodas
  3. Kurokawa
  4. Kurokawas
  5. Kuroki
  6. kuromaku
  7. kuromanin
  8. kuromatsuol
  9. kuromido
  10. kuromitsu
  11. Kuropatkin

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kuromaku (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: “kuromaku.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/kuromaku. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.