ninja
/ˈnɪnd͡ʒə/
ninja noun: one trained in ninjutsu, especially one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.
Noun (1)
ninja (plural ninja or ninjas)
- One trained in ninjutsu, especially one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.
- He used to work in the Japanese agency as a ninja.
- The men... are now learning to be ninja or ‘stealers-in’.1964, Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice, page 126
- One who very skillful, considered similar to the historical ninja, especially in covert or stealthy operation.
- For months the Japanese spoke of national-security adviser Henry Kissinger as a ninja—the magician of Japanese legends who performs supernatural acts and practices sorcery.1972 September 11, Newsweek, Int'l edition, page 28
- Other bankers are dubbing themselves ninja, modern-day descendants of the superspies of 17th century samurai houses.1987 August 3, Business Week, page 40
- Synonyms:
- killer, spy, superspy, magician, secret agent
- A notional draconian arm of a corporation (originally Nintendo), tasked with dealing with individuals that infringe on its rights or do not comply with its regulations.
- I had TOTK running on my pc 2 weeks before it released on the switch and I'm still here. They can send the ninjas, I'm waiting.2024 January 23, @tetsuo_88, X (post)
- eNintendo ninjas were inside the discord, watching. Now all the Yuzu devs have turned over all electronic devices, websites, logs...2024 March 5, @HikikomoriMedia, X (post)
- A programmer or tech worker, particularly one skilled in a particular programming language or environment; used especially in job adverts.
- A ninja developer can take advantage of this when building large software systems, adding a bit of C# and a dabble of Python.2008, MSDN Magazine
- If you're a Linux ninja, this book still gives you a solid reference on the Raspberry Pi and the version of Linux it uses, but no prior Linux knowledge is required.2014 November 3, Sean McManus, Raspberry Pi For Dummies, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 5
- One who is considered to resemble the historical ninja in some way.
- He immediately suspected they were ninjas because, he said, they were dressed in black and wore masks, trademarks of the mysterious assassins who have been sowing terror across East Java in recent months.1998 December 28, Chicago Tribune, page 1
- Yen buyers were more subdued... fearing the Bank of Japan's new strategy of covert intervention to buy U.S. dollars through agent banks—described by some as the central bank's ninjas or secret agents.2003 February 21, Business Times
- An amateur private miner in Mongolia.
- Many were former nomads, but as the gold rush gathered pace, students, vets and taxi drivers from Ulan Bator joined the ninjas, not just in Ogoomor but in other gold towns across the country.2007 October 10, Jonathan Watts, “Prospectors and 'Ninja' Miners Flood to East's El Dorado”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC
- Synonym of nigga, used as a friendly term of address.
- What's up, ninjas?2003, Steven Ayromlooi, Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood, spoken by LEPRECHAUN
- I'm thicker than a Snicker, I'm thicker than your ninja!2024, “BBL Drizzy”, King Willonius (lyrics)
- Synonyms:
- nigga, used as a friendly term of address
- Synonym of man; used as a friendly term of address.
- What up, my ninja!
- Synonym of nigger.
- Synonyms:
- nigger
Adjective (1)
ninja (not comparable)
- Fast and sneaky.
- After Marshall fell asleep Elisa eventually jumped into the bed with me while I was turned facing away from her. She was very ninja about it as she put it.2011, Cory Cantrell, Love and Video Games the Story of a Gamer, Lulu.com, →ISBN
- With a meager budget, the decision was made to go to a new construction site after dark to borrow some needed lumber. The ninja theft went as planned.2017 January 25, Lloyd Amstrup, Found Treasure: Gems of Great Leadership and Personal Skills, iUniverse, →ISBN
Verb
ninja (third-person singular simple present ninjas, present participle ninjaing, simple past and past participle ninjaed or ninja'd)
- To act or move like a ninja, particularly with regard to a combination of speed, power, and stealth.
- I leapt up, ninja'd over to Gav's bed and wheeched the duvet off.1992, Iain Banks, Crow Road, page 160
- In our dark house we were ninja-ing around with water guns.1996 April 23, Rocky Mountain News, page 5
- to beat someone to a post; to make the same reply just before the other party finishes typing, making their response redundant.
- When I hit post, I saw that Blue Emu had ninja'd me, so I just deleted my reply.
- To claim an item through abuse of game mechanics.
- That damn warrior ninja'd an epic-quality wand even though he can't even use it!
Adjective (2) capitalized: NINJA
NINJA (not comparable)
Noun (2) capitalized: Ninja
Ninja (plural Ninjas)
- An anti-government Bakongo rebel, active in Pool Department, Republic of the Congo (Congo-Brazzaville).
- To punish a population seen as Ninja sympathisers, the government last year effectively sealed off the entire region and barred all aid, turning Pool into a blank space on the humanitarian map.2003 December 7, Rory Carroll, “Apocalyptic rebel movement revisits Congo's heart of darkness”, in the Guardian
- While the last major clashes were in 2003 in Pool — a southern region between the capital Brazzaville and the port city of Pointe Noire — Ninjas had continued to roam the region, robbing civilians and hijacking trains to the oil-rich coast.2007 August 10, Christian Tsoumou, “Congo's Ninja rebels burn weapons and pledge peace”, in Reuters
ninja meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
ninja in Hindi
- spy and mercenary in pre-modern Japan
- निंजा niñjā, निञ्जा niñjā
ninja in Tamil
- spy and mercenary in pre-modern Japan
- நிஞ்சா niñcā
ninja in Marathi
- spy and mercenary in pre-modern Japan
- निंजा niñjā, निनजा ninjā
ninja in Urdu
- spy and mercenary in pre-modern Japan
- نِنْجا ninjā
More languagesFewer languages
- ninja in Bengali
- নিনজা, নিঞ্জা
- ninja in Telugu
- నింజా niñjā
- ninja in Malayalam
- നിൻജ, നിഞ്ച, നിൻജാ
- ninja in Kannada
- ನಿಂಜಾ, ನಿನ್ಜಾ, ನಿಂಜಾಗೆ
- ninja in Punjabi
- ਨਿੰਜਾ, ਨਿਨਜਾ, ਨੀੰਜਾ
- ninja in Gujarati
- નીન્જા, નિન્જા, નિંજા
- ninja in Odia
- ନିଞ୍ଜା, ନିନ୍ଜା, ନିଞ୍ଜାଙ୍କୁ
- ninja in Nepali
- निन्जा, नीन्जा, निञ्जा
- ninja in Arabic
- نِينْجَا nīnjā, نِنْجَا ninjā
- ninja in Malay
- ninja
- ninja in Indonesian
- ninja
- ninja in Thai
- นินจา nin-jaa
- ninja in Vietnamese
- ninja, nhẫn giả
Examples of ninja in a sentence
- Spies prowled Japan from the seventh century, but the secretive ninja left few written records.2000 October 15, Denver Post, page 10:
- Young banking and securities firms executives (nicknamed the ninja...) are especially assigned to cultivate relations with the finance ministry.1991 August 4, The Guardian, page 13:
- A JavaScript ninja should write lots of code and build things!2017, Darren Jones, JavaScript: Novice to Ninja, SitePoint, →ISBN:
- But in a trawl of British job adverts in 2019, Bartleby found requests for "a call-centre ninja", "a black-belt prioritisation ninja" and one post demanding "a ninja-like attention to detail ".2024 May 7, Philip Coggan, Surviving the Daily Grind: Bartleby's Guide to Work, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN:
Synonyms of ninja
- assassin
- shinobi
- spy
- killer
- superspy
- magician
- secret agent
- nigga
- used as a friendly term of address
- man
1 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of ninja
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | ninja |
| plural | ninjas |
| plural | Ninjas |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | ninjas |
| present participle | ninjaing |
| past participle | ninjaed |
| past | ninjaed |
| past participle | ninja'd |
| past | ninja'd |
Origin of ninja
Borrowed from Japanese 忍者 (ninja), of uncertain derivation but with an underlying sense of secret or hidden person. Popularized in Japanese by manga after World War II and in English by the 1980 novel The Ninja by Eric Van Lustbader and the 1981 movie Enter the Ninja Noun sense 3.1 (“Mongolian miner”) arose from the supposed resemblance of the bowls used to wash ore with mercury to the shells of the main characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Juggalo slang sense arose via influence from AAVE nigga.
From ninja.
Words formed from ninja
Phrases with ninja
- ninja cops
- ninja feet
- ninja vans
- ninja loans
- ninja loots
- ninja rocks
- ninja stars
- ninja looted
- ninja miners
- ninja swords
- ninja looters
- ninja looting
1 more phrasesFewer phrases
Words that rhyme with ninja
Questions about ninja
- What does ninja mean?
- Ninja means one trained in ninjutsu, especially one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.
- What is ninja in Hindi?
- Ninja in Hindi is निंजा (niñjā), निञ्जा (niñjā). See Ninja meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use ninja in a sentence?
- Spies prowled Japan from the seventh century, but the secretive ninja left few written records.
- What part of speech is ninja?
- Ninja can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
- How do you pronounce ninja?
- Ninja is pronounced /ˈnɪnd͡ʒə/ (UK).
- What is the plural of ninja?
- The plural of ninja is ninja.
Words near ninja in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ninja (page history and authors); NINJA (page history and authors); Ninja (page history and authors); ninja (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ninja (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ninja (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ninja (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ninja (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ninja (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ninja (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-ninja.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ninja.wav.
Cite this entry: “ninja.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ninja. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.