Word.ws English Dictionary

obasan

obasan noun: a Japanese middle-aged woman.

Noun

obasan (plural obasans)

  1. A Japanese middle-aged woman.
    • Some day Japanese women may be seen parading the streets bearing banners on which are written “Votes for Women,”—at least what appears to be a movement in this direction was inaugurated last week, says the Far East, when a public meeting for women was held at the Kanda Y. M. C. A. under the...1913 March 6, The Japan Chronicle, old series, number 819; new series, number 583, Kobe, page 423
    • Even if osteoporosis is not so common in elderly Japanese women as in Caucasians when measured in terms of bone density and fractures, I am still convinced that the many obasans one sees in Japan bent nearly double did not get that way merely from planting rice.1994, Monumenta Nipponica, page 383
  2. A Japanese aunt.
    • "This woman really my aunt, my obasan, but I call her my grandmother, obaasan.[…]"1985, Kenneth Fenter, Mo Ichido, Once More: An American Family in Japan, the Second Year, Cross Cultural Press, →ISBN, page 25
    • In the novel [Obasan] Naomi stands between two obasans, the one of the title, her great-aunt, the other aunt Emily, her mother’s sister.1992, Wilhelm G. Busse, editor, Anglistentag 1991 Dusseldorf: Proceedings, Max Niemeyer Verlag, page 380

Examples of obasan in a sentence

  • The boys resist the Japanese names by which the obasans of the camp address them as willfully as they renounce any identification with the fragmented body of the aged grandfather.2001, David L. Eng, Racial Castration: Managing Masculinity in Asian America, Durham, N.C.; London: Duke University Press, →ISBN, page 120:
  • Often Tokyo obasans cut in line for everything and when they get caught they act innocent.2004, Janice Valerie Young, Sweet Daruma: A Japan Satire, New York; Lincoln; Shanghai: iUniverse, Inc., →ISBN, pages 61–62:
  • There are lots of women in their 30s and older who truly dread being called “obasan.” If it hasn’t happened already, then it could happen any second.2011, Yuri Kageyama, The New and Selected Yuri: Writing From Peeling Till Now, Ishmael Reed Publishing Company/Xlibris, →ISBN, pages...
  • “Obasan, not now.” CDI Jones was unduly rude.2020, M. David Scoble, Zach Tragic in Forgotten Tokyo: A Near-Future Bad Luck Thriller, Moogi and Wil Books:

Forms of obasan

pluralobasans

Origin of obasan

From Japanese 小母さん (obasan).

Questions about obasan

What does obasan mean?
Obasan means a Japanese middle-aged woman.
How do you use obasan in a sentence?
The boys resist the Japanese names by which the obasans of the camp address them as willfully as they renounce any identification with the fragmented body of the aged grandfather.
What part of speech is obasan?
Obasan is a noun.
What is the plural of obasan?
The plural of obasan is obasans.

Words near obasan in the dictionary

  1. Obansawin
  2. Obanvale
  3. Obara
  4. Obaras
  5. obas
  6. obasan
  7. obasans
  8. obaship
  9. obaships
  10. Obata
  11. obatoclax

Source and license

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