Word.ws English Dictionary

senpai

UK/ˈsɛnpaɪ/

senpai noun: the senior member of a group in Japanese arts; a mentor.

Noun

senpai (plural senpais or senpai)

  1. The senior member of a group in Japanese arts; a mentor.
    • Senpai are also known to intercede on behalf of their kohai to explain their mistakes.1974, Thomas P. Rohlen, For Harmony and Strength: Japanese White-Collar Organization in Anthropological Perspective, University of California Press, →ISBN, page 131
    • They usually act as a mentor for kōhai, although in reality not all senpai are as generous or genuine about mentoring junior colleagues.2022, Marc Helmold, Ayşe Küçük Yılmaz, Triant Flouris, Thomas Winner, Violeta Cvetkoska, Tracy Dathe, Lean Management, Kaizen, Kata and Keiretsu: Best-Practice Examples and Industry Insights from...
  2. (slang) An upperclassman or elder student, in the context of Japan.

Antonyms of senpai

Forms of senpai

pluralsenpais
pluralsenpai
alternative formsempai

Origin of senpai

Borrowed from Japanese 先(せん)輩(ぱい) (senpai). Doublet of sunbae.

Questions about senpai

What does senpai mean?
Senpai means the senior member of a group in Japanese arts; a mentor.
What part of speech is senpai?
Senpai is a noun.
How do you pronounce senpai?
Senpai is pronounced /ˈsɛnpaɪ/ (UK).
What is the plural of senpai?
The plural of senpai is senpais.

Words near senpai in the dictionary

  1. senotherapeutics
  2. senotherapy
  3. Senoufo
  4. Senoufos
  5. Senozan
  6. senpai
  7. senpais
  8. senr.
  9. senrs.
  10. senryu
  11. senryus

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: senpai (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-senpai.wav.

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