Jenglish

J8E1N1G2L1I1S1H4
/ˈd͡ʒɪŋɡlɪʃ/

noun

Japanese-influenced English, especially when nonstandard or ungrammatical.

Scrabble 19

Meanings

nounJenglish (uncountable)

alternative Jinglish

  1. uncountableJapanese-influenced English, especially when nonstandard or ungrammatical.

    2001, Nancy Brown Diggs, Looking Beyond the Mask: When American Women Marry Japanese Men She also thinks that “being so close to the culture has ruined my English. I have had to choose easier words, shorter sentences, ... We call it ‘Jinglish,’ Japanese-English.”

    3 more examples

    1997, James W. Rinehart, Christopher Huxley & David Robertson, Just Another Car Factory?: Lean Production and Its Discontents That this company is half Japanese-owned is obvious. Japanese words spelled out in English (what someone referred to as “Jenglish”) are used and posted throughout the plant.

    1998, Robert Brenner & Gregory Capelo, VCR Troubleshooting & Repair Since many VCRs are designed and built in Japan, a mixture of Japanese-to-English writing style sometimes called “Japanenglish” or “Jenglish” is often found in much documentation. This makes some of the expressions difficult to understand.

    What is Jenglish (pronounced jing-lish)? It's all of the funny English in Japan that you see on signs, books, T-shirts, vending machines... it's everywhere. ... it doesn't quite have that "native English speaker" nuance.

    1999, Dan in Japan: jenglish (website)

    Synonyms: Janglish, Engrish

Synonyms & antonyms

nounJapanese-influenced English, especially when nonstandard or ungrammatical.

Origin

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with Jenglish

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Cite this entry
APA

Jenglish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Jenglish

MLA

“Jenglish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Jenglish. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Jenglish,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Jenglish.

Source: Jenglish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.