gaiji

G2A1I1J8I1

noun

A Japanese character that is valid in a given writing system but not included in the present font and/or character encoding, and which therefore is displayed using an additional mechanism. Mutually distinct from tofu and from mojibake.

OriginJapanese 外字 →
Scrabble 13
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

noungaiji (plural gaiji)
  1. A Japanese character that is valid in a given writing system but not included in the present font and/or character encoding, and which therefore is displayed using an additional mechanism. Mutually distinct from tofu and from mojibake.

Origin

  1. Japanese外字
  2. Englishgaiji

Borrowed from Japanese 外字, literally "external characters".

More words from Japanese

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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