jabisen

J8A1B3I1S1E1N1

A form of jamisen — An archaic stringed instrument of Japanese origin, traditionally made from snakeskin and characteristic of the Ryukyu islands; it is the ancestor of the shamisen.

OriginJapanese 蛇皮線 →
Scrabble 16
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

nounjabisen (plural jabisens)

plural jabisens

  1. alternativeentertainmentAlternative spelling of jamisen.

    Introduced into China from Central Asia and thence to Ryūkyū in the very late 14th century, the jabisen gives a special flavor to the folk culture of Okinawa.

    1973 June, “OKINAWA, The Islands That Fortune Overlooked”, in The East, volume 9, number 5, Tokyo: East Publications, →ISSN, page 48, columns 1–2

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
shamisen

Origin

  1. Japanese蛇皮線
  2. Englishjabisen

From Japanese 蛇皮線 (jabisen, literally “snakeskin strings”).

More words from Japanese

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

basenji
Cite this entry
APA

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

MLA

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

Chicago

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

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