mojibake

mo·ji·ba·ke
M3O1J8I1B3A1K5E1
UK/ˌməʊd͡ʒiˈbɑːki/UK/-keɪ/US/ˌmoʊd͡ʒiˈbɑki/

noun

Corrupt characters or letters, especially resulting from being displayed or transferred through an inappropriate character set or encoding.

OriginJapanese 文字化け →
Scrabble 23
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Meanings

nounmojibake (uncountable)
  1. uncountablecomputingCorrupt characters or letters, especially resulting from being displayed or transferred through an inappropriate character set or encoding.

    Alas, you'll even see “text” files where some lines have one encoding but other lines have different encodings. You are guaranteed to see mojibake.

    2012, Tom Christiansen, brian d foy, Larry Wall, Jon Orwant, Programming Perl, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 285
    1 more example

    The space behind the door is filled with mojibake, more specifically, a mojibake that is made of pieces of my memory. “Why? Why do I like girls?” I hear a younger voice of mine echoing in the room.

    2021, Lydia Chen, When the Flowers Withered, Singapore: Partridge Publishing, →ISBN

Origin

  1. Japanese文字化け
  2. Englishmojibake

Borrowed from Japanese 文字化け (mojibake), from 文字 (moji, “character”) + 化ける (bakeru, “to transform, take a different form”, generally in a negative way).

More words from Japanese

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Arabic مُوجِيبَاكِي
  • مُوجِيبَاكِي (mujibākī)corrupt characters or letters
Bulgarian маймуница
  • маймуница (majmunica)corrupt characters or letters
Chinese Cantonese 亂碼 /乱码
  • 亂碼 /乱码 (lyun⁶ maa⁵)corrupt characters or letters
Chinese Mandarin 亂碼 /乱码
  • 亂碼 /乱码 (luànmǎ)corrupt characters or letters
Dutch mojibake
  • mojibakecorrupt characters or letters
Esperanto moĝibako
  • moĝibakocorrupt characters or letters
Finnish mojibake
  • mojibakecorrupt characters or letters
French mojibake
  • mojibakecorrupt characters or letters
German Mojibake, Krähenfüße
  • Mojibakecorrupt characters or letters
  • Krähenfüßecorrupt characters or letters
  • Zeichensalatcorrupt characters or letters
Hebrew סינית
  • סינית (sinít)corrupt characters or letters
Hungarian modzsibake, betűszemét
  • modzsibakecorrupt characters or letters
  • betűszemétcorrupt characters or letters
  • krikszkrakszcorrupt characters or letters
Italian mojibake
  • mojibakecorrupt characters or letters
Japanese 文字化け
  • 文字化け (mojibake)corrupt characters or letters
Korean 문자 깨짐, 글자 깨짐
  • 문자 깨짐 (munja kkaejim)corrupt characters or letters
  • 글자 깨짐 (geulja kkaejim)corrupt characters or letters
  • 깨진 문자 (kkaejin munja)corrupt characters or letters
  • 깨진 글자 (kkaejin geulja)corrupt characters or letters
Norwegian Bokmål tegnsalat
  • tegnsalatcorrupt characters or letters
Persian موجیباکه
  • موجیباکه (mojibâke)corrupt characters or letters
Polish krzaczki
  • krzaczkicorrupt characters or letters
Portuguese mojibake
  • mojibakecorrupt characters or letters
Romanian maimuțica
  • maimuțicacorrupt characters or letters
Russian модзиба́ке, бнопня́
  • модзиба́ке (modzibáke)corrupt characters or letters
  • бнопня́ (bnopnjá)corrupt characters or letters
  • бНОПНЯ́ (bNOPNJÁ)corrupt characters or letters
  • бу́ква «зю»corrupt characters or letters
  • кракозя́бра (krakozjábra)corrupt characters or letters
  • крякозя́бра (krjakozjábra)corrupt characters or letters
  • крокозя́бра (krokozjábra)corrupt characters or letters
  • закаля́ка (zakaljáka)corrupt characters or letters
  • зю́ква (zjúkva)corrupt characters or letters
Spanish mojibake
  • mojibakecorrupt characters or letters
Swedish mojibake
  • mojibakecorrupt characters or letters
Thai ภาษาต่างดาว
  • ภาษาต่างดาว (paa-sǎa-dtàang-daao)corrupt characters or letters
Ukrainian крокозя́бра
  • крокозя́бра (krokozjábra)corrupt characters or letters
Vietnamese loạn mã
  • loạn mãcorrupt characters or letters
Cite this entry
APA

mojibake. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mojibake

MLA

“mojibake.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mojibake. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mojibake,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mojibake.

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