roshi

R1O1S1H4I1

noun

An elderly and revered Buddhist monk.

OriginJapanese 老師 →
UncommonScrabble 8
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Meanings

nounroshi (plural roshis)

plural roshis

  1. An elderly and revered Buddhist monk.

    A good abbot or roshi couldn't care less about power, and a truly enlightened philosopher-prince like the emperor Asoka of ancient India would become more interested in compassion for the suffering of humanity than in power over the states of the world.

    1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 227

Origin

  1. Japanese老師
  2. Englishroshi

Borrowed from Japanese 老師 (rōshi).

More words from Japanese

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

shiro
Cite this entry
APA

roshi. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/roshi

MLA

“roshi.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/roshi. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “roshi,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/roshi.

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