shakuhachi

sha·ku·ha·chi
S1H4A1K5U1H4A1C3H4I1
/ʃɑkuˈhɑt͡ʃiː/

noun

A Japanese flute which is tuned to a pentatonic scale and is end-blown like a recorder instead of being held transversely like the Western transverse flute.

OriginJapanese 尺八 →
UncommonScrabble 25
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Meanings

nounshakuhachi (plural shakuhachis)

plural shakuhachis

  1. entertainmentA Japanese flute which is tuned to a pentatonic scale and is end-blown like a recorder instead of being held transversely like the Western transverse flute.

    Sampled shakuhachi sounds on the E-mu Emulator II were heard in the 1980s in TV ads and also appeared prominently in popular songs, as in the opening section of Peter Gabriel's 1986 “Sledgehammer,”[…]

    2019, W. Anthony Sheppard, Extreme Exoticism: Japan in the American Musical Imagination, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 419

Origin

  1. Japanese尺八
  2. Englishshakuhachi

Borrowed from Japanese 尺八 (しゃくはち, shakuhachi), from 尺 (tsyhek, an archaic measure of length approximately equal to 30 centimeters) + 八 (peat, “eight”), corresponding to the standard length of the instrument (approximately 55 centimeters).

More words from Japanese

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Chinese Mandarin 尺八
  • 尺八 (chǐbā)flute
Japanese 尺八
  • 尺八flute
Cite this entry
APA

shakuhachi. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shakuhachi

MLA

“shakuhachi.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shakuhachi. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shakuhachi,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shakuhachi.

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