Meaning

Primary

Harakiri

Alternative

Ritual Suicide

Word Type

noun

Explanation

If your abdomen is getting cut, and you're the one doing the cutting, there's a good chance you're committing harakiri, a form of ritual suicide.

腹切り sounds blunt and colloquial compared to the more formal 切腹. Kind of like you're just saying the words "belly cutting" — not very refined! This is often the case with synonym pairs like this: the one with kun'yomi readings will sound more casual, while the one with on'yomi readings will sound more formal.

Reading

はらきり
  • Kyoko
    (Tokyo accent, female)
  • Kenichi
    (Tokyo accent, male)

Explanation

The readings come from and 切る. If you're lucky, you already know the word harakiri as it's made its way into English as well.

Context

Context Sentences

大名はその下級武士に腹切りを命じた。

The feudal lord ordered the low-grade samurai to perform ritual suicide.

外国人に「腹切り」という言葉の方が広まったのは、響きにインパクトあったからかもね。

The word "harakiri" might have spread more among foreigners because the sound of it has a strong impact.

腹切りって言葉、なんだか切腹よりも生々しい感じがするよね。

The word harakiri feels somehow more visceral than seppuku, doesn’t it?

侍の腹切りをテーマにした映画は来週公開されます。

The movie based on samurai harakiri will be released next week.

Kanji Composition