katsu
"katsu" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“katsu” is uncommon English (frequency #67,566 among 1,236 “K” headwords), classed as an interjection. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #67,566
- frequency rank, English
- 1,236
- “K” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A word shouted out in Zen Buddhism (as well as other sects of Buddhism), and in East Asian martial arts schools, used to help focus the energy (気 (ki)), and thereby induce an enlightened state.
Corpus desk
Index EN-katsu · katsu · English
katsu · rank #67,566 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #67,566
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,236
- PHOTO-FINISH Kaw
Nearest frequency peer: Kaw (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “katsu”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- kaji
kaji
32,440 corpus weight
- katsu
katsu
32,435 corpus weight
- Kaw
Kaw
32,434 corpus weight
- KCL
KCL
32,433 corpus weight
- Kennington
Kennington
32,431 corpus weight
- Kogi
Kogi
32,428 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “katsu” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | katsu |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #67,566 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “katsu” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
katsu is uncommon English at frequency #67,566 among 1,236 “K” headwords, classed as aninterjection. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A word shouted out in Zen Buddhism (as well as other sects of Buddhism), and in East Asian martial arts schools, used to help focus the energy (気 (ki)), and thereby induce an enlightened state.".
No misspelling variants are generated for katsu in our index, a sign its spelling follows regular English conventions. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Japanese 喝 (katsu). The correct English form is katsu, spelled K-A-T-S-U.
Definition
- 1A word shouted out in Zen Buddhism (as well as other sects of Buddhism), and in East Asian martial arts schools, used to help focus the energy (気 (ki)), and thereby induce an enlightened state.
Etymology
From Japanese 喝 (katsu).
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "katsu", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
What to do next
You've looked up "katsu". Here's where to go from here.
- Usage frequency rank #67,566 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "K" letter cohort. K–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.