masu
/ˈmasuː/noun
masu is a noun meaning “A plant, Hedysarum alpinum, whose edible root is consumed by the Inuit of Alaska” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is spelled M-A-S-U, and it appears about once in every 21 million words in written English (wordfreq, 2021 data).
What does masu mean?
noun
- 1
A plant, Hedysarum alpinum, whose edible root is consumed by the Inuit of Alaska.
- 2
A square wooden box, originally used to measure rice in Japan during the feudal period.
- 3
masu salmon (Oncorhynchus masou)
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you pronounce masu?
- UK /ˈmasuː/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How common is masu?
Masu appears about once in every 21 million words in written English, the 138,319th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Masu in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense square wooden box:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | masu |
| German | Masu |
| Portuguese | masu |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does masu come from?
Borrowed from Inupiaq masu.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).