seppuku
/sɛˈpuː.kuː/
"seppuku" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“seppuku” is uncommon English (frequency #67,032 among 54,294 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #67,032
- frequency rank, English
- 54,294
- “S” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment using a blade, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame, as a means of protest, or, formerly, as a method of capital punishment.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | seppuku |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /sɛˈpuː.kuː/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #67,032 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “seppuku” sits in English frequency
Rare enough to double-check
seppuku is uncommon English at frequency #67,032 among 54,294 “S” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /sɛˈpuː.kuː/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment using a blade, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame, as a means of protest, or, formerly, as a method of capital punishment.".
seppuku doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. No confusable counterpart is on file for this word, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.
Etymologically, the entry records: Borrowed from Japanese 切腹 (seppuku), from Middle Chinese 切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”). Compare Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹) and Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù). The correct English form is seppuku, spelled S-E-P-P-U-K-U.
Definition
- 1A form of ritual suicide by disembowelment using a blade, practiced by Japanese samurai, especially to rid oneself of shame, as a means of protest, or, formerly, as a method of capital punishment.
Etymology
Borrowed from Japanese 切腹 (seppuku), from Middle Chinese 切 (t͡set, “to cut”) + 腹 (pjuwk, “belly”). Compare Cantonese 切腹 (cit³ fuk¹) and Mandarin 切腹 (qiēfù).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
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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Using “seppuku”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is S-E-P-P-U-K-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /sɛˈpuː.kuː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Other uncommon English words near this rank
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.