seppuku

/sɛˈpuː.kuː/

//sɛˈpuː.kuː// noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"seppuku" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“seppuku” is uncommon English (frequency #67,032 among 6,566 “S” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#67,032
frequency rank, English
6,566
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 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.

Corpus desk

Index EN-seppuku · seppuku · English

seppuku · rank #67,032 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #67,032
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,566
  • PHOTO-FINISH Seiji

Nearest frequency peer: Seiji (-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.

Long-tail ranks near “seppuku”

Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter

corpus weight

What this shows Long-tail view: where “seppuku” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for seppuku
PropertyValue
Headwordseppuku
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/sɛˈpuː.kuː/
Letters7
Frequency rank#67,032
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “seppuku” in English

Word frequency stretches from the small set of words we reach for constantly (left) out to the long tail barely used once in a while (right).seppukufalls in this rarity band:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Rare peers in the same band: “Seiji” (#67,031), “Sepulveda” (#67,034), “scrounge” (#67,029). Among 6,566 “S” headwords, “seppuku” is #67,032. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

seppuku is uncommon English at frequency #67,032 among 6,566 “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

  1. 1
    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.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how seppuku appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. “I feel like the only solution is pretty clear,” he said during one online news program in late 2021. “In the end, isn’t it mass suicide and mass ‘seppuku’ of the elderly?” […] At a panel hosted by Globis, a Japanese graduate business school, Dr. Narita told the audience that “if this can become a Japanese society where people like you all commit seppuku…

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

hara-kiri

This word in other languages

Seppuku(Deutsch)

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

How do you spell "seppuku"?
"seppuku" is spelled S-E-P-P-U-K-U. The IPA pronunciation is /sɛˈpuː.kuː/.
What does "seppuku" mean?
As a noun, "seppuku" means: 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.
How do you pronounce "seppuku"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "seppuku" is /sɛˈpuː.kuː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "seppuku"?
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). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar English words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "seppuku", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

scarily#67,022Shibata#67,042Santoro#67,013slumdog#67,053

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list