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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

ninja.

One trained in ninjutsu, especially one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈnɪnd͡ʒə/UK, US
  1. One trained in ninjutsu, especially one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.

    historical
    He used to work in the Japanese agency as a ninja.
  2. One who very skillful, considered similar to the historical ninja, especially in covert or stealthy operation.

    figuratively
  3. One who very skillful, considered similar to the historical ninja, especially in covert or stealthy operation. A notional draconian arm of a corporation (originally Nintendo), tasked with dealing with individuals that infringe on its rights or do not comply with its regulations.

    figuratively · in-plural · slang
  4. One who very skillful, considered similar to the historical ninja, especially in covert or stealthy operation. A programmer or tech worker, particularly one skilled in a particular programming language or environment; used especially in job adverts.

    dated · figuratively · informal
  5. One who is considered to resemble the historical ninja in some way.

    figuratively
  6. One who is considered to resemble the historical ninja in some way. An amateur private miner in Mongolia.

    figuratively · historical · slang
  7. Synonym of nigga, used as a friendly term of address.

    euphemistic
  8. Synonym of nigga, used as a friendly term of address. Synonym of man; used as a friendly term of address.

    euphemistic
    What up, my ninja!
  9. Synonym of nigger.

    ethnic · euphemistic · slur
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Japanese 忍者 (ninja), of uncertain derivation but with an underlying sense of secret or hidden person. Popularized in Japanese by manga after World War II and in English by the 1980 novel The Ninja by Eric Van Lustbader and the 1981 movie Enter the Ninja Noun sense 3.1 (“Mongolian miner”) arose from the supposed resemblance of the bowls used to wash ore with mercury to the shells of the main characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Juggalo slang sense arose via influence from AAVE nigga.

adj/ˈnɪnd͡ʒə/UK, US
  1. Fast and sneaky.

    informal · not-comparable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Japanese 忍者 (ninja), of uncertain derivation but with an underlying sense of secret or hidden person. Popularized in Japanese by manga after World War II and in English by the 1980 novel The Ninja by Eric Van Lustbader and the 1981 movie Enter the Ninja Noun sense 3.1 (“Mongolian miner”) arose from the supposed resemblance of the bowls used to wash ore with mercury to the shells of the main characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Juggalo slang sense arose via influence from AAVE nigga.

verb/ˈnɪnd͡ʒə/UK, US
  1. To act or move like a ninja, particularly with regard to a combination of speed, power, and stealth.

    ambitransitive
  2. to beat someone to a post; to make the same reply just before the other party finishes typing, making their response redundant.

    Internet
    When I hit post, I saw that Blue Emu had ninja'd me, so I just deleted my reply.
  3. To claim an item through abuse of game mechanics.

    Internet · slang
    That damn warrior ninja'd an epic-quality wand even though he can't even use it!
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from Japanese 忍者 (ninja), of uncertain derivation but with an underlying sense of secret or hidden person. Popularized in Japanese by manga after World War II and in English by the 1980 novel The Ninja by Eric Van Lustbader and the 1981 movie Enter the Ninja Noun sense 3.1 (“Mongolian miner”) arose from the supposed resemblance of the bowls used to wash ore with mercury to the shells of the main characters from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Juggalo slang sense arose via influence from AAVE nigga.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.