ninja

[ nin-juh ]
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noun,plural nin·ja, nin·jas.
  1. (often initial capital letter) a member of a feudal Japanese society of mercenary agents highly trained in martial arts and stealth (ninjutsu ), who were hired for covert purposes ranging from espionage to sabotage and assassination.

  2. a person who is expert or highly skilled in a specified field or activity (often used attributively): marketing ninjas; ninja programmers.

verb (used with object)nin·jaed, nin·ja·ing.
  1. Also nin·ja loot .Slang. (in a video game) to unfairly claim (valuable items or loot) from a treasure pool by taking them from a kill made by another player or bypassing the agreed-upon system for loot distribution in a group: When I ninja an epic item, I log off the server before anyone even realizes what happened.

Origin of ninja

1
First recorded in 1960–65; from Japanese, equivalent to nin- “endure” + -ja, combining form of -sha “person, agent” (from Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese rěn + zhě )

Words Nearby ninja

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How to use ninja in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for ninja

ninja

/ (ˈnɪndʒə) /


nounplural -ja or -jas
  1. (sometimes capital) a person skilled in ninjutsu, a Japanese martial art characterized by stealthy movement and camouflage

Origin of ninja

1
Japanese

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012