ninja

A romanized borrowing of Japanese 忍者 (ninja), popularized within Japanese by manga after World War II and in English by Eric Van Lustbader's 1980 novel The Ninja and the 1981 movie Enter the Ninja, of uncertain derivation but with an underlying sense of secret or hidden person.

The “Mongolian miner” sense arose from the supposed resemblance of the bowls used to wash ore with mercury to the shells of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The Juggalo slang sense arose via influence from AAVE nigga.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈnɪnd͡ʒə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪnd͡ʒə

ninja (plural ninja or ninjas)

1. (martial arts) A person trained in ninjutsu, especially (historical) one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.
   • 1964, Ian Fleming, You Only Live Twice, page 126:

     The men... are now learning to be ninja or ‘stealers-in’.

   • 2000 October 15, Denver Post, page 10:

     Spies prowled Japan from the seventh century, but the secretive ninja left few written records.

2. (figurative) A person considered similarly skillful to the historical ninja, especially in covert or stealthy operation.
   • 1972 September 11, Newsweek, Int'l ed., p. 28:

     For months the Japanese spoke of national-security adviser Henry Kissinger as a ninja—the magician of Japanese legends who performs supernatural acts and practices sorcery.

   • 1987 August 3, Business Week, page 40:

     Other bankers are dubbing themselves ninja, modern-day descendants of the superspies of 17th century samurai houses.

   • 1991 August 4, The Guardian, page 13:

     Young banking and securities firms executives (nicknamed the ninja...) are especially assigned to cultivate relations with the finance ministry. Only verbal instructions are ever given to the ninja.

   • 2017, Darren Jones, JavaScript: Novice to Ninja‎, SitePoint, →ISBN:

     A JavaScript ninja should write lots of code and build things!

   1. (video games, fandom slang, in the plural) 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.
      • 2024 January 23, @tetsuo_88, Twitter‎:

        I had TOTK running on my pc 2 weeks before it released on the switch and I'm still here. They can send the ninjas, I'm waiting.

      • 2024 March 5, @HikikomoriMedia, Twitter‎:

        Nintendo ninjas were inside the discord, watching. Now all the Yuzu devs have turned over all electronic devices, websites, logs...

3. (figurative) A person considered to look like the historical ninja in some way, including (historical slang) an amateur private miner in Mongolia.
   • 1998 December 28, Chicago Tribune, page 1:

     He immediately suspected they were ninjas because, he said, they were dressed in black and wore masks, trademarks of the mysterious assassins who have been sowing terror across East Java in recent months.

   • 2003 February 21, Business Times::

     Yen buyers were more subdued... fearing the Bank of Japan's new strategy of covert intervention to buy U.S. dollars through agent banks—described by some as the central bank's ninjas or secret agents.

   • 2007 October 10, Jonathan Watts, “Prospectors and 'Ninja' Miners Flood to East's El Dorado”, in The Guardian:

     Many were former nomads, but as the gold rush gathered pace, students, vets and taxi drivers from Ulan Bator joined the ninjas, not just in Ogoomor but in other gold towns across the country.

4. (African-American Vernacular) Synonym of nigga as a friendly term of address.
   • 2003, Steven Ayromlooi, Leprechaun: Back 2 tha Hood, spoken by LEPRECHAUN:

     What's up, ninjas?

   1. (Juggalo slang) Synonym of man as a friendly term of address.

      What up, my ninja!

• (person trained in ninjutsu): shinobi, assassin, spy
• (figurative covert agent): killer, spy, superspy, magician, secret agent

• (person trained in ninjutsu): kunoichi

• ninja loan, NINJA loan
• ninjutsu, ninjitsu
• ninpo

ninja (not comparable)

1. Of or related to ninjas in their various senses.
   • 1966 October, Black Belt, page 5:

     The July 1966 issue had a cartoon concerning a Ninja dojo.

   • 1971 May, Black Belt, page 40:

     One of the most controversial characters in Japan's current ninja boom is a stout but surprisingly agile man in his mid-forties named Norihiro Iga-Hakuyusai.

   • 1995 August 28, Time, page 36:

     […] Federal agents in body armor and black ninja uniforms […]

   • 2002 August 31, The Guardian, page 2:

     As they broke camp, the teenage son practised his Ninja moves with a tentpole.

ninja (third-person singular simple present ninjas, present participle ninjaing, simple past and past participle ninjaed or ninja'd)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To act or move like a ninja, particularly with regard to a combination of speed, power, and stealth.
   • 1992, Iain Banks, Crow Road, page 160:

     I leapt up, ninja'd over to Gav's bed and wheeched the duvet off.

   • 1996 April 23, Rocky Mountain News, page 5:

     In our dark house we were ninja-ing around with water guns.

   • 2002 August 29, Los Angeles Times, page 48:

     I ninja'd my way into Kung Fu Records to hang out with those merry pranksters the Vandals.

2. (Internet slang) Synonym of preempt: to supersede and invalidate a response by posting immediately before it.

   When I hit post, I saw that Blue Emu had ninja'd me, so I just deleted my reply.

3. (online gaming slang) To claim an item through abuse of game mechanics.

   That damn warrior ninja'd an epic-quality wand even though he can't even use it!

• “ninja, n. and adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2003.
• “ninja, v.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 2003.

• Jin'an, Jinan

Borrowed from Japanese 忍者.

• IPA^(key): /ˈnindja/

ninja c (singular definite ninjaen, plural indefinite ninjaer)

1. ninja
   • 2016, Kristoffer Jacob Andersen, Lord Kenshus forbandelse, Tellerup A/S, →ISBN:

     „Ninjaer er blot simple spioner.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2014, Lise Bidstrup, Shinobi #5: Ninja-genfærd, Tellerup A/S, →ISBN:

     Disse ninjaer var uhyggelige, tågeagtige skikkelser.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2016, Anders Matthesen, Ternet Ninja, Rosinante & Co, →ISBN:

     Aske kunne se syningerne i ninjaens dragt.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • 2002, Kejserens atlas, Gyldendal A/S, →ISBN, page 184:

     „Nattergalegulvet", der sladrede om ninjaens trin, blev et kuriosum.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• “ninja” in Den Danske Ordbog

From Japanese 忍者 (ninja).

• IPA^(key): /ˈninjɑ/, [ˈninjɑ̝]
• Rhymes: -injɑ
• Syllabification^(key): nin‧ja

ninja

1. ninja

• “ninja”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

Borrowed from Japanese 忍者 (ninja).

• IPA^(key): [ˈnɪnd͡ʒa]
• Hyphenation: nin‧ja

ninja (first-person possessive ninjaku, second-person possessive ninjamu, third-person possessive ninjanya)

1. (historical) ninja, a person trained in ninjutsu, especially one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period.
2. unidentified assassin with black clothes and mask

• “ninja” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

From Japanese 忍者 (ninja).

• IPA^(key): /ˈnin.d͡ʒa/
• Rhymes: -indʒa
• Hyphenation: nìn‧ja

ninja m (invariable)

1. (historical) ninja

ninja

1. Rōmaji transcription of にんじゃ

• ninpō
• onmitsu
• Oniwaban

Unadapted borrowing from English ninja.

• IPA^(key): /ˈɲin.d͡ʑa/, /ˈɲin.d͡ʐa/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ind͡ʑa, -ind͡ʐa
• Syllabification: nin‧ja

ninja m pers (indeclinable)[1]

1. (espionage, historical, martial arts) ninja (person trained in ninjutsu, especially one used for espionage, assassination, and other tasks requiring stealth during Japan's shogunate period)

   Coordinate term: ninjutsu

or

Indeclinable.

• ninja in Polish dictionaries at PWN
• ninja in PWN's encyclopedia

from Japanese 忍者 (ninja).

• Hyphenation: nin‧ja

ninja m or f by sense (plural ninjas)

1. (martial arts, historical) ninja (person trained in stealth, espionage, assassination and ninjutsu)

• ninya

• Rhymes: -inʝa

ninja m or f by sense (plural ninjas)

1. (martial arts, historical) ninja (person trained in stealth, espionage, assassination and ninjutsu)

• “ninja”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014

Borrowed from Japanese 忍者 (ninja).

ninja c

1. a ninja

• ninja in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)

From French ninja, from Japanese 忍者 (ninja).

• IPA^(key): /nin.ʒa/

ninja (definite accusative ninjayı, plural ninjalar)

1. ninja