shakuhachi

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shakuhachi

/ʃɑkuˈhɑt͡ʃiː/

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Japanese 尺八 (しゃくはち, shakuhachi), from 尺 (tsyhek, an archaic measure of length approximately equal to 30 centimeters) + 八 (peat, “eight”), corresponding to the standard length of the instrument (approximately 55 centimeters).

noun shakuhachis

A Japanese flute which is tuned to a pentatonic scale and is end-blown like a recorder instead of being held transversely like the Western transverse flute. Sampled shakuhachi sounds on the E-mu Emulator II were heard in the 1980s in TV ads and also appeared prominently in popular songs, as in the opening section of Peter Gabriel's 1986 “Sledgehammer,”[…]

Translations

Every language

noun flute

日本語	尺八
中文	尺八 chǐbā

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MLA

"shakuhachi." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/shakuhachi. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

shakuhachi. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/shakuhachi

Chicago

"shakuhachi." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/shakuhachi.

BibTeX

@misc{shakuhachi_2026,
  title = {shakuhachi},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/shakuhachi},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}