variants:
or less commonly hari-kari
Definition of hara-kiri
1
: ritual suicide by disembowelment practiced by the Japanese samurai or formerly decreed by a court in lieu of the death penalty
2
: suicide sense 1b
Test Your Vocabulary
Great Words for Scrabble
-
- Which of the following Q-without-U words means the number five in cards or dice?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?
TAKE THE QUIZ
A daily challenge for crossword fanatics.
TAKE THE QUIZLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share hara-kiri
Time Traveler for hara-kiri
The first known use of hara-kiri was in 1840
See more words from the same year