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In 1274 and 1281 Kublai Khan, the Mongol emperor of China, sent out great fleets to conquer Japan. Providential storms dispersed the fleets on both occasions and reinforced the Japanese belief that their gods would forever protect them. To the Japanese this salvation was kamikaze, “divine wind.” In World War II Japanese pilots who were willing to give up their lives to help save their country by destroying American ships were the members of a special corps named kamikaze after the storm that had saved Japan seven centuries earlier.
Synonyms
Examples of kamikaze in a Sentence
IEEE Spectrum, 10 Apr. 2024
As a kamikaze pilot, Koichi was told that his life was worth nothing and has carried that with him.
—Esther Zuckerman, New York Times, 26 Jan. 2024
The message here that kamikaze pilots who survived deserve to bear neither shame nor guilt will resonate strongly with modern audiences.
—Richard Kuipers, Variety, 22 Nov. 2023
Within 24 hours, Russia’s TASS state news agency reported two separate attacks by Ukrainian kamikaze drone boats on Russian vessels in the Black Sea.
—Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 3 Aug. 2023
Normally these drones act as spotters for Lancet kamikaze drones, which are more resistant to jamming and which carry a heavier warhead than an FPV like the Ghoul.
—David Hambling, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024
But the OpenAI board’s sudden ouster of CEO Sam Altman last week looks increasingly like a misguided kamikaze run.
—The Editorial Board, WSJ, 20 Nov. 2023
At the same time, AI kamikaze drones are becoming a staple of modern warfare, drawing tech executives into the arms race.
—Maxwell Zeff / Gizmodo, Quartz, 8 Feb. 2024
Instead, the Islamic Republic has provided Russia with kamikaze drones since mid-2022, including some 1,700 Shahed drones that year.
—Norbert Röttgen, Foreign Affairs, 22 Dec. 2023
Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2022
Models such as the Iranian Shahed-136, which Russia bought by the planeload, are capable of one-way, kamikaze-style attacks.
—Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 13 Oct. 2022
As well as their work to attach grenades to drones, Tkach and his colleagues are also taking other types of drones, and attaching explosives to them so they can be flown directly into a target in a kamikaze-style attack.
—Tom Soufi Burridge, ABC News, 10 Oct. 2022
The White House knows the term ‘loitering munition’ for drones fitted with warheads for kamikaze-style attacks, like the U.S. Switchblades supplied to Ukraine, and did not use it in the statement.
—David Hambling, Forbes, 15 July 2022
The Switchblade drone is the newest form of lethal assistance -- a small kamikaze-style drone launched from a tube that can track and attack armored targets.
—Conor Finnegan, ABC News, 16 Mar. 2022
The annexation plans were shelved, not canceled, and not in response to the Palestinians’ kamikaze-style pressure tactics.
—Adam Rasgon, New York Times, 17 Nov. 2020
On the morning of May 1, George Sherwood, a 17-year-old signalman, stood watch on the bridge as it was attacked by a kamikaze aircraft; 48 servicemen were killed or went missing, and more than a hundred others were wounded.
—New York Times, 21 May 2020
The USS Nevada also played a key role in the invasion of Okinawa, where a Japanese kamikaze attack on March 27, 1945 left 11 of the ship's crew members dead and 41 wounded.
—Stephen Smith, CBS News, 13 May 2020
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kamikaze.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near kamikaze
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“Kamikaze.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kamikaze. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.
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