Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A system of basic body positioning and movement exercises, as in karate or judo.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun martial arts A sequence of positions and movements used in the practice of many martial arts.
  • noun Abbreviation of kata thermometer.
  • noun in combination A drop (in temperature).
  • adverb In a direction analogous to down, but along the additional axis added by the fourth dimension.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Japanese, style, traditional form.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Japanese  ("pattern, model"). In English use since the 1950s.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Ancient Greek κατά ("downwards"). Compare cata-.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word kata.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Greek Down.

    July 9, 2008

  • “A kata is an exercise in karate where you repeat a form many, many times, making little improvements in each.�?

    Code Kata

    January 26, 2009

  • When I was a karate white belt, I won a gold medal for kata.

    January 26, 2009

  • Sounds a lot like editing. ;-)

    January 27, 2009