haiku
n. countablen. a short Japanese poem that has three lines. The first and third lines have five syllables, and the middle line has seven.
n. a traditional Japanese poetic form consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables respectively. Often focuses on imagery from nature or a specific moment in time.
She wrote a haiku about the falling leaves.
The teacher asked the students to write a haiku to practice counting syllables in English words.
While traditional Japanese haiku often include a seasonal reference word, modern English versions sometimes prioritize the syllable structure over these classical thematic requirements.
Borrowed from Japanese 俳(はい)句(く) (haiku), from Middle Chinese 俳 (beaj, “paralleled [writing]”) + 句 (kɨoᴴ, “line”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
The plural can be either 'haiku' or 'haikus'.
Last updated May 9, 2026