Meaning of yōkai | Babel Free

Definitions

Any of various supernatural monsters, sometimes shapeshifters, in Japanese folklore.

Japanese

Examples

“Even today, visitors to Japan can see just how interwoven the nation’s culture is with its reverence toward the supernatural or unexplainable. This ranges from whimsically animated spirit worlds on film to the eccentric monsters and ghosts that feature prominently in contemporary artwork, to the yōkai woven into the tales of post-modernist writers.”

“Japanese Twitter is alive with images of a duck-billed mermaid yōkai from Edo-era folklore with the supposed power to see off the coronavirus”

“Ryōtora passed under a torii arch, leaning semi-drunkenly to one side and propping itself up on a nearby tree. It looked like the work of time and weather, not yōkai malice.”

“Nobody knows more about these yōkais than you. You have the police experience, and you took care of a giant one without any human casualties.”

“Earl didn’t know all the details about what that type of yokais’ powers were, her mother kept the family secrets close to the vest, and he knew even less about which of those powers had gotten passed onto her half-human offspring.”

CEFR level