Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

jan ken po

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.70 in modern English

Syllables
jan ken po
IPA
21
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
7
Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

rock paper scissors

Etymology

Borrowed from Hawaiian Creole jan ken po, from Japanese じゃんけんぽん (jankenpon), from Japanese じゃんけん (janken). Doublet of janken.

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: じゃんけんぽん, じゃんけん

Inflected Forms

jan ken pos (plural)

Synonyms

janken paper scissors stone roshambo scissors paper rock scissors paper stone

Questions

What does jan ken po mean?
rock paper scissors
Where does jan ken po come from?
It is traced to Japanese.

How to pronounce jan ken po

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “jan ken po”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling () so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “jan ken po”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “jan ken po” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.