Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

maru

/ˈmɑɹu/

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: 2.88 in modern English

Syllables: maru
IPA: /ˈmɑɹu/

6

Scrabble Score

4

Letters

1

Syllables

4

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A Japanese ship, especially a merchant ship.

noun

A semi-voiced diacritic (゜) used with Japanese kana to change a /h/ to a /p/.

Colloquial

noun

A large, circular punctuation mark (。) used as a full stop in Japanese text.

name

Synonym of Lhao Vo (“a Burmish language”).

name

A Māori god of war.

name

A female given name.

Example Sentences

"the Nippon Maru"
"Intelligence Report […] It is possible that there may be an increase in the number of transports and marus."
"Does the 9th Fleet have enough marus and warships to carry two divisions of troops and their supplies to Buna?"
"four more marus fell to torpedoes"

Etymology

From Japanese 丸(まる) (maru, “circle; suffix used for ship names”).

Origin

Source language: Japanese

Word Breakdown

Root: -

Regional Pronunciation

American English: /ˈmɑɹu/
British English: /ˈmɑːɹuː/

Usage

Colloquial

Inflected Forms

marus (plural)

Phrases

Kobayashi Maru

Frequently Paired Words

nigori

Synonyms

handakuten Lhao Vo

Questions

How do you pronounce maru?: The recorded pronunciation is /ˈmɑɹu/.
What does maru mean?: A Japanese ship, especially a merchant ship.
Where does maru come from?: It is traced to Japanese.

How to pronounce maru

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