Warrior in Japanese

Warrior in Japanese is 戦士, romanised as senshi and written in hiragana as せんし. 武士 (bushi) is the technically correct term for the warrior class; samurai (侍) was originally a job title meaning one who serves. 戦士 is the contemporary word used in fiction and sports contexts.

戦 means "war, battle, fight" (13 strokes; on'yomi: sen; kun'yomi: tataka(u), ikusa). 士 means "warrior, scholar, gentleman" (3 strokes; on'yomi: shi; kun'yomi: —). Together the word reads as senshi.

戦士 (senshi) is the standard form: 武士 (bushi) is the technically correct term for the warrior class; samurai (侍) was originally a job title meaning one who serves. 戦士 is the contemporary word used in fiction and sports contexts.. 武士 (bushi) is different — historical Japanese warrior class, the formal term for samurai. Pick based on the exact nuance you want to convey.

戦士 is the modern, broad word for warrior and works for any combat or fighting-spirit context. 武士 specifically evokes the historical samurai class and is a stronger cultural reference. For the chivalric code itself, 武士道 (bushidou) is the famous three-character compound. Pick based on whether you want general warrior-spirit (戦士) or historical Japanese martial tradition (武士).

In hiragana, warrior is written as せんし, which represents the sound senshi. The kanji form 戦士 is used in everyday writing; hiragana is used when the kanji is too difficult, for emphasis, or in children's text.