Skip to main content
haiku

haiku

18 7.1
A very short Japanese poem of three lines often about nature
  • noun
  • /ˈhaɪku/
  • Literature
translation icon : haiku
  • In the poetry class, we learned to write our own haiku using the 5-7-5 syllable structure.
  • write a haiku
  • Haiku poetry
  • compose a haiku

I have a friend who's a poet, but he writes haiku, OK, Which is an entirely different.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • It's a kind of a poem called "Haiku".

  • I wrote little haiku poems.

  • So then today I wrote a haiku for the day.

  • Maybe you could... write a haiku to express your feelings.

  • In groups of three, write a haiku or short verse to go with the picture.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Here, students draw on their knowledge of the haiku and its form to create a class haiku (see Figure 4).

    Academic text (2015)
  • We can all write emails and haikus better, right?

  • I want to read the top five haikus that the contest that received the most votes.

  • Sixth-grade music teacher Robert Jares describes a Japanese haiku performance as one way of integrating literature with music.

    Academic text (1993)
  • The students write a Japanese poem, called a haiku, and then compose an ostinato using a percussion instrument.

    Academic text (1993)

How Long

epic
  • Literature
44 5.5
sonnet
  • Literature
29 6.2
limerick
  • Literature
20 6.1
haiku
  • Literature
18 7.1
epigram
  • Literature
3 8.0

Surface Forms

haiku singular
haikus plural

Etymology

Haiku comes from the Japanese haikai ('playful verse') and ku ('verse' or 'poem'). So, a haiku is literally a very short poem of three lines that often shows one clear moment in nature.