Karaoke means empty orchestra (空オケ)

Karaoke (カラオケ) is half Japanese and half English: 空 (kara), empty, plus オケ (oke), short for オーケストラ (ookesutora), orchestra. An empty orchestra: the band is all there, but the singer’s part is missing. That part is up to you.

What 空 says

空 means empty, and also sky. It’s 穴, a hole or hollow, on top, with 工 underneath for the sound. Emptiness is the core idea, and you can think of the sky as the biggest empty space of all.

空 has several readings, and the word decides which:

• から (kara), empty: 空っぽ (karappo), completely empty, and karaoke.
• そら (sora), the sky.
• くう (kuu) in compound words: 空港 (kuukou), airport, and 空気 (kuuki), air.
• あく (aku), to become free or empty: 席が空いている (seki ga aite iru), the seat is free.

From the studio to the bar

Karaoke started as music-industry jargon. A recording of the backing music with the vocals left off, the kind singers used to rehearse with or record over, was called カラオケ: an orchestra with nothing in it. In 1971, machines that let bar customers sing along to such tapes appeared in Kobe, and the word moved from the studio to the bar. Several people have claimed to have built the first machine, among them Shigeichi Negishi in 1967 and Daisuke Inoue in 1971, and the question is still disputed.

Japanese likes to clip long loanwords, so オーケストラ became オケ, just as パーソナルコンピューター became パソコン (pasokon), a PC. And Japanese speakers say the word ka-ra-o-ke, four short, even syllables.

Another English word with 空

Karate (空手) uses the same kanji: 空 (kara), empty, plus 手 (te), hand. The name was once written 唐手, “Chinese hand”, which is also read karate. In 1936 a meeting of karate masters in Naha, Okinawa, officially adopted 空手, “empty hand”: fighting with nothing in your hands.

How to use it

• カラオケに行こう！

  Karaoke ni ikou!

  Let's go to karaoke!

• カラオケで何を歌う？

  Karaoke de nani o utau?

  What are you going to sing at karaoke?

• 冷蔵庫が空っぽだ。

  Reizouko ga karappo da.

  The fridge is empty.

• この席、空いていますか。

  Kono seki, aite imasu ka.

  Is this seat free?

• 空がきれいだね。

  Sora ga kirei da ne.

  The sky looks lovely, doesn't it?

• In Japan, karaoke usually means a private room. Friends book a room at a カラオケボックス (karaoke bokkusu) rather than singing on a stage in front of strangers.
• ヒトカラ (hitokara), from 一人 (hitori), alone, plus カラオケ, is karaoke on your own.
• The kanji spelling 空オケ exists, but it’s rare. The word is almost always written カラオケ, in katakana.

Words with the same kanji

Remember it

An orchestra plays to an empty (空) stage, waiting. Pick up the microphone and fill the space.

The kanji in this lesson

Tap Draw it to watch the stroke order. Numbers show where each stroke starts.

Draw it

Sources

• Wiktionary via Kaikki: カラオケ
• Kotobank (Nipponica, Britannica Japan): カラオケ
• Wikipedia: Karate (etymology)
• Wikipedia: Karaoke

Written by the Sumi team with the help of AI, then checked against JMdict and KANJIDIC2. How we write lessons. Spotted a mistake? Email brightsmilesolutionssupport@gmail.com.