Jenga

See also: jenga

English

A Jenga tower

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Bantu [Term?]

Swahili -jengabor.

English Jenga

Borrowed from Swahili -jenga (“to construct, to build”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: jĕnggə, IPA^(key): /ˈd͡ʒɛŋɡə/

Proper noun

Jenga

1. (games) A game where players take turns removing wooden blocks from a stack formed brickwise, the loser being the player whose actions cause the tower to collapse.
   • 2019 January 31, Jack Guy, “This robot could beat you at Jenga”, in CNN‎^[1], archived from the original on 28 November 2022:

     With a soft-pronged gripper, external camera and force-sensing wrist cuff, the robot can both see and feel individual blocks in a Jenga tower, according to an MIT statement.

2. (figurative) Any activity that involves great precision with a risk of great failure.

Translations

game

• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 層層疊 / 层层叠 (cang⁴ cang⁴ dip⁶)

  Mandarin: 疊疊樂 / 叠叠乐 (diédiélè)

• Danish: klodsmajor
• Finnish: huojuva torni
• Japanese: ジェンガ (Jenga)
• Korean: 젠가 (Jen'ga)
• Portuguese: treme-torre m