How to Use kamikaze in a Sentence

kamikaze

1 of 2 noun
  • By war’s end, 52 of his shipmates had been killed, most of them by kamikaze pilots.
    — John Wilkens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Apr. 2023
  • While prices do vary, a good rule of thumb is around $35,000 for a decent kamikaze drone.
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 4 Apr. 2026
  • Ukraine has used this kind of drone to deliver kamikaze attacks against Russia.
    — Sebastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 17 Feb. 2023
  • Because of its tartness, kombucha works the best in sour drinks like a margarita, kamikaze, or a whiskey sour.
    — Alex Delany, Bon Appetit, 9 Mar. 2017
  • The flag was described by the Lexington as the relic of a kamikaze pilot.
    — Daniel Wu, Washington Post, 4 Aug. 2023
  • With the 5-year-old kamikaze within earshot, the answer from Rick Dykes was simple.
    — Josh Peter, USA TODAY, 12 Jan. 2023
  • The Harop, by contrast, dives at its target like a kamikaze, exploding on impact.
    — Thomas Mutch, Popular Mechanics, 29 Oct. 2021
  • Those who managed to avoid the mines came under attack from multiple Russian kamikaze drones.
    — Carlotta Gall, New York Times, 31 July 2023
  • This fueled speculation that the object could be a prototype kamikaze-style sat killer.
    — Joe Pappalardo, Popular Mechanics, 30 Nov. 2018
  • Low-cost kamikaze drones now threaten critical assets and defenses.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 31 Mar. 2026
  • The Russians had discovered their position and launched a kamikaze drone attack.
    — Megan Specia, New York Times, 29 Oct. 2023
  • One deftly framed the debate over a contentious bill; the other recommended his party go full kamikaze.
    — Karl Rove, WSJ, 26 Jan. 2022
  • Lumet’s kamikaze working methods could take some collaborators aback.
    — Brooke Allen, WSJ, 7 Feb. 2020
  • An American volunteer with Ukrainian forces has shared videos of his unit’s first kamikaze attack drone.
    — David Hambling, Forbes, 16 Mar. 2023
  • Hamas deployed missiles and drones, including kamikaze drones of the kind used now in Russia and Ukraine, as well as teams of men with guns.
    — Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic, 9 Oct. 2023
  • The kamikaze drones are designed to strike specific targets with explosives from distances of up to 1,500 miles.
    — Mary Ilyushina, Washington Post, 4 May 2023
  • Opération des forces de l’ordre à Bas-Delmas, fief du chef de gang Babekyou, avec utilisation de drones kamikazes.
    — Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 16 Jan. 2026
  • He was injured by shrapnel in one Japanese kamikaze attack and awarded a Purple Heart.
    — John Wilkens, San Diego Union-Tribune, 21 Apr. 2023
  • In other words, don’t expect a massive amount of little ISR or kamikaze drones to flood into the Services.
    — Eric Tegler, Forbes, 30 Nov. 2023
  • Behind a tall torii gate, a larger-than-life statue of a kamikaze pilot is flanked by a huge wall painted with Japan’s wartime Rising Sun flag.
    — Bob Drogin, Los Angeles Times, 29 May 2023
  • Multiple outlets have already compared Christie's 2024 plans to a kamikaze mission.
    — Haisten Willis, Washington Examiner, 1 Apr. 2023
  • The purpose of the later types is to deliver suppressive fire on Russian warships, preventing the crews from stopping the kamikaze boats.
    — David Hambling, Forbes.com, 14 May 2026
  • The kamikaze are the most potent symbol of the war in Japan, a vivid example of the dangers of fervent nationalism and martial fanaticism.
    — Ben Dooley, Star Tribune, 3 Dec. 2020
  • Other likely causes might have included anti-tank mines, Russian kamikaze drones, or long-range anti-tank missiles fired by helicopter.
    — Sébastien Roblin, Popular Mechanics, 6 Sep. 2023
  • Shaw was paid to play a ferocious sociopath on a kamikaze course through society, a role that called for a type of rage and recklessness that had invaded his youth, and nearly driven him to murder.
    — Jonathan Rowe, SPIN, 28 June 2022
  • The autonomous drone located and engaged a simulated kamikaze drone during the mission.
    — Aamir Khollam, Interesting Engineering, 31 Mar. 2026
  • Ukrainian military officials said the Russian attacks had run afoul of minefields and been pummeled by artillery, kamikaze drones and anti-tank missiles.
    — Patrick Reevell, ABC News, 16 Oct. 2023
  • Ukrainian kamikaze drones already appear to be overcoming Russian GPS jamming.
    — David Hambling, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2023
  • Its primary role is as a target drone for military training exercises, but it can also be configured as a one-way attack platform, commonly known as a kamikaze drone.
    — Kapil Kajal, Interesting Engineering, 18 Aug. 2025
  • In mid-May, following a few months of quiet in the skies over Kyiv, Russia restarted its almost nightly bombardments of cruise missiles and kamikaze drones.
    — WIRED, 25 July 2023

kamikaze

2 of 2 adjective
  • These were known as kamikaze attacks.
    — Gary Robbins, San Diego Union-Tribune, 24 Jan. 2026
  • Some took the news as an occasion for some kamikaze-style trolling.
    — Kyle Chayka, The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2022
  • Some water may be leaking through, but none of those kamikaze birds will.
    — Kevin Cusick, Twin Cities, 4 May 2017
  • The ship was sunk there after five kamikaze pilots flew into the destroyer.
    — Denise Coffey, courant.com, 12 Aug. 2019
  • Your dependable melee weapon becomes useless against a stream of kamikaze service droids.
    — Adi Robertson, The Verge, 11 Aug. 2019
  • Like the kamikaze pilots of the air, Kairyu crews were not expected to return from their missions.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 11 Feb. 2019
  • All but his brother-in-law, who was killed in a Japanese kamikaze attack, survived it.
    — Bruce Henderson, charlotteobserver, 18 May 2017
  • On my way back downtown, my taxi overtakes trucks packed with dangling meat carcasses while kamikaze scooters weave in and out of snarled traffic.
    — Nicola Chilton, Condé Nast Traveler, 12 Aug. 2025
  • Hernández and Day played kamikaze dolphins who work for the government, giving them a sense of porpoise (their joke, not mine).
    — Omar L. Gallaga, Los Angeles Times, 10 May 2026
  • The Chiefs had noted how the Dolphins liked to put on a kamikaze rush to block kicks, so Stram decided to call a fake.
    — By Bob Rubin, miamiherald, 19 Dec. 2016
  • The Switchblade drone is the newest form of lethal assistance -- a small kamikaze-style drone launched from a tube that can track and attack armored targets.
    — Conor Finnegan, ABC News, 16 Mar. 2022
  • Amid the wave of attacks, some targets inside Iran were destroyed by one-way attack drones, which are also sometimes referred to as kamikaze drones.
    — Brian Bennett, Time, 28 Feb. 2026
  • Japan has announced plans to raise a fleet of loitering kamikaze drones and low-cost missiles to counter threats from China (and other regional threats).
    — Christopher McFadden, Interesting Engineering, 4 Apr. 2026
  • In Kharkiv, a residential building was struck by kamikaze drones, killing seven, including two children.
    — Hannah Parry amanda Castro andrew Stanton, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Aug. 2025
  • The menu runs for pages — everything from fatty tuna rolls to poached octopus to kamikaze rolls of eel, cucumber, shrimp, flying fish roe, spicy mayo, and sweet soy sauce.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 20 June 2019
  • Yet generally, these dancers seem less like kamikaze street warriors than scampering puppies, who like nothing more than to run around in circles and wriggle on their backs.
    — Ben Brantley, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2020
  • Stark are both in line to win a contract for kamikaze drones, the Financial Times reported in October.
    — Kai Nicol-Schwarz, CNBC, 11 Dec. 2025
  • Combatants in the Russia-Ukraine war have pioneered the use of first-person view drones as kamikaze munitions.
    — Jon R. Lindsay, The Conversation, 11 Mar. 2026
  • Anti-scooter activists tend to paint scooter riders as kamikaze daredevils, slaloming through cars and pedestrians.
    — Kevin Roose, New York Times, 6 June 2018
  • The annexation plans were shelved, not canceled, and not in response to the Palestinians’ kamikaze-style pressure tactics.
    — Adam Rasgon, New York Times, 17 Nov. 2020
  • The police also need surveillance and kamikaze drones, as well as mechanics to maintain and repair armored vehicles.
    — Jacqueline Charles, Miami Herald, 1 Apr. 2026
  • This new threat replicated the kamikaze attacks and threatened to overwhelm American defenses.
    — Haomiao Huang, Ars Technica, 25 Mar. 2020
  • While the transport was off Okinawa, Japanese kamikaze aircraft struck nearby ships but spared the Geneva.
    — Sig Christenson, San Antonio Express-News, 15 Jan. 2026
  • These kamikaze-like drone swarms are pretty far out for now, particularly for the Russia who lags behind the West in drone technology.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 6 Nov. 2019
  • It was originally branded as a long-range, one-way attack vehicle, a class of systems more commonly referred to as kamikaze drones or loitering munitions.
    — Vikram Mittal, Forbes.com, 4 Aug. 2025
  • The Pentagon has said kamikaze drones are inexpensive and meant to be produced by multiple manufacturers.
    — Sujita Sinha, Interesting Engineering, 2 Mar. 2026
  • This hopelessly dreary production is intent on capturing only the compulsive, joyless comedown of its main character’s kamikaze choice to blow his life up.
    — Alison Willmore, Vulture, 30 Oct. 2025
  • The Ranger missions were kamikaze-style; the spacecraft were engineered to streak straight toward the moon and capture as many images as possible before crashing onto its surface.
    — Jenny Howard, National Geographic, 5 July 2019
  • She was destroyed in a kamikaze attack during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in November 1944.
    — Fox News, 31 July 2019
  • Models such as the Iranian Shahed-136, which Russia bought by the planeload, are capable of one-way, kamikaze-style attacks.
    — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 13 Oct. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'kamikaze.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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