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The word 無双 to translates to "warrior" in nearly every search result. For example ゼルダ無双 厄災の黙示録 -> Zelda Warriors: Apocalypse of Calamity (according to Google translate. Nintendo localized this in English with a slightly different title: Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity)

Every time I paste a phrase that contains 無双 into Google translate, I get "warrior".

These are the last 4 results for this word on jisho.org:

  • 無双OROCHI Z -> Musou Orochi Z​
  • 無双OROCHI -> Warriors Orochi
  • 無双OROCHI 魔王再臨 -> Warriors Orochi 2
  • 無双OROCHI 2 -> Warriors Orochi 3

What's odd is that "warrior" itself is not listed as a possible translation for these two kanji.

If this word so consistently translates to "warrior" why is "warrior" not listed as a possible translation on jisho.org?

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  • poetic license probably a metaphor
    – Star Peep
    Sep 30 at 22:37
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    Media titles are often not actually translations. They're often just what someone thought sounded best as a title in the other language. And just to be clear, all the examples you listed are part of the same media franchise, so that's why they all share the "Warriors" designation.
    – Leebo
    Oct 1 at 0:35

1 Answer 1

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Google Translate works on an algorithm. It takes the most frequent match for a word in its database and uses it. It happens that there's a video game series called 無双, and that the English title of this video game series is 'Warriors'. 無双 isn't the most common of words, so the most frequent context probably is the video game series. This does not mean 無双 translates to 'warrior', however, much as 悪魔城｛あくまじょう｝ドラキュラ does not literally translate to 'Castlevania'.

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  • To others reading this, never rely on Google Translate for furthering your Japanese studies. It can sometimes be a useful additional reference, but it is emphatically not reliable.
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Oct 1 at 6:05

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