From Japanese 型 (literally “pattern, model”).
In English use since the 1950s.
Meanings
Any of a sequence of positions and movements used in many martial arts.
Katas are a series of motions, such as punches, strikes, and kicks, arranged in a specific pattern. The pattern allows the motions to flow into one another. A student must learn a new kata to advance to each new belt level. 2006, Kelley MacAulay, Bobbie Kalman, Karate in Action, page 22:
When the competitor's name is called, she stands on the designated line, bows to the panel of judges, and announces the name of the kata she will perform.[…]She then performs the kata. When she is finished, her opponent performs her kata. At the end of the second kata, both return to the mat area to await the decision of the judging panel. 2009, Thomas W. Hanlon, The Sports Rules Book, Human Kinetics, page 161:
About fifty kata, or "formal exercises," are practiced at the present time, some having been passed down from generation to generation, others having been developed fairly recently. 1979, Masatoshi Nakayama, Best Karate: Heian, Tekki, page 12:
judo kata
(broadly) A short programming exercise to improve one's skills through practice and repetition.
These kata will give you the C# syntax for inheritance. 2020, Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene, Head First C#, O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 728:
From Ancient Greek κατά (katá, “downwards”). Compare cata-.
Meanings
In a direction analogous to down, but along the additional axis added by the fourth dimension.
Added to the conventional FPS control keys are two extra keys that move the player in ana and kata direction in 4d space. If you go in this extra direction the space around you changes, the room transforms. 2005, Animation journal, volumes 13-15:
Your right half would move ana, let us say, and your left half would move kata. The two halves would, in their parallel spaces, move past the plane of rotation, and then they would swing back into our space. 1985, Rudy von Bitter Rucker, The Fourth Dimension: A Guided Tour of the Higher Universes, page 43: