Karate is a Japanese fighting sport in which you use your own body — hands, feet, elbows, knees — to hit, kick, and block, with no sword or stick in your hands. Students train in a class, wear a white suit, and tie a belt whose colour shows how far they have come. They practise set moves slowly, then later spar with a partner. Films make people fly through the air; a real class is mostly careful repetition and control. English also stretches the word: a “karate chop” is a stiff-handed hit, even from someone who never went to a class, and older speakers sometimes say karate for any East Asian fighting, though judo, taekwondo, and kung fu are different arts. You can use it as a verb too — to karate someone — but that use is informal and a bit cartoonish.