South Korea · Korean애교 (aegyo)
noun · Colloquial · EH-gyo
Performed cuteness: a softened voice, a slight pout, a wheedling tone used to charm someone into agreeing with you.
+1 more sense
South Korea · Korean
Korean Slang
Korean slang turns over faster than that of any other language on this site, and it does so by a single dominant mechanism: abbreviation. Take the first syllable of each word in a phrase, stick them together, and you have a new term — 치킨 plus 맥주 gives 치맥, 멘탈 plus 붕괴 gives 멘붕. Whole sentences compress into four letters this way, which is why a Korean twenty-year-old's messages can be unreadable to their own parents.
The second thing to understand is that Korean address terms are not optional decoration. Oppa, unni, sunbae and the rest are used constantly and carry real information about age, gender and hierarchy; several of the entries below are address terms rather than vocabulary, because getting them wrong is the mistake foreigners make first and most often.
Entries are given in Hangul with a Revised Romanization reading, and note where a term is internet-only rather than something you would say out loud.
62 terms, each with definitions and worked examples.
By topic
Each page below collects every Korean term we have on one subject, side by side.
Start with these
The terms below carry the most usage detail — register, origin and the situations where they go wrong. They are the ones worth reading in full before the rest.
All Korean slang A–Z
62 terms
Terms beginning with A
아이고 (aigo)
interjection · Colloquial · AI-goh
Oh dear; goodness me; oof. Covers physical effort, mild dismay, sympathy and exasperation, and is most associated with older speakers.
+1 more sense
아저씨 (ajeossi)
noun · Colloquial · a-JUH-ssi
A middle-aged man, and the usual way to address a taxi driver or a delivery man. Says plainly that the speaker considers him past youth.
Use with care
아줌마 (ajumma)
noun · Colloquial · a-JUM-ma
A middle-aged woman. Neutral in the third person; said to someone's face it can sting, because it declares her no longer young.
+1 more sense
Use with care
알바 (alba)
noun, verb · Colloquial · AL-ba
A part-time job, and the person doing it. 알바생 is the worker, 알바비 the wage, 꿀알바 a cushy one.
아싸 (assa)
noun · Informal · A-ssa
An outsider: not in the group, eating alone, not on the messaging thread. Usually self-applied, and worn with a certain defiance.
Terms beginning with B
Terms beginning with C
치맥 (chimaek)
noun · Colloquial · CHEE-mek
Fried chicken and beer, taken as a single item. A national institution: eaten in parks, outside convenience stores, at football, and delivered anywhere including the riverbank.
취존 (chwijon)
noun · Informal · CHWEE-jon
Respect other people's taste. Said to someone sneering at what you like — the Korean equivalent of 'let people enjoy things'.
Terms beginning with D
대박 (daebak)
interjection, noun · Informal · DEH-bak
Wow; no way; that's incredible. The all-purpose exclamation for anything surprising, good or bad.
+1 more sense
대충 (daechung)
adverb · Colloquial · DEH-choong
Roughly; approximately; good enough. Of an estimate, and of work done to the minimum standard that will pass.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with E
어장관리 (eojang gwalli)
noun · Informal · UH-jang GWAL-lee
Keeping several interested people on the hook at once — enough attention to hold them, never enough to commit. A clear accusation, not a neutral description.
얼짱 (eoljjang)
noun · Informal · UL-jjang
Someone exceptionally good-looking — literally the best face in a given group. 몸짱 is the same for physique.
언니 (eonni)
noun · Colloquial · UN-nee
Older sister — said by a woman, and by extension to any older woman she is friendly with.
+1 more sense
어떡해 (eotteokhae)
phrase, interjection · Colloquial · uh-TTUK-eh
What do I do?; oh no. A cry of helplessness, said aloud to nobody in particular as often as to a listener.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with G
갑분싸 (gapbunssa)
noun · Informal · GAP-boon-ssa
The moment a room goes cold — a joke that lands wrong, a subject nobody wanted raised, and the silence that follows.
갑질 (gapjil)
noun · Colloquial · GAP-jil
Abuse of a position of power over someone dependent on you: a client humiliating a supplier, an executive berating cabin crew, a landlord leaning on a tenant.
+1 more sense
극혐 (geukyeom)
noun · Informal · GUK-hyum
Utterly revolting; can't stand it. Strong language, mostly written, and applied to food, behaviour and — in online arguments — to people.
금수저 (geumsujeo)
noun · Colloquial · GUM-soo-juh
Someone born wealthy, whose start in life was bought for them. Part of a full ranking — 금 (gold), 은 (silver), 동 (bronze), 흙 (dirt) — that Koreans use half-jokingly and half-seriously about their own prospects.
그냥 (geunyang)
adverb · Colloquial · GUH-nyang
Just; no particular reason. Declines to explain, politely: asked why you did something, 그냥 is a complete and accepted answer.
+1 more sense
고구마 (goguma)
noun · Informal · GO-goo-ma
Something maddeningly stuck: a plot where nobody says what they obviously should, a colleague who will not come to the point, a process that goes nowhere.
Terms beginning with H
해장 (haejang)
noun, verb · Colloquial · HEH-jang
Eating or drinking to clear a hangover. 해장국 is the soup made for it, and 해장술 is the hair-of-the-dog version, which Koreans discuss with more enthusiasm than doctors would like.
헬조선 (heljoseon)
noun · Informal · HEL-jo-sun
South Korea seen as a place of hopeless competition: brutal work culture, unaffordable housing, exams that decide a life at eighteen. Bitter rather than playful.
헐 (heol)
interjection · Informal · HUL
Whoa; what the — the sound of being briefly stunned. Slightly more negative than 대박, and used for the unwelcome as readily as the impressive.
흙수저 (heuksujeo)
noun · Colloquial · HUK-soo-juh
Someone born with nothing to fall back on — the bottom of the spoon hierarchy, and very often a self-description.
힐링 (hilling)
noun · Colloquial · HEE-ling
Restorative rest: a quiet café, a walk, a slow television programme. The English word borrowed and narrowed to mean recovering from ordinary exhaustion rather than from illness.
혼밥 (honbap)
noun · Colloquial · HON-bap
Eating a meal alone. Once faintly shameful in a culture built on shared dishes, now ordinary — restaurants advertise single-seat counters for it.
혼술 (honsul)
noun · Colloquial · HON-sool
Drinking alone, by choice and usually at home — a beer with a film rather than a problem.
+1 more sense
훈남 (hunnam)
noun · Colloquial · HOON-nam
A warm, decent-looking man — the kind who makes a room feel easier rather than the spectacular kind. 훈녀 is the female equivalent.
+1 more sense
화이팅 (hwaiting)
interjection · Colloquial · HWA-ee-ting
You can do it; keep going. Shouted before an exam, a match, a shift or a difficult conversation. Encouragement, never an instruction to fight.
Terms beginning with I
이차 (icha)
noun · Colloquial · EE-cha
The second venue of a night out, moved to as a group: barbecue first, then a bar, then very often karaoke for 삼차.
+1 more sense
인싸 (inssa)
noun · Informal · IN-ssa
An insider: the person who knows everyone, is at every gathering and is never short of plans.
+1 more sense
Terms beginning with J
정 (jeong)
noun · Colloquial · JUNG
The attachment that builds up between people, or to a place, simply through time spent together — not affection chosen but affection accumulated.
+1 more sense
진짜 (jinjja)
adverb, interjection · Colloquial · JIN-jja
Really; genuinely. The commonest intensifier in spoken Korean, dropped in front of almost anything.
+1 more sense
짜증나 (jjajeungna)
verb, adjective · Informal · JJA-jung-na
That's irritating; this is getting on my nerves. The everyday word for low-grade annoyance, and extremely common.
짱 (jjang)
noun, adjective · Informal · JJANG
The best; top. As a suffix it names the champion of a category: 얼짱 (best face), 몸짱 (best body).
+1 more sense
존맛 (jonmat)
noun, adjective · Vulgar · JON-mat
Unbelievably tasty. Very common among young people, and technically obscene — 존 is a clipping of a crude word.
Use with care
Terms beginning with K
카톡 (katok)
noun, verb · Colloquial · KA-tok
KakaoTalk, and by extension any message sent on it — which in Korea means essentially all messages. 카톡해 is 'message me'.
+1 more sense
ㅋㅋㅋ (kekeke)
interjection · Informal · keh-keh-keh
Laughter in text — the Korean 'haha'. The number of characters scales with the laugh, from a polite single ㅋ to a screen of them.
+1 more sense
꼰대 (kkondae)
noun · Informal · KKON-deh
An older person who lectures juniors about how things were done in their day and expects deference for their age alone.
+1 more sense
Use with care
꿀잼 (kkuljaem)
noun · Informal · KKUL-jem
Genuinely entertaining — of a film, a night out, a class. 꿀 ('honey') is a productive intensifier: 꿀팁 is a great tip, 꿀알바 a cushy job.
Terms beginning with M
맛집 (matjip)
noun · Colloquial · MAT-jip
A restaurant worth travelling for. Not fine dining — a 맛집 is more often a two-table place with one dish and a queue.
멘붕 (menbung)
noun · Informal · MEN-boong
Going to pieces — the blank, reeling state after bad news, a disastrous exam or a file lost an hour before a deadline. Everyday and usually not clinical.
먹방 (meokbang)
noun · Colloquial · MUK-bang
A broadcast of someone eating a very large meal while talking to the audience. Korean in origin and now a global streaming genre under its Korean name.
밀당 (mildang)
noun · Informal · MIL-dang
Playing hard to get, in both directions: replying late, showing interest and then withdrawing it, keeping the other person guessing.
Terms beginning with N
노답 (nodap)
noun, adjective · Informal · NOH-dap
Hopeless; beyond fixing. Of a situation with no way out, or a person who will not be reasoned with.
노잼 (nojaem)
noun · Informal · NOH-jem
No fun at all; a dud. Of a film, a joke that died, or a person with no comic timing.
+1 more sense
눈치 (nunchi)
noun · Colloquial · NOON-chee
The ability to read a room and judge what people actually want without being told. Having it is a compliment; 눈치가 없다, lacking it, is a real criticism.
+1 more sense
눈팅 (nunting)
noun, verb · Informal · NOON-ting
Lurking: reading a forum or a group chat regularly without ever posting.
Terms beginning with O
Terms beginning with P
Terms beginning with S
사이다 (saida)
noun · Informal · SA-ee-da
A moment of clean, fizzing satisfaction: the character who finally says the thing, the complaint that gets answered properly, the villain who gets what is coming.
+1 more sense
셀카 (selka)
noun · Colloquial · SEL-ka
A selfie. Korean coined its own word years before English settled on one, and kept it.
+1 more sense
선배 (seonbae)
noun · Colloquial · SUN-beh
Someone senior to you in an institution — school, university, company — by year of entry rather than age. Its pair is 후배 (hubae), the junior.
+1 more sense
심쿵 (simkung)
noun, verb · Informal · SHIM-koong
The lurch your heart gives at something adorable or unexpectedly attractive — a puppy, a smile, a line in a drama.
소맥 (somaek)
noun · Colloquial · SOH-mek
Soju dropped into beer — Korea's boilermaker. Mixed at the table, often theatrically, and drunk in one.
+1 more sense
썸 (sseom)
noun · Informal · SSUM
The stage before a relationship: more than friends, nothing declared. 썸 타다 is to be in it, and 썸남/썸녀 is the person you are in it with.
+1 more sense
술고래 (sulgorae)
noun · Informal · SOOL-go-reh
Someone who can drink enormous amounts — a fish, in the English idiom, though Korean scales it up to a whale.
Terms beginning with W
Terms beginning with Y
열공 (yeolgong)
noun, verb · Colloquial · YUL-gong
Studying flat out. Said of exam season, and used as an encouragement — 열공해 is 'work hard'.
+1 more sense
열정페이 (yeoljeong pei)
noun · Colloquial · YUL-jung pay
Being paid in experience: the internship, the fashion placement or the studio job that offers exposure and enthusiasm in place of wages.
ㅠㅠ (yuyu)
interjection · Informal · yoo-yoo
Crying — the Hangul vowel ㅠ read as a pictogram of a face with tears running down. Used for real disappointment and for very small ones alike.