South Korea아이고 (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
South Korea
Korean Slang for Emotion & Reaction
19 Korean slang terms for emotion & reaction, each with its meaning, how it is pronounced and an example of it in use.
Surprise, exasperation, delight, disbelief. Often interjections rather than nouns — words that do something rather than name something.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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
빡치다 (ppakchida)
verb · Vulgar · PPAK-chee-da
To be seriously wound up. Much stronger than 짜증나 — closer to 'livid' — and coarse enough to be out of place at work or with anyone older.
Use with care
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
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.
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.