ㅋㅋㅋ (kekeke)

What it means

1. 1.

   Laughter in text — the Korean 'haha'. The number of characters scales with the laugh, from a polite single ㅋ to a screen of them.

2. 2.

   ㅎㅎ is the softer, warmer version, closer to a smile than a laugh, and is the safer choice when messaging someone senior.

   A bare ㅋ on its own can read as curt or sarcastic. Two or three are the neutral default.

Examples with translations

• 아 진짜 웃겨 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

  That's actually hilarious 😂

• 네 알겠습니다 ㅎㅎ

  Sure, understood 🙂

  Note: ㅎㅎ softens a work message without making it unprofessional.

Where it comes from

ㅋ is a bare Hangul consonant, the sound k, standing in for the sound of laughing. Writing consonants alone this way is a whole layer of Korean texting: ㅇㅇ for yes, ㄴㄴ for no, ㅊㅊ for congratulations.

Other forms

Romanised as:

kekeke

Spellings and variants:

ㅋㅋ, ㅎㅎ