Kimoi Meaning: What キモい Means and Why It Can Hurt

What kimoi means in one minute

Kimoi is an i-adjective meaning gross, creepy or disgusting. It is an instant reaction: you see something unpleasant, and kimoi! comes out, usually with a little shudder. It is casual slang, used among friends, siblings and classmates, and constantly in anime and variety shows.

It sits in a family with its full form, kimochi warui, and with the playful kimo-kawaii. The full form has a second meaning that kimoi does not share: I feel sick.

From kimochi warui to kimoi

Kimochi (気持ち) means feeling or mood, and warui (悪い) means bad. Together, kimochi warui describes a bad, unpleasant feeling: the physical one of nausea, and the emotional one you get from something creepy or disgusting. Young people clipped it to kimoi, much as kakkoii and other long words get shortened in slang, and the short form has been common for decades.

Kimoi is usually written in katakana, キモい, which makes it look like a sharp reaction. In speech it shrinks again to kimo, often written with a small tsu to show a clipped sound, and you will also hear kimosugiru (way too gross).

Every real use of kimoi, with examples

The everyday, harmless uses are reactions to things: insects, slime, strange textures, gory scenes in a horror film. People also use it about their own behaviour, to laugh at themselves. Kimochi warui covers all of these and adds two more: feeling physically sick, and a genuine sense of unease, such as when you feel someone is following you.

Why kimoi hurts when it is aimed at a person

When kimoi is aimed at a person, it no longer describes a reaction. It becomes a label that says you are repulsive. Saying it about someone's face, body, voice, clothes or hobbies is one of the cruellest casual insults in Japanese, and it is closely tied to teasing and bullying at school. Many adults who were called kimoi as teenagers still remember it.

As a learner, keep a simple rule: kimoi is for bugs, slime and horror films. Not for people, and not for things people love, such as someone's favourite anime, idol or collection.

Kimo-kawaii and other playful relatives

Kimo-kawaii (キモかわいい) is a compound of kimoi and kawaii: gross but cute, creepy-cute. It is used with affection for odd mascots, strange sea creatures, bug-eyed toys and characters that are so weird they become lovable. Its cousin busa-kawaii (ブサかわいい) means ugly-cute and is used mainly about pets, such as a squashed-face dog. Both are compliments, and both are casual.

For something unsettling rather than disgusting, bukimi (不気味) means eerie or uncanny, and it is a neutral word you can use anywhere.

Safer words, replies and learner mistakes

To say you dislike something without sounding rude, use nigate (苦手), which means it is not my thing. It is soft, polite and works for food, bugs and activities. For feeling ill in a polite setting, such as at work or at a clinic, kibun ga warui desu is the standard phrase.

If a friend says kimoi to you as a joke, you can protest playfully. If it really stings, say so gently.

• Mistake 1: saying kimoi when you feel sick. Use kimochi warui or kibun ga warui desu.
• Mistake 2: calling food someone cooked kimoi. Even if the texture is strange to you, say nigate or chotto nigate kamo.
• Mistake 3: mixing up kimochi warui and kimochi ii. Kimochi ii means it feels good, like a hot bath or a breeze.
• Mistake 4: using kimoi about people's interests. Fans of anime, idols or trains are not kimoi; that use is mean-spirited.

Related words: gory, scary and queasy

English gross and creepy cover a lot of ground, and Japanese splits that ground into several words. Guroi (グロい), from the English grotesque, is for gore and graphic violence, such as a horror film full of blood. Kowai (怖い) is plain scary. Zotto suru is the cold shiver you feel when something is eerie, and mukamuka suru describes a churning, queasy stomach, though mukatsuku can also mean to be irritated, so listen to the context.

These words let you be more precise than kimoi, and most of them are less personal. Saying a film is guroi describes the film; nobody is insulted.

Mini dialogue: deep-sea fish at the aquarium

Two friends are at an aquarium, in front of a tank of strange deep-sea creatures. Kimoi is aimed at a fish, and the conversation turns it into kimo-kawaii, which is how the word is often used in real life.