kawaii
/kəˈwʌɪ
/adjective
(In the context of Japanese popular culture) cute: she paints elephants that are extremely kawaii...
- Lee and I gave my Dad a Settlers of Catan travel set for his birthday, which is so kawaii.
- Fun for when I'm bored and end up exchanging "kawaii" emails with coworkers on the weekends but simply a waste.
- Breathtakingly kitsch to the outsider, many Japanese would simply utter an awestruck "kawaii!"
noun [mass noun]
The quality of being cute, or items that are cute: even in a cosmopolitan city like Tokyo, kawaii is everywhere...
- Japan is the world capital of kawaii [ cuteness ], explains Guy Murphy of the Bartle Bogle Hegarty ad agency in Singapore.
- Murakami uses the term to explain and critique the stubborn two-dimensionality of anime, manga and Japanese art, and Japan's kawaii (cute) consumer culture.
- The most important thing in selling to girls is kawaii, or cuteness.
Origin
Japanese.
- non-drinking
- non-drip
- non-driver
- nondrying
- non-durable
- none
- non-earning
- non-ecclesiastical
- no-neck
- non-effective
- non-efficient
- non-ego
- non-egoistical
- non-egotistical
- non-elastic
- non-elasticity
- non-elect
- non-elected
- non-election
- non-elective
- non-electric
- non-electrical
- non-electrified
- non-electrolyte
- non-electrolytic