미소녀

Korean

Etymology

Sino-Korean word from 美少女, from 美 (“beautiful”) + 少女 (“girl”), probably an orthographic borrowing from Japanese 美少女.

Pronunciation

• (SK Standard/Seoul) IPA^(key): [ˈmi(ː)sʰo̞ɲʌ̹]
• Phonetic hangul: [미(ː)소녀]
  • Though still prescribed in Standard Korean, most speakers in both Koreas no longer distinguish vowel length.

Romanizations
Revised Romanization?	misonyeo
Revised Romanization (translit.)?	misonyeo
McCune–Reischauer?	misonyŏ
Yale Romanization?	mīsonye

Noun

미소녀 • (misonyeo) (hanja 美少女)

1. (especially relating to Japan or Japanese media) a beautiful young girl, usually in her teens

Derived terms

• 미연시 (miyeonsi, “Bishōjo game”)