Cosplay

//ˈkɑz.pleɪ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character. uncountable

    "Men, of course, also participate in cosplay and all its attending events, but women make up the greater numbers."

  2. 2
    A skit or instance of this art or practice. countable

    "Central to the activity of cosplay is elaborate costuming, though some cosplays are enacted using a game system."

Verb
  1. 1
    To costume oneself as a character. intransitive

    "She cosplayed at the manga convention."

  2. 2
    wear a costume to resemble a character from some media especially anime wordnet
  3. 3
    To costume oneself as (a character). transitive

    "She cosplayed Sailor Moon at the manga convention."

  4. 4
    To adopt the behavior and mannerisms of another. derogatory, figuratively, often, transitive

    "Why has the Russian Federation decided to cosplay the Nazi Third Reich by attacking the peaceful neighboring state and plunging the region into war?"

Example

More examples

"Mark invited Jessica to a cosplay fest."

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese コスプレ (kosupure), which is a clipping of コスチュームプレイ (kosuchūmu purei), from a compound of English costume + play.

More for "cosplay"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.