Ecchi
//ˈɛ.tʃi// adj, noun
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A genre, especially of anime and manga, featuring playful, tongue-in-cheek usage of sexualized scenes and situations such as double entendre or flirtation, while remaining non-pornographic. Often used to differentiate from hentai which features overt sexual themes. Japanese, uncountable
"The manga fan was disturbingly proud of his extensive ecchi collection."
- 2 A situation within a story, especially anime and manga, which ventures into the ecchi genre. Japanese, countable, rare
"There was a moment of ecchi for comic relief in the otherwise serious story."
Adjective
- 1 Of animation, erotic, lascivious, lewd, naughty, sexy, suggestive. Japanese
Example
More examples"By the way, this week - no matter what flags are set - it's a certainty that there will be no ecchi scenes. You'll just have to bear with it a while."
Etymology
From Japanese エッチ (etchi, “dirty; perverted”), which is derived from English aitch (“name of the letter ⟨H⟩”), which is an initialism of the romaji of Japanese 変態(へんたい) (hentai, “pervert”). エッチ (etchi) is not a genre in Japanese; this is a development in English (Pseudo-Japonism).
Related phrases
More for "ecchi"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.