Kimchi

noun, slang

noun, slang ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A Korean dish made of vegetables, such as cabbage or radishes, that are salted, seasoned, and stored in sealed containers to undergo lactic acid fermentation. uncountable, usually

    ""Yeah." He gestured to the kimchi. "Well, get it in ya, then." "It's better hot." she said."

  2. 2
    A Korean person. countable, derogatory, ethnic, slang, slur, usually

    "How did I know the kimchis were trying to smuggle the crate out of Japan?"

Example

More examples

"Kimchi is a traditional Korean dish."

Etymology

Borrowed from Korean 김치 (gimchi), ultimately composed within Korea of Chinese-derived morphemes 沉 (MC drim, “submerged, soaked”) and 菜 (MC tshojH, “vegetable”), i.e. "fermented vegetable". Doublet of kimuchi.

Related phrases

kimchi-jjigae

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