Ktv

name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Karaoke television, a form of interactive musical entertainment. China, regional, uncountable

    "Most KTV clubs in Taiwan have since followed a single architectural formula: […]"

  2. 2
    Karaoke box, a karaoke entertainment establishment. China, countable, regional

    "The longest take of the film, where the underwold and political figures decide the case of Flatty and Kao in the shadowy interstices of a KTV, […]"

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    Kondatam Television (a popular Tamil TV channel)

Example

More examples

"Most KTV clubs in Taiwan have since followed a single architectural formula: […]"

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Chinese KTV. Late 1980s Taiwanese Pseudo-English initialism from Japanese カラオケ (karaoke) + English TV. Modelled after the earlier MTV "movie TV", which in turn repurposed the initialism from the earlier meaning "music TV", copied from the American cable TV network of that name. This term is chiefly used in mainland China, Taiwan and Cambodia and Chinese speakers globally.

Etymology 2

From Kondatam TV.

Related phrases

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