Kuudere

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A calm, aloof, reserved fictional character (usually a girl) who has a hidden soft side, especially for a love interest. Japanese

    "True, she wasn't very expressive—or anyway, I didn't feel like I saw a lot of emotion from her—but if I thought of her as a kuudere, or one of those “weird girl” types, that could actually be seen as a positive."

Example

More examples

"True, she wasn't very expressive—or anyway, I didn't feel like I saw a lot of emotion from her—but if I thought of her as a kuudere, or one of those “weird girl” types, that could actually be seen as a positive."

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese クーデレ (kūdere), a portmanteau of クール (kūru, “calm”), from English cool, and デレデレ (dere-dere, “in a lovey-dovey, infatuated, or lovestruck manner”, adverb).

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