What does "seiyuu" mean?

A voice actor in a native-language version anime, a video game, a radio broadcast or an advertisement in Japan.

Seiyuu

//ˈseɪjuː// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
A voice actor in a native-language version anime, a video game, a radio broadcast or an advertisement in Japan.
"i was just wondering if any seiyuus did/do any other voice acting for things besides anime, like video games and other such media."

Verb

1
To take on a role as a voice actor in a Japanese production, or perform a certain character in such a production.
"me, i just want to know all anime that ogata has seiyuued in and who she was the voice actress for."

"i was just wondering if any seiyuus did/do any other voice acting for things besides anime, like video games and other such media."

Borrowed from Japanese 声優 (seiyū), from Middle Chinese 聲 (*ɕiɛ̝ŋ, “sound, voice”) + 優 (*ʔɨu, “actor”).

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