cosplay
/ˈkɒz.pleɪ//ˈkɑz.pleɪ/
cosplay noun: the art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.
Noun
cosplay (countable and uncountable, plural cosplays)
- The art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.
- Also the popularity can be seen in doujinshi and cosplay (costume play) and the popularity is not just junior high girls.1993 May 14, Hitoshi Doi, translating Animedia, “Animedia-February 1993 [all]”, in rec.arts.anime (Usenet), archived from the original on 30 Jul 2026
- [A]s the evening progresses all eyes turn to something called "cosplay," short for "costume play." A couple thousand Katsucon attendees sit in line for two hours to guarantee themselves a seat for cosplay, which turns out to be a bunch of skits performed by elaborately costumed anime and manga...2000 February 14, Hank Stuever, “What Would Godzilla Say?”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 Aug 2017
- A skit or instance of this art or practice.
- Central to the activity of cosplay is elaborate costuming, though some cosplays are enacted using a game system.2010, Sarah Lynne Bowman, “Historical Evolution and Cultural Permutations”, in The Functions of Role-Playing Games […], Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 29
- According to a student from France who went to Japan to study Japanese, "Universities in France are like Halloween when otaku students engage in these cosplays. They take Japanese language because of anime, but they see after a few classes that it's hard and not fun. Many drop out" (author...2010, Anne M. Cooper-Chen, Cartoon Cultures: The Globalization of Japanese Popular Media, New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, page 121
Verb
cosplay (third-person singular simple present cosplays, present participle cosplaying, simple past and past participle cosplayed)
- To costume oneself as a (usually fictional) character.
- She cosplayed at the manga convention.
- One wears a Mysterious Figure cloak. Another is trying his best to cosplay as Steve, and is wearing a wig that keeps on threatening to slide backwards off his head, and is being held in place by a piece of string under the bottom of the head that's a bit too long.1999 February 23, Steven Scougall, “[GRIT] Lord Have Mercy...”, in rec.arts.anime.misc (Usenet), archived from the original on 30 Jul 2026
- To costume oneself as (a [usually fictional] character).
- She cosplayed Sailor Moon at the manga convention.
- The most bizarre sketch involved Widja Santoso in a rioutous Monthy Python-esque^([sic]) message on the proper way to cosplay... C-ko.1993 July 10, E. Kontei, “Con Report: ANIME EXPO”, in rec.arts.anime (Usenet), archived from the original on 30 Jul 2026
- To adopt the behavior and mannerisms of another; to pretend to be someone or something.
- “He’s cosplaying as a goober,” one local [Mike Holcomb] memorably put it on Twitter.2018 July 15, Richard Fausset, “Georgia Governor Candidate [Casey Cagle] Caught Saying He’s in Race to Be the ‘Craziest’”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN...
- Whilst their stability was generally an improvement on earlier German destroyers, as the vessels no longer displayed a strong desire to cosplay as U-boats, the main armament proved to be something of a problem.2022 August 27, Drachinifel, 2:44 from the start, in Type 1936A / Narvik class - Guide 298, via YouTube, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2022
- To adopt the behavior and mannerisms of (another); to pretend to be (someone or something).
- Why has the Russian Federation decided to cosplay the Nazi Third Reich by attacking the peaceful neighboring state and plunging the region into war?2022 March 17, Michael Luciano, quoting Sergiy Kyslytsya, “‘The Russian Federation Has Decided to Cosplay the Nazi Third Reich’: Ukraine’s Ambassador Blasts Russian Counterpart to His Face”, in Aidan...
- […] turning conservative white men into amateur commandos cosplaying war wherever they liked and the US into a war zone.2022 May 30, Rebecca Solnit, “US mass shootings will continue until the majority can overrule the minority”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC...
cosplay meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Bengali
cosplay in Hindi
- subculture centered on dressing as characters
- कॉस्प्ले kŏsple
- to costume oneself as a character
- कॉस्प्ले करना kŏsple karnā
cosplay in Tamil
- உடைக்கேற்ற நடிப்பு
cosplay in Marathi
- subculture centered on dressing as characters
- कॉस्प्ले kŏsple
cosplay in Bengali
- কসপ্লে, কোসপ্লে
More languagesFewer languages
- cosplay in Malayalam
- കോസ്പ്ലേ
- cosplay in Kannada
- ಕಾಸ್ಪ್ಲೇ, ಕೋಸ್ಪ್ಲೇ
- cosplay in Punjabi
- ਕੋਸਪਲੇ, ਕੋਸਪਲੇਅ
- cosplay in Gujarati
- કોસપ્લે, કોસ્પ્લે, કૉસ્પ્લે
- cosplay in Odia
- କୋସପ୍ଲେ
- cosplay in Nepali
- कोसप्ले, कोसप्लेइङ
- cosplay in Tagalog
- cosplay
- cosplay in Arabic
- كُوسْبْلَاي kusplay
- cosplay in Persian
- کوزپلی kospley
- cosplay in Thai
- คอสเพลย์ kɔ́ɔs-plee
- cosplay in Vietnamese
- cos
Examples of cosplay in a sentence
- Men, of course, also participate in cosplay and all its attending events, but women make up the greater numbers.2003, Jennifer Cahill, “The Cult of Kawaii”, in Cosplay Girls: Japan's Live Animation Heroines, Tokyo: Cocoro Books, →ISBN:
- The environments and spaces created for and by cosplay provide cosplayers with a variety of spaces for social interactions.2006 December 22, Theresa Winge, “Costuming the Imagination: Origins of Anime and Manga Cosplay”, in Frenchy Lunning, editor, Mechademia 1...
- Conventions and cosplay were certainly not unknown to western science fiction and comic book fans who referred to them as "cons" and "masquerades" respectively.2010, Antonia Levi, “Introduction”, in Antonia Levi, Mark McHarry, Dru Pagliassotti, editors, Boys' Love Manga: Essays on the Sexual...
- According to a student from France who went to Japan to study Japanese, "Universities in France are like Halloween when otaku students engage in these cosplays.2010, Anne M. Cooper-Chen, Cartoon Cultures: The Globalization of Japanese Popular Media, New York, N.Y.: Peter Lang, page 121:
Forms of cosplay
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | cosplays |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | cosplays |
| present participle | cosplaying |
| past participle | cosplayed |
| past | cosplayed |
Origin of cosplay
Borrowed from Japanese コスプレ (kosupure), which is a clipping of コスチュームプレイ (kosuchūmu purei), from a compound of English costume + play. The verb is derived from the noun.
Words formed from cosplay
Questions about cosplay
- What does cosplay mean?
- Cosplay means the art or practice of costuming oneself as a (usually fictional) character.
- What is cosplay in Hindi?
- Cosplay in Hindi is कॉस्प्ले (kŏsple), कॉस्प्ले करना (kŏsple karnā). See Cosplay meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use cosplay in a sentence?
- Men, of course, also participate in cosplay and all its attending events, but women make up the greater numbers.
- What part of speech is cosplay?
- Cosplay can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce cosplay?
- Cosplay is pronounced /ˈkɒz.pleɪ/ (UK).
- What is the plural of cosplay?
- The plural of cosplay is cosplays.
Words near cosplay in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: cosplay (page history and authors); cosplay (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); cosplay (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cosplay (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cosplay (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cosplay (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cosplay (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cosplay (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); cosplay (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-cosplay.wav, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Wodencafe-cosplay.wav.
Cite this entry: “cosplay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/cosplay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.