Word.ws English Dictionary

K-pop

/ˈkeɪˌpɒp//ˈkeɪˌpɑp/

K-pop noun: south Korean pop music influenced by Western styles.

Noun (1)

K-pop (uncountable)

  1. South Korean pop music influenced by Western styles.
    • Somehow, even I got sucked into this strange K-pop universe. Sure, the quality of the music is sometimes debatable.2018 December 11, Kevin Liao, “At First I Was a K-Pop Skeptic. Not Anymore.”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 25 Dec 2018
    • The K-pop septet BTS will return in spring 2026 with a new album and world tour.2025 July 1, Maria Sherman, “BTS will return in spring 2026 with a new album and world tour”, in Associated Press, archived from the original on 03 Jan 2026

Noun (2)

K-pop (plural K-pops)

  1. (slang) A lollipop containing the drug ketamine.

Noun (3) capitalized: K-Pop

K-Pop (uncountable)

  1. Alternative letter-case form of K-pop.

K-pop meaning in Marathi, Arabic, Indonesian and Thai

K-pop in Marathi

South Korean pop music
के-पॉप ke-pŏp

K-pop in Arabic

South Korean pop music
كِيْ بُوب kē būb, بُوبْ كُورِيّ būb kūriyy

K-pop in Indonesian

South Korean pop music
K-pop

K-pop in Thai

South Korean pop music
เคป็อป
More languagesFewer languages
K-pop in Vietnamese
K-Pop
K-pop in Myanmar
ကေပေါ့ kepau.

Forms of K-pop

alternative formK-Pop
alternative formKpop
alternative formKPop
pluralK-pops

Origin of K-pop

From K- (“Korean”) + pop, by analogy with J-pop.

From the first letter of ketamine + pop (“lollipop”).

Words formed from K-pop

  • K-popaganda

Questions about K-pop

What does K-pop mean?
K-pop means south Korean pop music influenced by Western styles.
What is K-pop in Marathi?
K-pop in Marathi is के-पॉप (ke-pŏp). See K-pop meaning in Marathi.
What part of speech is K-pop?
K-pop is a noun.
How do you pronounce K-pop?
K-pop is pronounced /ˈkeɪˌpɒp/ (UK).
What is the plural of K-pop?
The plural of K-pop is K-pops.

Words near K-pop in the dictionary

  1. K-particle
  2. K-particles
  3. K-Pg
  4. K-point
  5. K-points
  6. K-pop
  7. K-popper
  8. K-poppers
  9. K-Quarantine
  10. k-rad
  11. K-rage

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: K-pop (page history and authors); K-Pop (page history and authors). 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-K-pop.wav, LL-Q7976 (mis)-BFDICream-K-pop.wav.

Cite this entry: “K-pop.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/k-pop. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.