Word.ws English Dictionary

kisaeng

kisaeng noun: a member of a traditional Korean caste of female entertainers, whose work often included prostitution.

kisaeng: a member of a traditional Korean caste of female entertainers, whose work often included...
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Noun

kisaeng (plural kisaengs or kisaeng)

  1. (historical) A member of a traditional Korean caste of female entertainers, whose work often included prostitution.
    • These raw emotions and unpolished behaviors are placed against the seductive, perfected armor of the kisaeng, whose skill as the ultimate purveyors of fantasy is belied by the almost caustic loneliness threading through their poems.2009 March 3, Claudia La Rocco, “Currents of Desire, With an Assist From the Audience”, in New York Times

Forms of kisaeng

pluralkisaengs
pluralkisaeng
alternative formgisaeng

Origin of kisaeng

Borrowed from Korean 기생(妓生) (gisaeng).

Questions about kisaeng

What does kisaeng mean?
Kisaeng means a member of a traditional Korean caste of female entertainers, whose work often included prostitution.
What part of speech is kisaeng?
Kisaeng is a noun.
What is the plural of kisaeng?
The plural of kisaeng is kisaengs.

Words near kisaeng in the dictionary

  1. Kiryat Tiv'on
  2. Kiryl
  3. kis
  4. kis-kilim
  5. kis-kilims
  6. kisaeng
  7. kisaengs
  8. Kisamore
  9. Kisamores
  10. Kisan
  11. Kisan Path

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: kisaeng (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.

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