Word.ws English Dictionary

Korean age

Korean age noun: an age system where a person is considered one year old at birth, and adds one to their age every January 1st. It was formerly used in several East Asian countries.

Noun

Korean age (countable and uncountable, plural Korean ages)

  1. (uncountable) An age system where a person is considered one year old at birth, and adds one to their age every January 1st. It was formerly used in several East Asian countries.
    • Take “Gangnam Style” singer Psy, for example. Born on December 31, 1977, he is considered 45 by international age; 46 by calendar year age; and 47 by Korean age.2023 June 27, Jessie Yeung, Yoonjung Seo, “South Koreans become younger overnight after country scraps ‘Korean age’”, in CNN, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2023
    • There is a second counting method – a mix of the international and Korean age systems – in which a baby is born at zero years, and one year is added every January 1.2023 June 28, “Why are South Koreans suddenly younger? New age system explained”, in Al Jazeera, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2023
  2. (countable) One's age under this system.
    • Yoon Jae-ha, left, shows his international age of eight and Korean age of nine next to his father, Yoon Dong-gun, whose international age is 43 and Korean age is 442023 June 28, “Why are South Koreans suddenly younger? New age system explained”, in Al Jazeera, archived from the original on 03 Dec 2023

Forms of Korean age

pluralKorean ages

Origin of Korean age

The age system was officially used in South Korea until 2023.

Questions about Korean age

What does Korean age mean?
Korean age means an age system where a person is considered one year old at birth, and adds one to their age every January 1st. It was formerly used in several East Asian countries.
What part of speech is Korean age?
Korean age is a noun.
What is the plural of Korean age?
The plural of Korean age is Korean ages.

Words near Korean age in the dictionary

  1. Korea Strait
  2. koreaboo
  3. koreaboos
  4. Koreagate
  5. Korean
  6. Korean age
  7. Korean ages
  8. Korean barbecue
  9. Korean barbecues
  10. Korean BBQ
  11. Korean BBQs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Korean age (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: “Korean age.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/korean_age. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.