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)
- 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
- 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
| plural | Korean 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
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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “Korean age.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/korean_age. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
