Word.ws English Dictionary

songbun

/ˈsɒŋbuːn/

songbun noun: a system of ascribed status in North Korea, based on one's political, social, and economic background and the behaviour of relatives.

Noun

songbun (uncountable)

  1. A system of ascribed status in North Korea, based on one's political, social, and economic background and the behaviour of relatives.
    • And to cap it all, both his family and hers had good songbun, which made their position in society secure. Songbun is a caste system that operates in North Korea.2015, Hyeonseo Lee, The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story

Origin of songbun

Borrowed from Korean 성분(成分) (seongbun), ellipsis of 출신성분(出身成分) (chulsinseongbun).

Questions about songbun

What does songbun mean?
Songbun means a system of ascribed status in North Korea, based on one's political, social, and economic background and the behaviour of relatives.
What part of speech is songbun?
Songbun is a noun.
How do you pronounce songbun?
Songbun is pronounced /ˈsɒŋbuːn/.

Words near songbun in the dictionary

  1. songbirdlike
  2. songbirds
  3. songbook
  4. songbooks
  5. Songbu
  6. songbun
  7. songburst
  8. songbursts
  9. Songco
  10. songcraft
  11. Songculan

Source and license

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