Word.ws English Dictionary

sunbae

sunbae noun: an upperclassman or senior, in the context of Korea.

Noun

sunbae (plural sunbaes)

  1. An upperclassman or senior, in the context of Korea.
    • When students start their freshmen year in college, they are taken care of by their sunbaes, who give them various advice about school.2012, Seung Hee Yoo, David Matsumoto, “Korean Culture Explored Through Survey Research”, in Anastacia Kurylo, editor, Inter/Cultural Communication: Representation and Construction of Culture, page 400
    • On September 14-15 of this year, led by their sunbaes (upperclassmen), excited students wearing blue for Yonsei and red for Korea University converged upon Jamsil Sports Complex to support their athletic teams in the tradition-laden sports competition.2012, Tatyana Yun, "The Sound And The Passion: Yonko Games 2012", The UIC Scribe (Underwood International College, Yonsei University), Winter 2012, page 46
  2. (South Korean idol fandom) An older or more experienced idol, viewed as a veteran, mentor, or predecessor.
    • While it did seem like TWICE was set on the fast track to stardom – after all, the JYP darlings were expected to follow in the footsteps of their 'Tell Me' sunbaes – their road to success was far from smooth-sailing.2017 May, Chew Hui Ling, “All About The TWICEcoaster”, in Teenage, page 43
    • Winner and iKon learned and grew by following their sunbaes' (seniors) footsteps.2019 June 23, Sabah S. Themis, “YG Bows Out From His Entertainment Company”, in BusinessMirror, page 5

Examples of sunbae in a sentence

  • Minwoo was an active participant in Korean sporting clubs, hung out with Korean sunbaes [seniors] in his department and lived with Korean roommates in his dormitory.2016, Julie Choi, Creating a Multivocal Self: Autoethnography as Method, page 55:
  • The members were decked out in classic 90s fashion which was very reminiscent of their sunbaes H.O.T.2019 August, Helen Rodgers, “NCT 127: Live In London”, in UKP Magazine, page 12:

Forms of sunbae

pluralsunbaes
alternative formseonbae

Origin of sunbae

Borrowed from Korean 선배(先輩) (seonbae, “senior”). Doublet of senpai.

Questions about sunbae

What does sunbae mean?
Sunbae means an upperclassman or senior, in the context of Korea.
How do you use sunbae in a sentence?
Minwoo was an active participant in Korean sporting clubs, hung out with Korean sunbaes [seniors] in his department and lived with Korean roommates in his dormitory.
What part of speech is sunbae?
Sunbae is a noun.
What is the plural of sunbae?
The plural of sunbae is sunbaes.

Words near sunbae in the dictionary

  1. sunangels
  2. Sunapee
  3. Sunapee trout
  4. sunback
  5. sunbacks
  6. sunbae
  7. sunbaes
  8. sunbake
  9. sunbaked
  10. sunbaker
  11. sunbakers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sunbae (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-sunbae.wav.

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