キモい
きもい
kimoi
= gross / creepy / disgusting / repulsive
キモい (kimoi) is blunt, visceral slang for ‘gross,’ ‘creepy,’ or ‘disgusting’ — a contraction of 気持ち悪い (kimochi warui — feeling bad / unpleasant) that has been shortened to its most emotionally direct form. It covers everything from a physical disgust reaction to describing someone whose behavior makes your skin crawl.
Kimoi is a contraction of 気持ち悪い (kimochi warui), dropping the middle syllables to create a snappier, more emphatic expression. It describes: (1) physical disgust — something that looks or smells repulsive; (2) creepy behavior — someone acting in an unsettling or boundary-violating way; (3) an unpleasant atmosphere or situation. The noun form is キモさ (kimosa — grossness/creepiness). Intensified: キモすぎる (kimosugiru — way too gross), めちゃキモい (mecha kimoi — incredibly disgusting).
Kimoi is strong and potentially hurtful — it’s not a mild complaint. Calling someone キモい to their face is a serious insult. In online contexts it functions as a standard negative reaction to creepy behavior (e.g., calling out harassment or uncomfortable comments), but in person the word carries significant social weight. The full form 気持ち悪い is more acceptable in polite settings; kimoi is firmly casual/rude.
キモい is written in katakana to emphasize its slang register. The source phrase 気持ち悪い uses 気 (ki — feeling/spirit), 持ち (mochi — holding), 悪い (warui — bad): ‘holding a bad feeling.’
Everyday use
あの虫、キモいから触れない。
Ano mushi, kimoi kara sawore nai.
That bug is gross, so I can’t touch it.
Casual / Social Media
知らない人から突然DMきた…内容キモすぎて通報した
Shiranai hito kara totsuzen DM kita… naiyou kimosugite tsouhou shita
Got a sudden DM from a stranger… the contents were so creepy I reported them
Formal / Cultural context
インターネット上での不審な接触に対して「キモい」という評価語が用いられることは、当該行為に対する社会的な非承認を端的に示している。
Intaanetto-jou de no fushin na sesshoku ni taishite ‘kimoi’ to iu hyouka-go ga mochiirareru koto wa, toukaikou i ni taisuru shakaiteki na hi-shounin wo tanteki ni shimeshite iru.
The use of the evaluative term ‘kimoi’ in response to suspicious online contact concisely demonstrates social disapproval of such behavior.
キモい has become a standard vocabulary item in online discourse around harassment and boundary-crossing behavior. In Japanese internet culture, calling someone キモい (or its more clinical variant 気持ち悪い) is a direct and commonly used response to unsolicited romantic advances, invasive questions, or stalker-adjacent behavior. It functions as a firm social signal that a line has been crossed, with less formality than filing a complaint but more directness than ignoring the behavior.
The word also appears frequently in anime and manga to describe monster designs, horror elements, and villain aesthetics — as a genre label rather than a purely negative term. Some character and creature designers in horror and dark fantasy genres deliberately aim for a キモかわいい (kimo-kawaii — gross-cute) aesthetic: creatures or designs that are viscerally unsettling but also strangely endearing. This aesthetic paradox — finding cute something that should disgust — is a distinct feature of certain corners of Japanese pop culture design.
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