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イキる ikiru
Acting way tougher than they are.
What does ikiru mean?
Puffing up, talking big, walking like the main character. Teasing a close friend with it is fine; saying it about someone behind their back is a jab.
Example
先輩の前だと急にイキるよね。
You suddenly get all cocky in front of the seniors, huh.
Vibe
Who you can say this to, and how it lands.
Be careful This one carries weight. Read the meaning and the story before you say it to anyone.
Aimed at another person, this is an insult.
The story behind ikiru
The trail leads west. イキる is generally traced to Kansai speech, where いきる carried the sense of getting carried away with yourself, and it kept a whiff of delinquent vocabulary for a long time before the internet adopted it wholesale in the 2010s.
What it targets is very specific: not confidence, but the performance of confidence by someone the audience has already measured. That is why it stings. The tell is usually a voice slightly too loud for the room, and the word arrives to name the gap. There is a self-applied version, half apology and half brag, which is the only genuinely safe way to use it.
Get ikiru in your pocket
イキる is one of 308 words in YABAI, a Japanese culture snack for Android. Every word comes with its meaning, an example sentence, a vibe check and a story like the one above — in 13 languages, read aloud by your device. Paid app: no ads, no sign-up, no subscription.
