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キモい kimoi
Gross — and it lands harder than it looks.
What does kimoi mean?
気持ち悪い with the middle chopped out: gross, creepy, skin-crawling. Fine about bugs, humidity or your own old diary. Aimed at a person it is a genuine insult, not banter.
Example
昔書いた日記、読み返すとキモい。
Rereading the diary I kept back then — honestly, gross.
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 kimoi
It is 気持ち悪い with the middle taken out, and that shortening is most of the story. The full phrase means unpleasant, sickening, physically wrong. Clipped to two beats it became fast enough for a school corridor, and it spread through teenagers in the 1980s and 1990s before adults picked it up, which is why older speakers still hear something childish in it.
The speed is a trap for learners. Because it sounds light, it gets used lightly: about insects, about wet summer air, about a photo of your younger self. Aimed at a person it is not light at all. It attacks how someone exists rather than anything they did, and that is exactly why the safest target for it is yourself.
Get kimoi in your pocket
キモい 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.
