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  • Korean
    Korean
    adjective
    of or relating to Korea, its inhabitants, or their language.
  • korean
    korean
    adjective
    of or relating to Korea, its people, or their language

Korean

American  
[kuh-ree-uhn, kaw-, koh-] / kəˈri ən, kɔ-, koʊ- /

adjective

  1. of or relating to Korea, its inhabitants, or their language.


noun

  • Koreans
    plural
  1. a native or inhabitant of South Korea or North Korea.

  2. the language of South Korea or North Korea. Kor

korean British  
/ kəˈriːən /

adjective

  1. of or relating to Korea, its people, or their language

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

noun

  1. a native or inhabitant of Korea

  2. the official language of North and South Korea, considered by some scholars to be part of the Altaic family of languages

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

Etymology

Origin of Korean

First recorded in 1605–15; Kore(a) + -an

Compare meaning

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Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

US and South Korean military leaders announced the Ulchi Freedom shield in a joint press conference last week.

From BBC Aug. 19, 2026

At the time, they said the event would be similar in scale to previous years, with about 18,000 South Korean soldiers participating.

From BBC Aug. 19, 2026

Last week, Colonel Ryan Donald, spokesman for the US-South Korean Combined Forces Command, said the allies would prepare troops for a potential fight against North Korean forces battle-hardened in Europe.

From Barron's Aug. 18, 2026

Then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in organized a last-ditch gathering of all three leaders at the Korean demilitarized zone in 2019, but it failed to break the deadlock.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 18, 2026

My grandmother did give me a Korean video game once.

From "The Science of Breakable Things" by Tae Keller

All the non “A” places seem to be the korean bbq and japanese shabu restaurants where the customer cooks their own raw meat.

From New York Times Jul. 28, 2010

Appeared in the August 17, 2026, print edition as 'U.S. to Cut Exercises With South Koreans'.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 16, 2026

Producer Emma Scott and reporter Sam Kessler: Last summer, we got our hands on a trove of leaked data from computers used by North Koreans working undercover at American companies.

From The Wall Street Journal Aug. 14, 2026

More Koreans live there than in any city in the United States besides New York or Los Angeles.

From Los Angeles Times Jul. 22, 2026

Isolating North Koreans from the outside world has always been central to the Kim family's survival.

From BBC Jul. 17, 2026

Most of the people he encountered were not alarmed by or interested in North Koreans.

From "Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea to Freedom in the West" by Blaine Harden

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