cosplay
Americannoun
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the art or practice of wearing costumes to portray characters from fiction, especially from manga, animation, and science fiction.
-
a skit featuring these costumed characters.
verb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of cosplay
Explanation
The hobby of dressing up like your favorite fictional character is cosplay. Your city's annual science fiction convention is a perfect opportunity for cosplay. Cosplay was coined in Japan in 1984 as a portmanteau of costume and play, or roleplay — and that's exactly what cosplay is. Rather than simply dressing up, cosplay involves performing a character. Attend a Comic Con and you'll see a wide variety of cosplay: characters from TV and anime, video games, Marvel movies, Star Wars and Dr. Who. If you've always wanted to be General Okoye from Black Panther, cosplay makes it possible!
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:
"To get into cosplay, to sit down and watch a movie, I mean, that's dedication," she says.
From BBC ● Jun. 5, 2026
“You get to cosplay who you want to be and how you live your life.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 6, 2026
Ten years later, he was tiring of breaking news assignments and stashed away his “TV News cosplay gear” to ring in 2025.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2026
It has become an all-conquering meme sparking its own fan fiction and cosplay characters.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
Grate in a little carrot and suddenly you’ve made breakfast cosplay as carrot cake.
From Salon ● Nov. 13, 2025
A favorite look: One of Livingston’s favorite cosplays isn’t any character you’ve heard of — it’s his original character from Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy tabletop role-playing game.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2024
In a 2014 educational special — which takes place in a fictional NumberCon convention — Abby cosplays as "One-Da-Woman," a spoof of DC Comics' Wonder Woman.
From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2021
Robert Franzese, 33, has entertained millions of fans in the last decade with his Peter Griffin cosplays and impressions, according to South West News Service.
From Fox News ● Oct. 14, 2021
Joined by Balvin and Puerto Rican rapper Anuel AA, Karol cosplays a cowgirl in the video for her western-themed song “Location,” which fuses American country music, dance pop and Latin trap.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2021
Green cosplays over a dozen characters and a chunk of them are skilled in martial arts, which the 37-year-old Milford resident has trained in for nearly 30 years, while others are vampires.
From Washington Times ● Feb. 6, 2021
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
