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moe

nounadjectiveadverbnounverbnouncommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈməʊ.eɪ//
  • United States//ˈmoʊ.eɪ//
  • //məʊ//

Strong interest in, and especially fetishistic attraction towards, fictional characters in anime, manga, video games, and/or similar media.

noun

  1. 1

    slangStrong interest in, and especially fetishistic attraction towards, fictional characters in anime, manga, video games, and/or similar media.

    Someone who is pretty or beautiful isn't moe by definition. Moe characters don't always have to be younger girls, but it certainly helps! In fact, moe characters don't even have to be female! As long as they make you feel like you want to hug and protect them, that's enough!

    Despite its moe roots and preference for hijinks, Bocchi The Rock is a loving celebration of rock music and the joys of being in a band.

Etymology

From Japanese 萌え (moe, “budding, sprouting”), imperfective or continuative form of 萌える (moeru, “to burst into bud, to sprout”).

adjective

  1. 1

    slangCute, adorable. (of fictional characters in anime, manga, video games, and/or similar media)

adverb

  1. 1

    Variant of moobsoleteObsolete form of mo.

  2. 2

    Variant of moreobsoleteObsolete form of more.

    Sing no more ditties, sing no moe.

    The crafty courtiers with their guileful looks, Must needs put some experience in my maw: Yet cannot these with many mast'ries moe Make me shoot straight at any gainful prick […]

Etymology

Variant forms.

noun

  1. 1

    Variant of mowobsoleteObsolete form of mow (“wry face, grimace”).

  2. 2

    Variant of moaobsoleteObsolete form of moa.

verb

  1. 1

    Variant of mooobsoleteObsolete form of moo.

  2. 2

    Variant of mowobsoleteObsolete form of mow (“to make faces”).

noun

  1. 1

    slangA close friend; a nigga, homie or bro.

Forms

plural
moes
comparative
more moe, moe-er
superlative
most moe, moe-est
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).