Top 10 Most Popular Korean Swear Words

'Ssibal' is the most popular Korean swear word. You can compare it to the English 'fuck', and it's used for absolutely everything.

Koreans have a deep-rooted cultural aversion to dogs in their language. This word combines 'gae' (dog) with 'saekki' (offspring) and is the direct equivalent of son of a bitch.

On its own, this word simply means offspring or a young animal. As soon as you apply it to an adult human, the meaning changes and it becomes an insult.

When someone truly loses all logic, you reach for this term. 'Michin' means crazy, and the ending adapts to gender ('nom' for a man and 'nyeon' for a woman).

This is one of the most controversial terms in the Korean language. It was originally used for people with a physical disability (which makes the term very loaded today).

Literally this means 'eat yeot', a traditional sticky Korean candy. The underlying meaning, however, is anything but sweet.

The Korean expression 'kkeo-jyeo' means get lost or disappear and leaves little doubt about what you think of the person in front of you. In movies you often see characters making a dismissive hand gesture as they shout it.

'Jenjang' is the Korean version of 'darn' or 'damn'. It's an exclamation for when things go wrong without immediately needing the heaviest artillery.

'Jiral' describes someone who talks nonsense or behaves ridiculously. Its literal origin refers to an old-fashioned word for epileptic fits, which explains its heavy charge.

'Babo' means dummy or idiot and is used daily between friends teasing each other. Its soft sounds make it almost cute (which explains why it also pops up in K-dramas as a kind of term of endearment).