bishonen

B3I1S1H4O1N1E1N1

noun

An Asian aesthetic of young men whose beauty (and sex appeal) transcends the boundary of gender or sexual orientation, found in manga, etc.

OriginJapanese 美少年 ← Middle Chinese 美 →
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Meanings

nounbishonen (uncountable)

alternative bishounen

  1. uncountableAn Asian aesthetic of young men whose beauty (and sex appeal) transcends the boundary of gender or sexual orientation, found in manga, etc.

    Incidentally, I'm not sure you're bucking the trend so much as going along with it; FTM crossplay is getting pretty popular, although you see more women going for bishounen and visual-kei genderfucky stars than anything else.

    2001 May 22, Wednesday, “Re: 'There are only 500 REAL anime fans in the UK'”, in uk.media.animation.anime (Usenet), message-ID <-6y*A5OWo@news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>

Origin

  1. Middle Chinese美“beautiful”
  2. Japanese美少年
  3. Englishbishonen

Borrowed from Japanese 美少年 (bishōnen びしょうねん), from Middle Chinese 美 (mij^X, “beautiful”) + 少年 (syewᴴ nen, “teenaged boy”) (compare Mandarin 少年 (shàonián)).

More words from Japanese, Middle Chinese

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

shinbone
Cite this entry
APA

bishonen. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bishonen

MLA

“bishonen.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bishonen. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “bishonen,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/bishonen.

Source: bishonen on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.