Meanings
- countableusuallyAn adult woman who behaves childishly, especially a Japanese woman or a woman involved with Japanese culture.
A burikko is a grown woman who acts like a child. She may be sexually active, but she feigns innocence.
1990, Jennie Lo, Office Ladies, Factory Women: Life and Work at a Japanese Company, page 422 more examples
While boy-crazy American girls labor at sophistication, Japanese women of marriageable age tend to act like girls, and are popularly called burikko—“pretending kids.”
1989, Leila Philip, The Road through Miyama, →ISBNThe author is reporting on the high-pitched voice frequently considered a stereotypical feature of the burikko, a derogatory Japanese label used to describe women who exhibit feigned naïveté.
2004, Laura Miller, “You are Doing Burikko!”, in Shigeko Okamoto, Janet Shibamoto Smith, editors, Japanese Language, Gender, and Ideology, →ISBN, page 148 - uncountableusuallyA (Japanese) style or fashion associated with excessive or false cuteness.
Girls laciness is not in Japan Madonna-style lace but rather First Communion lace—but with a perky falseness sometimes called burikko, or false-innocent.
1994, Merry White, The Material Child: Coming of Age in Japan and America, page 129
Origin
- Japaneseぶりっ子
- Englishburikko
From Japanese ぶりっ子 (burikko).
More words from Japanese
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
burikko. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burikko
“burikko.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burikko. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “burikko,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/burikko.
Source: burikko on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.