visual kei

/ˌvɪʒuːəl ˈkeɪ/UK/ˌvɪzjuːəl ˈkeɪ//ˈvɪʒəl ˈkeɪ/

noun

A Japanese music and fashion movement that emerged in the 1980s, characterized by a bold, extravagant, androgynous style influenced by glam rock and goth culture.

OriginEnglish visual →
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

visual kei1

nounvisual kei (uncountable)
  1. uncountableentertainmentA Japanese music and fashion movement that emerged in the 1980s, characterized by a bold, extravagant, androgynous style influenced by glam rock and goth culture.

    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>

Visual Kei2

nounVisual Kei (uncountable)
  1. uncountableAlternative letter-case form of visual kei

Visual kei3

nounVisual kei (uncountable)
  1. uncountableAlternative letter-case form of visual kei.

Origin

  1. Englishvisual
  2. Englishvisual kei

From Japanese ヴィジュアル系(けい) (vijuaru-kei, literally “visual style”), composed of ヴィジュアル (vijuaru, “visual”), itself from English visual, and 系 (kei, “style”).

More words from English

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

visual kei. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/visual%20kei

MLA

“visual kei.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/visual%20kei. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “visual kei,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/visual%20kei.

Source: visual kei on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.