Korean Loanwords in the Oxford English Dictionary

The recent increase in the number of Korean words included in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) can be attributed to the global popularity of K-pop and K-dramas, through which related terms have come to be used worldwide as “cultural concepts” in communication. Furthermore, the inclusion of a substantial number of Korean loanwords in the OED reflects broader changes in the global linguistic environment. These terms are not temporary slang, rather, they represent stable cultural concepts that English speakers increasingly recognize and use as communicative terms without the need for additional explanation. The research data consist of a total of 65 Korean words, based on eight Korean terms (ramyeon, haenyeo, sunbae, bingsu, jjimjilbang, ajumma, Korean barbecue, and officetel) that were newly added to the OED in January 2026. The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the orthographic and linguistic characteristics of Korean words recorded in the OED, thereby examining the current status of their inclusion and exploring possible improvements to the criteria for future entries. The scope of the study includes the history and number of Korean word entries in the OED, the orthographic and linguistic characteristics of recorded Korean words, the classification of Korean entries by semantic domain, and the status of Japanese lexical entries and their relationship to Korean. The significance of this study lies in its analysis of the factors behind the increasing inclusion of Korean words, the implications of the globalization of Korean vocabulary, and the examination of ten lexical items including “dalgona”, which appears as a headword in the OED but not in the Standard Korean Language Dictionary. It also addresses issues related to their inclusion, proposes candidate words for future entries, and analyzes the status of similar Korean and Japanese lexical items in the OED, offering suggestions for improvement.