Pop Culture dictionary
chibi
What does chibi mean?
Chibi describes an art style common in anime featuring characters with large heads, large eyes, and small bodies.
Where does chibi come from?
In Japanese, chibi can refer to a “small person (with dwarfism),” “small animal (runt),” or, with affection or annoyance, a “small child (pipsqueak)” according to the online dictionary Jisho.
Thanks to its connotations of smallness and cuteness, the word chibi is also used describe a certain type of anime character. This style, known more formally as super-deformed or SD style, features highly exaggerated childlike proportions, with heads sometimes as much as four times the size of the bodies. The style is often used in anime to emphasize changes in mood or call attention to the punchline of a joke.
Chibi appears in 19th-century English-Japanese dictionaries. In the 1960–70s, Chibi appears as a nickname for a bullied young Japanese boy in teaching guides aimed and expanding students’ multicultural understanding. Chibi is also the name of duckling in a late 1990s Japanese-based children’s book.
The 1990s anime and manga Sailor Moon, though, likely brought the popular sense of chibi to English-speaking shores in a widespread way. In it, there’s a popular character called Chibiussa, who demonstrates chibi characteristics.
Examples of chibi
Who uses chibi?
Chibi has a broad range of applications. You can have one chibi or two chibi (or chibis, if you prefer to pluralize it in the English-language style). You can draw characters chibi style or in chibi form. In doing so, you’ll have chibified them. If you like to draw chibified characters, you might gain a reputation as a chibi artist.
As with the Japanese meaning, some English speakers use chibi as an affectionate nickname for a friend. This can sometimes be seen as insulting, much like shorty or small fry, so avoid using with someone you aren’t on familiar terms with.
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of chibi like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of chibi that will help our users expand their word mastery.