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anime.

An animated work that originated in Japan, regardless of the artistic style.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈæn.ɪ.meɪ/General-American, Received-Pronunciation
  1. An animated work that originated in Japan, regardless of the artistic style.

    countable
  2. An artistic style originating in, and associated with, Japanese animation, and that has also been adopted by a comparatively low number of animated works from other countries.

    uncountable
    I can draw an anime version of you, if you want.
  3. An animated work, regardless of the country of origin.

    countable · proscribed · rare
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁- Proto-Indo-European *-mos Proto-Indo-European *h₂enh₁mos Proto-Italic *anamos Latin animus Latin anima Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Latin -ō Latin animō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin animatiōlbor. English animationbor. Japanese アニメーション (animēshon)clip. Japanese アニメ (anime)bor. English anime Borrowed from Japanese アニメ (anime), an abbreviation of アニメーション (animēshon), itself borrowed from English animation, from Latin animātiō, from animāre.

noun
  1. Alternative spelling of animé (“the resin of the courbaril”).

    alt-of · alternative · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Borrowed from French animé (“animated”) (from the insects that are entrapped in it); or native name.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.