Dictionary — Entry No. 0562
가슴
gaseum · noun
가슴
gaseum
[KAH-seum]
nounbeginner
Meaning
Means ‘chest’ as a body part but is overwhelmingly used to express the emotional heart — feelings of longing, heartbreak, excitement, and deep love. When Koreans say 가슴이 아파요, they almost always mean emotional pain, not a physical symptom. It bridges body and soul in the language.
K-Pop & K-Drama Context
EXO’s ballads and emotional tracks frequently invoke 가슴 imagery to describe heartache and love. The drama ‘It’s Okay to Not Be Okay’ uses chest/heart language throughout Moon Gang-tae’s emotional journey as a caregiver. In K-Pop fan culture, fans say ‘가슴이 두근두근해요’ when their bias appears — a universal fangirl/fanboy experience.
Example Sentences
가슴이 아파요.
Gaseumi apayo.
My heart hurts. (Emotional pain — hearing this in a drama almost always means heartbreak, not a hospital visit.)
가슴이 두근두근해요.
Gaseumi dugeun-dugeunhaeyo.
My heart is pounding / racing. (The go-to phrase for excitement, nervousness, or seeing your bias.)
그 노래가 가슴에 와닿아요.
Geu noraega gaseum-e wadadayo.
That song really touches my heart. (How fans describe tracks that hit them emotionally.)
⚠️ Don’t use gaseum when…
For actual chest pain symptoms, use 흉부 (chest, clinical) or simply describe the pain — saying 가슴이 아파요 to a doctor may be interpreted as emotional distress first. Also, 가슴이 아프다 never means you’re physically sore from exercise; 근육통 covers that.
🎵 Heard In
- K-Drama: It’s Okay to Not Be Okay — Moon Gang-tae’s emotional wounds are described throughout with 가슴 language, making it one of the drama’s most emotionally resonant vocabulary threads.
- K-Pop: EXO — ‘Die For You’ (the ballad’s 가슴-deep emotional lyrics about sacrificial love are a masterclass in Korean heart/chest emotional vocabulary)
ℹ️ Editorial Note: The cultural context and example usage are for educational reference only. Artist names, song titles, and drama references are used descriptively to illustrate vocabulary in context. This content is AI-assisted and reviewed for accuracy. For official information, please refer to the respective artists’ or studios’ official channels.