Korean Body Parts: Learn Words for Body Parts With Pronunciation Audio
Last updated: March 13, 2026
Whether you're describing symptoms at a doctor's office, talking about exercise, or just following along with Korean variety shows where hosts are always pointing at their faces and making jokes, knowing Korean body part words makes everything click. Plus, Korean body part vocabulary has some interesting quirks, like how 배 (bae) means stomach but also pear, which confused me for weeks when I was starting out.
Head and face vocabulary
Let's start with the head, which is 머리 (meori) in Korean. This word pulls double duty as both "head" and "hair," which you figure out from context. When Koreans want to be specific about hair, they might say 머리카락 (meorikarak), but 머리 works fine most of the time.
Korean | English |
|---|---|
얼굴 | Face |
눈 | Eyes |
눈썹 | Eyebrows (literally "eye-hair") |
속눈썹 | Eyelashes |
코 | Nose |
귀 | Ears |
입 | Mouth |
이 | Teeth |
혀 | Tongue |
입술 | Lips |
턱 | Chin |
볼 | Cheeks |
이마 | Forehead |
목 | Neck |
One pronunciation tip: Korean has some sounds that don't exist in English, but most of these face-related words are pretty approachable for beginners. The trickiest might be 눈썹 with that double consonant ㅆ, which is a tense 's' sound.
Upper body parts
Korean | English |
|---|---|
어깨 | Shoulders |
가슴 | Chest / Breast / Heart (emotional sense, depending on context) |
팔 | Arm |
팔뚝 | Upper arm |
아래팔 | Forearm (literally "lower arm") |
팔꿈치 | Elbow |
손 | Hands |
손가락 | Fingers |
엄지손가락 | Thumb |
손바닥 | Palm |
손목 | Wrist (combines "hand" and "neck") |
등 | Back |
허리 | Waist / Lower back |
배 | Stomach / Belly (same pronunciation as "pear" — context is your friend) |
Korean vocabulary for the lower body
Korean | English |
|---|---|
다리 | Legs |
허벅지 | Thighs |
종아리 | Calves |
무릎 | Knee |
발 | Feet |
발가락 | Toes (following the same pattern as fingers) |
발목 | Ankle (literally "foot-neck") |
엉덩이 | Hip / Buttocks (a common word in everyday Korean without particular awkwardness) |
Internal body parts and organs
Korean has specific vocabulary for internal anatomy too, though you might not use these as often in casual conversation. Still worth knowing for medical situations or health discussions.
Korean | English |
|---|---|
심장 | Heart (the actual organ) |
가슴 | Heart (emotional sense) |
뇌 | Brain |
폐 | Lungs |
간 | Liver |
콩팥 / 신장 | Kidneys |
위 | Stomach (the organ) |
배 | Belly area (external) |
뼈 | Bones |
피 | Blood |
피부 | Skin (combines "blood" and "surface") |
근육 | Muscles |
Common phrases using body part vocabulary
Learning the vocabulary list is one thing, but seeing how Koreans actually use these words makes them stick better. Here are some phrases you'll encounter:
- 머리가 아파요 (meoriga apayo) means "my head hurts" or "I have a headache." You can swap in any body part before 아파요 to say it hurts.
- 눈이 나빠요 (nuni nappayo) means "my eyesight is bad." Literally "eyes are bad."
- 손이 크다 (soni keuda), literally "hands are big," is an idiom meaning someone is generous or gives large portions.
- 발이 넓다 (bali neolda), "feet are wide," means someone has a wide social network. Korean uses body parts metaphorically all the time.
- 배가 고파요 (baega gopayo) is "I'm hungry," literally "stomach is empty."
Building your Korean vocabulary of different body parts
- Start with the most common parts you'd use in everyday conversation: 머리, 눈, 코, 입, 손, 발, 배. Get those down solid before worrying about eyelashes and knuckles.
- Make flashcards or use spaced repetition to drill the vocabulary. Seeing the Hangul, hearing the pronunciation, and connecting it to the English meaning repeatedly is how this stuff moves into long-term memory.
- Label things in your environment if that helps you. Stick a note that says 손 on your hand sanitizer, or 발 near your shoes. Sounds dorky but it works.
- Watch Korean content and pay attention when characters mention body parts. You'd be surprised how often it comes up. Someone's always got a 두통 (headache) or needs to 세수하다 (wash their face).
- Try describing yourself or others in Korean using this vocabulary. "My 머리 is brown. My friend has long 다리." Simple sentences that use the words in context help way more than just memorizing lists.
Anyway, if you want to actually practice this vocabulary with real Korean content, Migaku's browser extension and app let you look up words instantly while watching shows or reading articles. Makes learning from immersion way more practical than just drilling vocabulary lists. There's a 10-day free trial if you want to check it out.
FAQs
Lists of body parts vocabulary are useful, but real Korean doesn't sound like that
People combine these words with verbs, adjectives, and particles to make actual sentences. And some body parts appear in fixed expressions that don't translate literally. Learning these as chunks rather than word-by-word helps. Start getting familiar with body parts in Korean with lists, but use immersion practice to learn how to use words for body parts in context.
If you consume media in Korean, and you understand at least some of the messages and sentences within that media, you will make progress. Period.
There is no shortcuts to learn Korean language.