お姉

Japanese

Kanji in this term
姉
ねえ Grade: 2
kun’yomi

Alternative spellings
御姉 御姐

Etymology

Clipping of お姉さん (onēsan, “older sister”).

Pronunciation

• (Tokyo) おね​え [ònéꜜè] (Nakadaka – [2])
• IPA^(key): [o̞ne̞ː]

Noun

お姉(ねえ) • (onē) 

1. (familiar way of referring) older sister; young lady
2. (slang, LGBT) effeminate male (man with feminine speech and behavior)

Usage notes

• This term is often spelled in hiragana, as おねえ.
• This is an example of a word that can be spelled with katakana to convey an informal conversational tone, as オネエ.