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What does “댕댕이” mean in Korean?

댕댕이 is the cutesy Korean internet word for “doggo.” It started as a playful misspelling of 멍멍이 (meongmeongi), the everyday word for a dog, built from 멍멍 (“woof-woof”). Online, people noticed that 멍 and 댕 look almost identical in small Hangul on a screen, so they swapped 멍멍 for 댕댕 as a visual pun. The result is warmer and goofier than the plain word.

The joke is purely visual: at small sizes 멍 and 댕 are easy to confuse, so the “wrong” reading became the affectionate one — much like writing “doggo” instead of “dog.” It spread from online communities to TV variety shows and is now widely understood, though still casual. In the clip, the narrator calls the snoozing dog 댕댕이 (“꿀잠중인 댕댕이” — a doggo in a deep sleep) as a mosquito makes the mistake of landing on its nose.