きゃぱい［乙～スラ（３４）］

Fuga · September 2, 2025, 1:24am

Hey everyone

みんなの夏休みはもう終わったかな？夏休み中仕事していた皆さん、乙です！

さて、今日も新しいスラングを紹介するゾー！

今日のトピックはきゃぱい！

きゃぱい

This is an abbreviation of the word キャパオーバー, which just means ‘over capacity’ and has the same meaning as the origin of the word.

In English, you may use ‘over capacity’ with a negative nuance, however in Japanese キャパオーバー can used with either a positive or a negative nuance.

When used with a negative nuance, it has the nuance that the speaker has reached their limit. However, when it is used with a positive nuance, it has the nuance that the speaker thinks that what they are talking about is the greatest thing ever.

Examples:

Negative:

どんな方法を使っても、漢字が全然覚えられなくてキャパオーバーになってきてる。

I am starting to feel discouraged (reach my limit) because no matter what method I use, I cannot retain kanji.

Positive:

お前の作る飯はいつもキャパオーバーだな。

The meals you make are always super good!

Origin

As you could probably see キャパオーバー is a VERY LONG word, and a model by the name of ゆうちゃみ also had the same thought when a friend of hers kept using it in conversations, so she just suggested to use きゃぱい instead since it was shorter.

Since this took less time to type and say, people started to use this word both online and in IRL.

キャパい？きゃぱい？

Since this is an abbreviation of the katakana word キャパオーバー, it should be written in katakana, right?

Although it is originally a katakana word, some younger people prefer to use hiragana for this word since it ‘looks cuter’. This means that if you see it written in hiragana, it is not a typo, it is a stylized choice.

Use as a slang

Just like the original word キャパオーバー, it can be used in both positive and negative situations.

Examples:

Positive:
〇〇ちゃんの新曲聴いた？！マジできゃぱいから聴いてみ！

Did you listen to 〇〇chan’s new song? It is absolutely the best so you should give it a listen!

Negative:
ここ人多すぎてきゃぱい。

This place is way too crowded.

きゃぱい？やばい？

Although these are different words, they can generally be interchangeable. However, きゃぱい has the added nuance of something exceeding expectations or a limit.

Final note

Although anyone can use this, due to the origin of this word and the demographic that started using this word, it is sort of a feminine word. Due to this, it may not sound too natural in certain contexts. When I say ‘may not sound too natural’ I don’t mean it in the grammatical sense, but in the sense that it makes the other person think, ‘huh, that’s kinda weird when they use that’. The similar ‘weird’ feeling you get when you hear an older person uses very new slang.

今日はここまで！

いつも最後まで読んでくれてありがとう！

Fuga

If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out here!

Previous posts

PS: If you are interested, I have made a deck that has most of the slang that I have covered so far, and more will be added as this series continues!