mune-kyun 胸キュン

In Japanese, mune-kyun 胸キュン, or mune ga kyun to suru 胸がキュンとする, is an expression used when someone falls in love or finds something adorable, cute, moe 萌え, and so on.

Literally, it means for one's "chest," mune 胸, to "tighten," with kyun キュン being a phenomime for that *tightening.*

It's also spelled kyuun キューン, with a long vowel, as if it were an onomatopoeia with a longer sound.

• Examples

Examples

For reference, some examples:

Manga: Glass Mask, Garasu no Gamen ガラスの仮面 (Chapter 10, 冬の星座)

• Context: the audience watching the theater play Futari no Joou ふたりの女王, "The Two Queens," is charmed by the adorable queen Ardis.
• kirei dashi, yasashii shi, akarui shi, kawaii shi...
  きれいだし　やさしいし　明るいし　可愛いし･･･
  [She] is pretty, is gentle, is cheerful, is cute...
  • akarui
    明るい
    Bright. Well-lit. The opposite of dark.
    Cheerful.
• ore, mune-kyun! daze
  オレ胸キュン！だぜ
  [I'm in love!]

Some similar mimetic words:

Manga: Doushirou degozaru 道士朗でござる (Chapter 9, 恋の予感)

• Context: guy sees girl smiling.
• gyuu
  ギュウ
  *[chest] tightening*

Manga: Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san からかい上手の高木さん (Chapter 1, 消しゴム)

• doki'
  ドキッ
  *thump*

Anime: Watashi, Nouryoku wa Heikinchi de tte Itta yo ne! 私、能力は平均値でって言ったよね！ (Episode 4)

• moe moe kyun
  萌え萌えキュン
  (a mostly meaningless cute phrase often used by maids in moe anime.)