시무룩하다 (simurukhada)

시무룩하다 (simurukhada) describes the state of being displeased about something, so your words dry up and an unhappy look settles over your face — in other words, “something has rubbed me the wrong way, so my mouth is shut and my expression has gone stiff.” In Korean dramas, whenever a kid sits at the dinner table just pushing rice grains around with chopsticks, the adult beside them always asks the same thing: “쟤 왜 저렇게 시무룩해? (jyae wae jeoreoke simurukhae?)” — “Why is that kid so sulky?” No yelling, no crying, just a quietly closed mouth with displeasure floating on the face — that is exactly 시무룩하다 (simurukhada).

Korean has an unusual number of words for being in a bad mood. Among them, 시무룩하다 (simurukhada) occupies the “quiet displeasure” slot with real precision. It sinks rather than flares; it folds inward rather than bursting outward. And one more thing — this is usually a word someone else says about you. So learning it also shows you how hard Korean speakers work at reading each other’s faces.

For 시무룩하다 (simurukhada) to hold, three conditions all have to be met. First, there is something you’re displeased about. Feeling low for no reason at all isn’t 시무룩하다. Second, you say less. If you argue or shout, that’s getting angry, not being 시무룩하다. Third, it shows on your face. If you swallow it all inside and your expression stays perfectly normal, nobody can tell — so nobody can call you 시무룩하다 either. A reason + silence + a face: those three come as a set.

The intensity isn’t high, and it doesn’t last long. It’s an emotion that runs for a few hours, a day at most. Its weight is completely different from 우울하다 (uulhada), which points to a long, depressive sinking, and it lives in an entirely different room from 침통하다 (chimtonghada), where grief has settled in heavily. For someone who is 시무룩한, a plate of tteokbokki or a single joke will do the trick. That’s the temperature of this word.

Since it’s an adjective, learning its inflected forms lets you use it right away. 시무룩한 얼굴 (simurukhan eolgul, “a sulky face”), 시무룩하게 앉아 있다 (simurukhage anja itda, “to sit there sulking”), 시무룩해 있다 (simurukhae itda, the state continuing), and 시무룩해지다 (simurukhaejida, becoming that way) — those four cover 90% of real conversation.

Checking the National Institute of Korean Language dictionary

시무룩하다 (simurukhada) 「adjective」 못마땅하여 말이 없고 얼굴에 언짢은 빛이 있다. (Being displeased, one says nothing and has an unhappy shade on the face.) — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

The three conditions we just described are sitting right inside the definition. ‘못마땅하여 (motmattanghayeo, “being displeased”)’ is the reason, ‘말이 없고 (mari eopgo, “says nothing”)’ is the silence, and ‘얼굴에 언짢은 빛이 있다 (eolgure eonjjaneun bichi itda, “has an unhappy shade on the face”)’ is the expression. The phrase 언짢은 빛 (eonjjaneun bit) is especially nice. Not an angry face, but a ‘빛 (bit)’ — a light, a tint — meaning a faint shade drawn across the face. That’s where you can confirm it’s thin, not strong.

Here are the multilingual equivalents the same dictionary attaches.

English: sulky; sullen; morose — Saying little, with a displeased look.

Japanese: さえない【冴えない】/ ぶっちょうづらをする【仏頂面をする】 — 気に入らなくて、黙って不機嫌な顔をしている。

Spanish: taciturno, hosco, huraño, deprimido — Que está con mala cara y sin decir nada por molestarse.

Chinese: 闷闷不乐，不开心 — 不满意却不说，脸上有不高兴的深情。 — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

Seeing English sulky, Japanese 仏頂面, Spanish hosco, and Chinese 闷闷不乐 lined up side by side gives you the feel of it. They all sit on the “not talking, face gone stiff” side, not the “exploding” side.

One note: the dictionary above does not carry a Portuguese definition. For Portuguese-speaking learners, we should make clear that the line below is not a dictionary quotation but our own translation.

Portuguese (our own translation): amuado; emburrado — que fala pouco e fica de cara fechada por estar descontente.

The actual usage example the dictionary provides is this one sentence.

표정이 시무룩하다. (The expression is sulky.) — National Institute of Korean Language, Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr)

표정이 시무룩하다 (pyojeong-i simurukhada) — short, but the whole character of the word is in there. Notice that the subject isn’t a person but the 표정 (pyojeong, “expression”). ‘그가 시무룩하다 (geuga simurukhada, “he is sulky”)’ works too, of course, but in Korean it’s very natural to put the face, the expression, or the mood-tint in the subject slot like this. Picture yourself looking over a friend you haven’t seen in a while and half-muttering, “어? 오늘 표정이 시무룩하다? (eo? oneul pyojeong-i simurukhada?)” — “Huh, your face looks kind of down today?” Instead of pointing straight at the person and pressing them with “너 기분 나쁘지? (neo gibun nappeuji?, “You’re upset, aren’t you?”)”, it’s a way of touching the subject carefully, with the face placed as one layer in between.

Seeing it in a real conversation

Scene: Saturday afternoon, in front of an apartment building’s main gate. Jun-kyung has just sold the bike he rode for five years through a secondhand deal. Emily comes out holding two convenience-store coffees.

Jun-kyung: 방금 가져갔어. 트럭에 싣고 가더라. He just took it. Loaded it onto a truck and drove off.

Emily: 야, 표정 왜 그래. 아침부터 계속 시무룩해 있더라. Hey, what’s with that face? You’ve been sulking since this morning.

Jun-kyung: 아니 뭐… 그냥 좀 그러네. 5년 탔거든, 저거. It’s nothing, just… you know. I rode that thing for five years.

Emily: 팔자고 한 건 너잖아. 그래놓고 시무룩하니까 내가 다 미안해지네. You’re the one who wanted to sell it. And now you’re moping, so I end up feeling bad.

Jun-kyung: 미안하긴. 새 주인이 나보다 잘 타고 다니겠지 뭐. Don’t be. The new owner will probably ride it better than I did.

Emily: 그래, 그럼 그 얼굴 좀 펴. 떡볶이 사 줄게. Right. So unfurrow that face. I’ll buy you tteokbokki.

There are two things in this conversation you’d hate to miss. One is that Emily doesn’t ask Jun-kyung “너 기분 나빠? (neo gibun nappa?, “Are you upset?”)” — she opens with “표정 왜 그래 (pyojeong wae geurae, “what’s with that face”)”. With someone who is 시무룩한, leading with the face is far more natural than asking about the feeling directly. The other is the last line, “그 얼굴 좀 펴 (geu eolgul jom pyeo)”. In Korean, a sulky expression is pictured as something crumpled, so you undo it by smoothing it out — 펴다 (pyeoda). It’s the idiom that pairs with 시무룩하다, so it’s worth memorizing whole.

This usage sounds off

✗ (at a funeral) 오늘 다들 시무룩하시네요. (oneul dadeul simurukhasineyo.) ✓ (at a funeral) 다들 많이 침통해하시네요. (dadeul mani chimtonghaehasineyo.) → 시무룩하다 (simurukhada) is a light emotion that comes from being displeased. Using it in a place of deep sorrow or mourning shrinks the bereaved family’s feelings down to a child’s sulk. In heavy settings, use 침통하다 (chimtonghada) or 말이 없으시다 (mari eopseusida, “he/she is keeping quiet”).

✗ (right after a meeting, to your department head) 부장님, 아까부터 시무룩하시던데 무슨 일 있으세요? (bujangnim, akkabuteo simurukhasideonde museun il isseuseyo?) ✓ (right after a meeting, to your department head) 부장님, 안색이 안 좋으신 것 같은데 괜찮으세요? (bujangnim, ansaegi an joeusin geot gateunde gwaenchaneuseyo?) → The grammar is fine, but the social footing is off. 시무룩하다 (simurukhada) carries a hint of ‘삐쳐 있다 (ppichyeo itda, “being in a huff”)’, so attaching it to a senior’s expression comes out sounding like “Why are you pouting like a child?” With people above you, don’t name the emotion — steer toward 안색 (ansaek, “complexion, the color of one’s face”) instead. It’s the safe move.

Example sentences by situation

1) Looking at your niece or nephew back from cram school (within the family, casual speech)

쟤 학원 갔다 오더니 하루 종일 시무룩하게 앉아만 있어. Jyae hagwon gatda odeoni haru jongil simurukhage anjaman isseo. (Ever since that kid got back from hagwon, they’ve just been sitting there sulking all day.)

Maybe the test score was bad, maybe there was a fight with a friend — something happened, and they’re not talking about it. This is the single most common sentence structure for describing a child’s state. Put the adverbial form 시무룩하게 (simurukhage) in front of an action verb like 앉아 있다 (anja itda, “be sitting”), 서 있다 (seo itda, “be standing”), or 밥을 먹다 (babeul meokda, “eat a meal”), and the picture snaps into focus.

2) The dog on a day the walk got skipped (talking to yourself / social-media voice)

비가 와서 산책을 못 나갔더니 우리 개가 현관 앞에서 시무룩한 얼굴로 앉아 있다. Biga waseo sanchaegeul mot nagatdeoni uri gaega hyeongwan apeseo simurukhan eolgullo anja itda. (It rained so we couldn’t go for a walk, and now my dog is sitting by the front door with a sulky face.)

시무룩하다 (simurukhada) isn’t only for people. If it’s a creature whose feelings show on its face, dogs and cats qualify too. Here the ‘reason for displeasure’ is crystal clear — no walk. The sharper the reason, the better this word sticks.

3) About a colleague whose proposal got rejected (workplace, polite speech)

아이디어가 반려된 뒤로 민수 씨 표정이 계속 시무룩합니다. 점심때 커피라도 한잔 사 주시죠. Aideieoga ballyodoen dwiro Minsu ssi pyojeong-i gyesok simurukhamnida. Jeomsimttae keopiratdo hanjan sa jusijyo. (Ever since his idea was turned down, Minsu has had a sulky look on his face. Maybe buy him a coffee at lunch.)

When you’re relaying the state of a colleague or a junior to a third party, polite speech works perfectly naturally. But as we saw above, avoid it when the person in question is your senior. The same word is usable or unusable depending on who you’re talking about — that’s the core instinct for this expression.

Polite vs. casual forms, and similar expressions

Start with the forms by speech level. Casual is 시무룩해 (simurukhae), general polite is 시무룩해요 (simurukhaeyo), and formal is 시무룩합니다 (simurukhamnida). You can also grammatically build 시무룩하시다 (simurukhasida) by adding the honorific suffix, but for the reason we saw above, it’s almost never used in practice. Just because a form exists doesn’t mean there’s a place to use it.

Lining it up against similar words makes the temperature difference obvious.

Expression	Temperature / intensity	Where it’s used
시무룩하다 (simurukhada)	Mild. Quiet displeasure showing faintly on the face	Both casual and polite, everyday. Mostly said about someone else
뾰로통하다 (ppyorotonghada)	Pointier than 시무룩. The pushed-out lip is visible	Kids, couples, close relationships. Sounds slightly cute
삐치다 (ppichida)	Sulking because of the other person. The cause lies with ‘you’	Friends, family, couples. It’s a verb, so you say “삐쳤어 (ppichyeosseo)“
우울하다 (uulhada)	Deep and long-lasting. The whole mood sinks	The cause can be unclear. Often used about your own state
침통하다 (chimtonghada)	Heavy and serious. Grief, bad news	Funerals, accidents — public, solemn occasions

The pair that confuses learners most is 시무룩하다 (simurukhada) and 삐치다 (ppichida). The fork in the road is where the cause lies. 삐치다 presumes the other person did something wrong, which is why asking “너 삐쳤어? (neo ppichyeosseo?, “Are you sulking at me?”)” produces the classic scene of the other person denying it: “안 삐쳤거든! (an ppichyeotgeodeun!, “I am NOT sulking!”)” 시무룩하다, by contrast, doesn’t pin down a cause — it just observes a state. So when you want to approach someone gently, 시무룩하다 is by far the safer choice.

Cultural background — the weather that shows on a face

시무룩하다 (simurukhada) belongs to a family of Korean adjectives that paint facial expressions. 뾰로통하다 (ppyorotonghada), 샐쭉하다 (saeljjukhada), 뚱하다 (ttunghada), 새초롬하다 (saechoromhada)… all of them take a state of mind, pull it outside the body, and lay it on the face, and most share the structure of a shape-describing root plus -하다 (-hada). Korean packs this family unusually tightly — there are even pairs where swapping a single vowel changes the feel (샐쭉하다 saeljjukhada / 실쭉하다 siljjukhada). On the flip side, many of these words are hard to pin an etymology to, and the origin of 시무룩하다 is likewise difficult to establish with any certainty. We’ll leave it there rather than invent something.

The sheer number of words in this family is itself cultural information. In Korea, instead of declaring “나 지금 기분 나빠 (na jigeum gibun nappa, “I’m in a bad mood right now”)”, it’s common to send the signal through your expression and expect the people around you to read it. That’s why a separate word like 눈치 (nunchi, “social radar”) exists, and 시무룩하다 is the vessel that holds the result of that 눈치 doing its work. If someone asks you “너 오늘 왜 시무룩해? (neo oneul wae simurukhae?, “Why are you so down today?”)”, that’s less an interrogation than a signal meaning “I read your face.”

Picture the dinner-table scene from a family drama and it clicks fast. The whole family is gathered, and one person alone says nothing and doesn’t touch the side dishes. Nobody immediately demands to know why; instead an elder pushes a dish toward them and tosses out a single line. The reason Korean dramas have been repeating this scene for decades is that the silence is a familiar mode of conversation for Korean viewers. One sulky face changing the air over an entire dinner table — that’s the world this word lives in.

Today’s quiz

Which of the following is the best situation for using 시무룩하다 (simurukhada)?

① Describing the mood among relatives gathered at your grandfather’s funeral ② Watching your younger sibling sit around all day without a word because their favorite team lost ③ Watching a friend scream with joy after winning the lottery ④ Talking about a boss who got angry in a meeting, banged the desk, and raised his voice

See the answer

Answer: ②

There’s something to be displeased about (the team’s loss), the words have dried up, and it stays on the face all day. All three conditions are met. ① is a mismatch in weight and calls for 침통하다 (chimtonghada); ③ runs in the opposite emotional direction. ④ is a case of the emotion bursting outward, so 화를 내다 (hwareul naeda, “to get angry”) or 언짢아하다 (eonjjanahada, “to be displeased”) fits — and since the person is a boss, 시무룩하다 should be avoided on that count too.

Definitions and example sentences are from the National Institute of Korean Language’s Basic Korean Dictionary (krdict.korean.go.kr); that portion of this post, including our translations, is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 KR.