What does 가스라이팅 (gaseuraiting) mean? How “gaslighting” became everyday Korean

A friend of one of our editors ends every relationship chat the same way: “He says he never said that. Am I remembering it wrong?” The third time, the editor thought of this word. But before saying it out loud, they decided to pin down exactly what it means.

가스라이팅 started as a psychology term, but in Korea it now shows up in dating advice, workplace complaints and crime reporting. It gets used a lot, and loosely. Today we trace how a word from a stage play over 80 years ago became everyday Korean.

Psychologists quoted by Lady Kyunghyang in April 2026 point to three common signs: dismissing feelings (“You're too sensitive”), denying memories (“I never said that”) and isolation (“Those people don't understand you”). Merriam-Webster adds a broader sense: grossly misleading someone, especially for your own advantage.

• 분명히 약속했는데 그런 적 없다고 하니까 내가 이상한 사람 같아. 이거 가스라이팅 아니야?He definitely promised, but he says he never did, and now I feel like the crazy one. Isn't this 가스라이팅?Relationship trouble, told to a friend
• '다 너 잘되라고 하는 말'이라면서 매번 내 판단을 깎아내리는 건 가스라이팅에 가깝다Putting down my judgment every time while saying “it's for your own good” is close to 가스라이팅.A reply on a workplace advice board
• 광고가 나를 가스라이팅한다. 이거 없으면 안 될 것 같아The ads are 가스라이팅 me. I feel like I can't live without this.A joke in front of the shopping cart
• 그건 가스라이팅이 아니라 그냥 잔소리야That's not 가스라이팅, that's just nagging.To a friend who uses the word too often
• 검찰은 피고인이 피해자를 오랜 기간 가스라이팅했다고 봤다Prosecutors said the defendant had subjected the victim to 가스라이팅 for a long time.A line from crime reporting

It starts with Patrick Hamilton's 1938 British play Gas Light. Britain filmed it first in 1940, and George Cukor's 1944 American version starring Ingrid Bergman made the title famous. Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Actress for it (Dailian).

The plot is simple, which is what makes it frightening. Whenever the husband secretly searches the attic at night, the gas lamps in the house dim. When his wife notices, he flatly says nothing has changed, until she starts to wonder whether she is losing her mind. That's the scene the word preserves: the light clearly dimmed, yet the person who says so ends up looking unhinged.

One: it named an experience that had no name. For anyone who has long wondered “Am I just too sensitive?”, a word saying it might be the other person's tactic feels like an answer in itself. As clinical psychologist Sari Chait put it in the Lady Kyunghyang piece, over time victims can come to doubt themselves and believe a distorted reality.

Two: the news carried it. Every time a crime centered on psychological control was reported, the word made the headline. MBC explained it in 2022 under the title “ruin without violence,” and KBS ran its own rundown of the signs in 2025.

Three: the meaning widened. As Merriam-Webster noted, it now covers not just abuse between partners but any large-scale deception for personal gain. A word you can attach to ads, politics and company memos is bound to be used a lot.

According to the Associated Press, lookups of “gaslighting” on Merriam-Webster's site rose 1,740% in 2022 over the year before. Unusually, no single event drove it. Editor at large Peter Sokolowski said it was looked up frequently every single day of the year. In other words, less a fad than a working word. We couldn't find a reliable published count of Korean searches, so we don't give one here.

The more common a word gets, the lighter it becomes. Elle Korea noted in 2021 that gaslighting is easily confused with nagging, advice or persuasion, but differs from that kind of normal communication. The test experts share is repetition and intent. Someone disagreeing with you in one argument isn't gaslighting. And if a relationship really is like that, a label won't fix it: keep records, tell people you trust, and if needed, 손절 (sonjeol, “cut them off”). It's also worth telling it apart from 팩폭 (paekpok, “fact attack”): a fact attack hits you with the facts, while gaslighting erases them.

So: 가스라이팅 is making the person who says the light dimmed look like the strange one. Instead of using the word, our editor suggested their friend reread the message history together. The light was easier to see in the records. If you have a sharper definition, add it to the 가스라이팅 entry in the dictionary.