Skip to content
ontologydriven
Sign out

Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

webtoon en · NOUN

Etymology

From Web + toon, dating from at least 2001 (see citations). For Korean comics, likely a re-borrowing of Korean 웹툰 (weptun), itself from the original sense.

Meanings

  1. (Internet) An animated cartoon published on the World Wide Web.
    • When it comes to Flash animated cartoons, also called webtoons, the first noted use was in 1999 when Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi set out to bring cartoons to the Web. Soon after, webtoons began popping up everywhere. 2010, Michael Duggan, PSP Game Creation for Teens, page 13:
    • Have a webtoon! Elf Life: http://www.elflife.com 2001, 11 September, "Rob Cruickshank, part-time human being", Re: Strange ad copy of the day (on newsgroup alt.slack)
    • Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi used Flash animation to bring cartoons (sometimes called online cartoons or webtoons) to the Internet. 2008, Don Rauf, Monique Vescia, Virtual Apprentice: Cartoon Animator, page 29:
    • As Flash Webtoons and animated shorts have become more and more popular, a spate of tools have cropped up to facilitate their creation. 2006, Ethan Watrall, Norbert Herber, Flash MX 2004 Savvy, page 12:
    • More and more cartoons are made using special techniques with a lot of help from computers. Some people are making cartoons for the internet. These are called webtoons. You could make a webtoon, too. 2009, Caroline Nixon, Michael Tomlinson, Kid's Box 5 Pupil's Book: Book 5:
  2. A kind of Korean comic that is published digitally for reading on a smartphone or computer.
    • Easy access is another positive trait of webtoons—facile because of the elimination of distribution hassles, […] 2022, John A. Lent, Wendy Siuyi Wong, Benjamin Wai–ming Ng, Transnationalism in East and Southeast Asian Comics Art, page 104:
    • Now producing a branded webtoon and adding a webtoon platform to a company's overall promotional branding strategy makes it look in-step with the times and popular culture. 2021, Brian Yecies, Ae-Gyung Shim, South Korea's Webtooniverse and the Digital Comic Revolution, page 155:
    • We can read a webtoon using an application on our phone. 2018, WESTECH 2018: Proceedings of 1st Workshop on Environmental Science, Society, and Technology, WESTECH 2018, December 8th, 2018, Medan, Indonesia, page 166:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
webtoons Number=Plur lexicographic

Relateds

webcomic

Translations (3)

id webtun (Translations) · ja ウェブトゥーン (Translations) · ko 웹툰 (Translations)