한국어로 얼굴 부분 배우기

What does “머리” mean in Korean — head or hair?

In Korean, 머리 (meori) means both “head” and, in casual speech, “hair.” So 머리 잘랐어요 isn’t about losing your head — it’s “I got a haircut,” literally “I cut my head.” Beginners learning face vocabulary often meet 머리 right after 얼굴 (face) and assume it only means “head,” which trips them up the first time someone mentions cutting theirs.

For the strands themselves, Korean has the more exact word 머리카락 — 머리카락이 길어요 zooms in on individual hairs, while 머리 길어요 is the everyday way to say “your hair is long.” 머리 also stretches into idioms about the mind: 머리가 좋다 means “smart,” not literally “good head,” and 머리를 쓰다 means “to think it through.”