Hangul Syllable Gem

겜 is a casual one-syllable shortening of 게임, the Korean word for “game.” In 2002, the National Institute of Korean Language listed it as online shorthand in the context of fast, metered real-time internet chat. A 2005 note cautioned against using chat shortenings indiscriminately outside that setting.

An official report records a 2011 example of 겜잘알. A 2018 study of language use records Korean-speaking schoolchildren in China's Yanbian region saying 겜 하러 가자, “let’s go play a game”; the example shows the shorthand in speech too.