Kino

What does kino mean?

Cinema

In forums, people sometimes use the words kino and kinography in place of "cinema." Typically, people do this when sarcastically stating a movie or TV show is "peak kino," which means "the pinnacle of cinema."

Origin of kino

Users on 4Chan took the word kinography from Man with a Movie Camera, a 1929 film directed by Dziga Vertov. In Man with a Movie Camera, kinography is used to mean "language of cinema," as part of the phrase "absolute kinography."

This haughty phrase tickled 4Chan users' fancy, and so they began using Absolute Kinography as the S-tier in sarcastic rankings of films. In these rankings, if a movie is labeled as Absolute Kinography, Absolute Kino, or Peak Kino, it's likely quite bad.

However, kino does actually mean cinema in several languages, including German. For this reason, and because all words' meanings tend to shift over time, some people use kino and kinography unironically, when talking about films they actually like.

Example

What did you think of Tenet?
Oh, peak kino. It was masterful how you couldn't understand the plot or characters' dialogue
Okay, but this movie sounds great actually
Okay, but this movie sounds great actually

Related Slang

Categories

Updated August 18, 2023

Kino definition by Slang.net

This page explains what the slang term "Kino" means. The definition, example, and related terms listed above have been written and compiled by the Slang.net team.

We are constantly updating our database with new slang terms, acronyms, and abbreviations. If you would like to suggest a term or an update to an existing one, please let us know!