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Moe (萌え?, pronounced [moe]) is a Japanese slang word. It means "a rarefied pseudo-love for certain fictional characters (in anime, manga, and the like) and their related embodiments."[1] Patrick W. Galbraith[2] notes that it is a pun derived from a Japanese word that literally means "budding," as with a plant that is about to flower, and thus it can also be used to mean "budding" as with a preadolescent girl.