English Explanatory Dictionary

kana

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The hiragana and katakana syllabaries. These are made up of characters that represent individual syllables, which are used to write Japanese words and particles. Kana are derived from kanji.
  2. A hiragana or katakana character.
verb
  1. Alternative form of kena.
name
  1. A female given name from Japanese.
name
  1. A surname.
name
  1. A gewog of Dagana District, Bhutan.

Pronunciation

/ˈkɑːnə/ [ˈkʰɑːnə] LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-kana.wav

Word forms

kana kanas

Etymology

Borrowed from Japanese 仮名(かな) (kana, “phonetic character”, literally “borrowed character”, from the way that kana were originally Chinese characters "borrowed" for their phonetic values).

Related words

furigana hiragana kana-majiri katakana manyogana
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