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Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. Japanese syllabic writing. The characters are simplified kanji and are usually used with kanji primarily to write inflections, particles, and function words and to show the pronunciations of some kanji and of all foreign words.
  2. n. Any of the characters used in this system.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. Japanese writing as distinguished from Chinese, which is also used in Japan. It is syllabic and consists of 47 letters, each representing a syllable ending with a vowel-sound, to which is added a final n, making 48 in all. Kana is so called because it is made up of Chinese characters whose form (somewhat modified) and name (but not their meaning) have been borrowed, and is of two kinds : hiragana or cursive hand, in common use, and katakana or ‘side-borrowed letters,’ used chiefly for proper names and foreign words. See hiragana and katakana.

Wiktionary

  1. n. The hiragana and katakana syllabaries. These are used to write Japanese words and particles using characters that represent syllables. Kana are derived from kanji.
  2. n. A hiragana or katakana character.
  3. n. Plural form of kana.

Etymologies

  1. From Japanese 仮名 (kana, "syllabary"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Japanese, pseudo-characters, kana : ka, false (from Middle Chinese kainodotst.gifʔ, kja·) + na, name. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

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‘kana’ has been looked up 2866 times, added to 5 lists, and has a Scrabble score of 8.