Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- 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.
- n. Any of the characters used in this system.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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
Etymologies
- From Japanese 仮名 (kana, "syllabary"). (Wiktionary)
- Japanese, pseudo-characters, kana : ka, false (from Middle Chinese kainodotst.gifʔ, kja·) + na, name. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Kurt Wimmer's style and ideas of gun kana is an interesting one, and it is the natural progression for those who master the weapons of their time.”
“A young participant takes a break after writing 'good friends' in Japanese kana characters during the New Year's calligraphy contest at the Budokan martial arts hall in Tokyo, Saturday,”
“The situation's then very similar to Japanese kana, which is the main thing I've heard called a moraic script.”
“In the history of civilization, three types of systems have been invented for relating a visual symbol to language content: an alphabet (as in English), a phonetic system (as in Japanese kana), and a logographic system (as in Chinese).”
“The period of Hei-an witnessed important progress in the art of writing, the invention of phonetic writing called kana, and the alphabet as it is at present, in forty-eight syllables.”
“With the Heian epoch is connected the wide use of the phonetic script known as kana, which may be described as a syllabary of forty-seven symbols formed from abbreviated Chinese ideographs.”
A History of the Japanese People From the Earliest Times to the End of the Meiji Era
“Men would U fck shamwari yemukadzi wako kana akauuya achikukumbira kukwirwa?”
“Write to Kana Inagaki at kana.inagaki@dowjones.com”
The Wall Street Journal: Japanese Investors Look to Resume Activism
“By contrast, a somewhat different region of the brain is used by good English readers as well as by children reading kana, another Japanese language, but one in which each character represents a sound, as in English.”
“Write to Kana Inagaki at kana.inagaki @dowjones.com”
The Wall Street Journal: Yen's Rise Piques Appetite for Deals
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kana’.
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Realia from Everywhere
Culturally defined terms and expressions from the four corners of the world
fjord, mistral steppe, tornado, tsunami, polder, kiwi, koala, sequoia, Abominable Snowman, paprika, spaghetti, empanada and 299 more...
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Unusual words for Words With Friends
A list of words that WWF recognizes as valid - most are unusual words; some are simply high-scoring.
botel, slipe, jeu, chub, chubs, cote, mure, tittle, dev, loo, hoke, helo and 357 more...
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the_grene_kni3t's Words
acuarela, sesquipedalian, capital, métier, chap, cove, guv, guv'nor, ratiocination, transatlantique, ineffable, aural and 142 more...
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writing
words associated with writing and writing systems
bokmål, hangul, kana, circumflex, diacritic, umlaut, tréma, hanzi, hiragana, kanji, katakana, pinyin and 5 more...
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Japan
Words associated with Japan or japanese.
kanji, kana, hiragana, katakana, harakiri, sudoku, pillow book, heian, lady-in-waiting, sakura, doll festival, nori and 22 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for kana.
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