kanji

UK:**UK and possibly other pronunciationsUK and possibly other pronunciations/ˈkændʒɪ/US:USA pronunciation: respellingUSA pronunciation: respelling(kän′jē)


WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2026
kan•ji  (kän′jē),USA pronunciation n., pl. -ji, -jis. 
  1. Linguisticsa system of Japanese writing using Chinese-derived characters.
  2. Linguisticsa character in this system.
  • Middle Chinese, equivalent. to Chinese hàn Han (i.e., China) + zì characters
  • Japanese
  • 1915–20

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::
kanji /ˈkændʒɪ; ˈkɑːn-/ n ( pl -ji, -jis)
  1. a Japanese writing system using characters mainly derived from Chinese ideograms
  2. a character in this system
Etymology: Japanese, from Chinese han Chinese + zi character
'kanji' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
kana - kana-majiri - katakana

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