hiragana

American  

[heer-uh-gah-nuh, hee-rah-gah-nah] / ˌhɪər əˈgɑ nə, ˈhi rɑˈgɑ nɑ /

noun

1. the cursive and more widely used of the two Japanese syllabaries.

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hiragana British  

/ ˌhɪərəˈɡɑːnə /

noun

1. one of the Japanese systems of syllabic writing based on Chinese cursive ideograms. The more widely used of the two current systems, it is employed in newspapers and general literature Compare katakana

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Etymology

Origin of hiragana

1815–25; < Japanese, equivalent to hira ordinary (earlier f ( y ) ira < *pira ) + -gana, combining form of kana kana

Example Sentences

A few of the nonsymbolic symbols on the acrylic tiles resemble Japanese hiragana.

From Washington Post • Jul. 8, 2022

In a similar vein, Kana Quest is a sliding block puzzle game that’s designed to teach you Japanese hiragana and katakana characters.

From The Verge • Mar. 29, 2020

Written Japanese comprises 2,136 “regular-use” Chinese-based characters – or kanji – and the hiragana and katakana phonetic scripts.

From The Guardian • Jun. 5, 2017

A Japanese alphabet grid is a table of the basic 40 Japanese hiragana letters, and its English counterpart is a copy of the qwerty keyboard, drawn onto a card and laminated.

From Slate • Sep. 6, 2013