kanji
Americannoun
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a system of Japanese writing using Chinese-derived characters.
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a character in this system.
noun
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a Japanese writing system using characters mainly derived from Chinese ideograms
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a character in this system
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of kanji
1915–20; < Japanese < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese hàn Han (i.e., China) + zì characters
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Called “The Core,” the album cover features a large kanji character that translates to “core” or “nucleus.”
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 22, 2026
In a closely watched event on Tuesday, the top Buddhist monk at the Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto used a brush to write the kanji character of the year on the temple balcony.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 12, 2023
Most kanji have two or more pronunciations, and a further 50,000 or so rarely used kanji exist.
From Scientific American • Sep. 15, 2023
Later, the kanji characters for “kara-te” were changed to spell the phrase “empty hand.”
From Washington Post • Aug. 6, 2021
Someday Hanako would need to memorize thousands of kanji.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
