kanji

See also: Kanji

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Japanese 漢字(かんじ) (kanji, “Chinese characters”), from Middle Chinese 漢 (MC xanH, “Han dynasty, China”) + Middle Chinese 字 (MC dziH, “[written] character”) (Compare Korean 한자 (hanja), Mandarin 漢字／汉字 (hànzì), Vietnamese Hán tự, Hokkien 漢字／汉字 (hàn-jī / hàn-lī), Cantonese 漢字／汉字 (hon³ zi⁶)). Doublet of hanja and Hanzi.

Alternative forms

• Kanji

Pronunciation

• enPR: kănji, IPA^(key): /ˈkænd͡ʒi/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /ˈkaːnd͡ʒi/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnd͡ʒi/
• Rhymes: -ændʒi
• Homophone: congee (US)

Noun

kanji (countable and uncountable, plural kanji or kanjis)

1. (uncountable) The system of writing Japanese using Chinese characters.

   Japanese is written in a mixture of kanji and kana.

   These variations cannot be said to be extraordinary in their appearance; Inoue, Sugishima, Ukita, Minagawa, and Kashu (1994) report that variation is common even among high frequency words for which kanji is the typical representation. [1]

   Kana is a syllabic script, and kanji is a logographic or ideographic script. [2]

2. Any individual Chinese character as used in the Japanese language.

   I know about a thousand kanji.

Derived terms

• jōyō kanji

Related terms

• Hanzi (Chinese)
• hanja (Korean)
• Hán tự (Vietnamese)

Translations

Chinese characters in Japanese context

• Arabic: كَانْجِي (ar) m (kānjī), طَابِع يَابَانِيّ m (ṭābiʕ yābāniyy), حَرْف يَابَانِيّ m (ḥarf yābāniyy)
• Armenian: կանձի (kanji)
• Belarusian: кандзі́ m (kandzí)
• Bengali: জাপানী হরফ (japanī hôrôf), কাঞ্জি (bn) (kanji)
• Bulgarian: канджи (bg) f (kandži)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (when used in Japanese) 日本漢字／日本汉字 (Rìběn hànzì), (any Chinese character) 漢字／汉字 (zh) (hànzì)

• Czech: kandži (cs) m
• Dutch: kanji (nl) n
• Finnish: kanji (fi)
• French: kanji (fr) m
• Georgian: ყანჯი (q̇anǯi)
• German: Kanji (de) n, japanisches Zeichen n
• Greek: κάντζι (el) n pl (kántzi)
• Hebrew: קאנג׳י
• Hindi: कानजी (kānjī)
• Hungarian: kandzsi (hu)
• Indonesian: kanji (id) (specifically Chinese characters used in Japan), honji (id) (any Chinese characters)
• Irish: Ceansaí m
• Italian: kanji (it) m
• Japanese: (any Chinese character) 漢字 (ja) (かんじ, kanji), (specifically Chinese characters used in Japan) 日本における漢字 (Nihon ni okeru kanji)
• Khmer: កាន់ជិ (kanciʼ)
• Korean: (any Chinese character) 한자(漢字) (ko) (hanja), 일문 한자(日文漢字) (ilmun hanja), 일본어(日本語)의 한자(漢字) (ilboneo-ui hanja)
• Macedonian: канџи́ m (kandží)
• Malay: kanji (ms)
• Marathi: कान्जी n (kānjī)
• Miyako: please add this translation if you can
• Mongolian: канжи (kanži)
• Okinawan: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: کانجی (kânji)
• Polish: kanji (pl) n
• Portuguese: kanji (pt) m
• Punjabi: ਕਾਂਜੀ (kāñjī)
• Russian: кандзи́ (ru) m (kandzí), япо́нский иеро́глиф m (japónskij ijeróglif)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: канђи m

  Roman: kanđi m, kanji m

• Slovak: kandži m
• Spanish: kanji m
• Swahili: kanji
• Swedish: kanji (sv)
• Thai: คันจิ (th) (kan-jì)
• Turkish: kanji
• Ukrainian: кандзі́ m (kandzí)
• Urdu: کانجی
• Vietnamese: chữ kanji, chữ Nhật
• Western Panjabi: کانجی (kānjī)

See also

• kana (仮名)
• hiragana (平仮名)
• katakana (片仮名)
• kyūjitai (旧字体)
• romaji (ローマ字)
• shinjitai (新字体)
• Appendix:Jōyō kanji by reading

Etymology 2

kanji (drink) up close

Borrowed from Hindi कांजी (kāñjī).

Noun

kanji (uncountable)

1. A North Indian fermented drink made with beetroot, black mustard seeds, carrots etc.
2. Drink made from sugarcane vinegar.
3. Rice gruel made by fermentation of rice and tastes sour.

Anagrams

• Kajin

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kan.ʒi/

  • Audio:

    (file)

• IPA^(key): /kɑ̃n.ʒi/

  • Audio:

    (file)

• IPA^(key): /kɑ̃.ʒi/

  • Audio:

    (file)

Noun

kanji m (plural kanjis)

1. kanji

Indonesian

Etymology 1

From Malay kanji, from Tamil கஞ்சி (kañci), from Sanskrit काञ्जीक (kāñjīka, “sour gruel, water in boiled rice”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kan.d͡ʒi/
• Hyphenation: kan‧ji

Noun

kanji (first-person possessive kanjiku, second-person possessive kanjimu, third-person possessive kanjinya)

1. tapioca

Synonyms

• tapioka

Etymology 2

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kan.d͡ʒi/
• Hyphenation: kan‧ji

Adjective

kanji

1. give up.

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Japanese 漢字(かんじ) (kanji, “Han characters”), from Middle Chinese 漢 (xàn, “Han dynasty, China”) + 字 (dzì, “[written] character”) (compare Mandarin 漢字／汉字 (hànzì), Min Nan 漢字／汉字 (hàn-jī, hàn-lī), and Cantonese 漢字／汉字 (hon³ zi⁶)). Doublet of hanja, hanzi, and honji.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kan.d͡ʒi/
• Hyphenation: kan‧ji

Noun

kanji (first-person possessive kanjiku, second-person possessive kanjimu, third-person possessive kanjinya)

1. Kanji, Chinese characters in Japanese language usage.

Related terms

• honji
• hanzi

Further reading

• “kanji” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

Japanese

Romanization

kanji

1. Rōmaji transcription of かんじ

Malay

Pronunciation

• Audio (Malaysia):

  (file)

Noun

kanji (Jawi spelling کنجي, plural kanji-kanji, informal 1st possessive kanjiku, 2nd possessive kanjimu, 3rd possessive kanjinya)

1. starch

Further reading

• “kanji” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.

Polish

kanji

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English kanji.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkan.d͡ʑi/, /ˈkan.d͡ʐi/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -and͡ʑi, -and͡ʐi
• Syllabification: kan‧ji

Noun

kanji n (indeclinable)

1. kanji (Chinese characters in Japanese context)

   Coordinate terms: hiragana, katakana

Further reading

• kanji in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Japanese 漢字(かんじ) (kanji, “Chinese characters”).

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /kɐ̃ˈʒi/, (careful pronunciation) /kɐ̃ˈd͡ʒi/

Noun

kanji m (plural kanjis)

1. kanji (Chinese characters in Japanese context)

Spanish

Noun

kanji m (plural kanjis)

1. kanji