kana
- the portion of the Japanese writing system that is a syllabary
- pl. -·na any of the characters in this syllabary
Origin of kana
Japanesekana
noun
pl. kana, or ka·nas- 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.
- Any of the characters used in this system.
Origin of kana
Japanese from Old Japanese kanna, kana contraction of karina ( literally, provisional letter, as opposed to kanji which were considered to be Chinese characters in their true use ) kari- provisional, not according to rule na name, letterkana
