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Glite Dictionary
kanji

kanji

8 9.1
A Japanese character that comes from Chinese and is used to write words
  • noun
  • /ˈkɑːn.dʒi/
: kanji
  • To write a letter in Japanese, you need to use kanji, hiragana, and katakana.
  • kanji characters
  • kanji and hiragana
  • logographic kanji

I can read, I can type in Japanese, but writing all of the kanji.

Examples

  • I have to learn how to read kanji, hiragana and katakana from zero all by myself.

  • Learning the first two is vital, although kanji is also compulsory to mastering Japanese.

    Blog text (9)

  • You know, it's in kanji.

    Shrink (2009)

  • I recognized the kanji for "bride." "Oh yes," I said.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • He read the kanji wrong.

    Palace (2018)

  • You can then simply scan through the listed kanji to find what you're looking for.

    Blog text (3)

  • Modern Japanese is written in a combination of Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana characters.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Toda ended her letter with the kanji for "sailing away" and calligraphed it to match its meaning.

    Fiction book (1990)

  • All three modes of representation—Kanji, hiragana, and katakana—are ordinarily combined and used to write a sentence.

    Academic text (2006)

  • She mastered over 1,000 kanji characters as part of her Japanese language studies.

Surface Forms

kanji singular
kanjis plural

Etymology

The word kanji comes from two parts: kan meaning 'Han', the name for an old Chinese people and dynasty, and ji meaning 'character' or 'letter'. So kanji literally means 'Chinese characters', which is why it refers to the Chinese-style characters used in Japanese writing.