| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| kana |
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| SYLLABICATION: | ka·na |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  kä n |
| NOUN: | Inflected forms: pl. kana or ka·nas
1. 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. 2. Any of the characters used in this system. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Japanese, pseudo-characters, kana : ka, false (from Middle Chinese kai , kja·) + na, name.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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