As a nationalist feeling, real Japanese think that the heart of their language is the phonemic Kana, not the logographic Kanji.
Source: tatoeba (2162175)
Kana
//ˈkɑːnə//
Synonyms for "kana" (14 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (3)
Strong matches (4)
Related words (7)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
Translations
29 translations across 28 languages.
Arabic
1 entries- كَانَا noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Belarusian
1 entries- ка́на noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Bulgarian
1 entries- ка́на noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Chinese Mandarin
1 entries- 假名 noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Czech
1 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Finnish
1 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
French
1 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
German
1 entries- Kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Greek
1 entries- κάνα noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Hebrew
1 entries- קאנה noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Hindi
1 entries- काना noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Japanese
1 entries- 仮名 noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Korean
1 entries- 가나 noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Macedonian
1 entries- ка́на noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Malay
1 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Marathi
1 entries- काना noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Mongolian
1 entries- кана noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Persian
1 entries- کانا noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Polish
1 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Portuguese
1 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Russian
1 entries- ка́на noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Serbo-Croatian
2 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
- кана noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Spanish
1 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Tajik
1 entries- кана noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Thai
1 entries- คะนะ noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Ukrainian
1 entries- ка́на noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Urdu
1 entries- کانا noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Vietnamese
1 entries- kana noun (Japanese syllabaries)
Sample sentences
10 total sentences available.
When learning Japanese, I quickly discovered that many kanji are rarely used, and are often replaced with kana.
Source: tatoeba (7894104)
Many Japanese think that the heart of their written language is the two sets of Kana phonograms—Hiragana and Katakana—not Kanji logograms, which they relegate to older people.
Source: tatoeba (10525255)
After years of learning many different languages, I eventually decide that I just like Japanese Kana—both Katakana and Hiragana. Maybe, it is just the graphical feature that attracts me.
Source: tatoeba (10560634)
Showing 4 of 10 available sentences.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.