/ˈkænd͡ʒi/, /ˈkaːnd͡ʒi/, /ˈkɑnd͡ʒi/
OriginBorrowed 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.
- uncountableThe system of writing Japanese using Chinese characters.
“Japanese is written in a mixture of kanji and kana.”
- countable, uncountableAny individual Chinese character as used in the Japanese language.
“I know about a thousand kanji.”
- uncountableA North Indian fermented drink made with beetroot, black mustard seeds, carrots etc.
- uncountableDrink made from sugarcane vinegar.
- uncountableRice gruel made by fermentation of rice and tastes sour.
- alt-ofAlternative letter-case form of kanji.
Formskanji(plural) · kanjis(plural) · Kanji(alternative)