kanji

/ˈkænd͡ʒi/

Etymology

Borrowed 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.

noun

  1. The system of writing Japanese using Chinese characters.“Japanese is written in a mixture of kanji and kana.”
  2. Any individual Chinese character as used in the Japanese language.“I know about a thousand kanji.”
  3. A North Indian fermented drink made with beetroot, black mustard seeds, carrots etc.
  4. Drink made from sugarcane vinegar.
  5. Rice gruel made by fermentation of rice and tastes sour.