# kana vs katana

> English confusable word pair

## The two words

### kana
*noun · IPA /ˈkɑːnə/ · frequency rank #36,210*
The hiragana and katakana syllabaries. These are made up of characters that represent individual syllables, which are used to write Japanese words and particles. Kana are derived from kanji.

### katana
*noun · IPA /kəˈtɑnə/ · frequency rank #35,797*
A type of Japanese longsword, having a single edge and slight curvature, historically used by samurai and ninja.

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/vs/kana-vs-katana