kana
/ˈkɑːnə/noun, verb
kana is spelled K-A-N-A: 4 letters and 2 syllables. It appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,176th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data, counting Kana, the name). As a noun, kana means “The hiragana and katakana syllabaries. These are made up of characters that represent individual syllables, which are used to write Japanese words…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of kana is kanas.
How many letters and syllables are in kana?
| Letters | 4: K-A-N-A |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | about once in every 2 million words; the 36,176th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is kana?
Kana appears about once in every 2 million words in written English, the 36,176th most frequent word form in the list. The list counts every capitalisation together, so this includes Kana, the name.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce kana?
- /ˈkɑːnə/
- [ˈkʰɑːnə]
Kana has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-kana.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with kana?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as kana.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: naka.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of kana
- kanas plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does kana mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
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.
- 2
A hiragana or katakana character.
verb
- 1
Alternative form of kena.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Kana in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense Japanese syllabaries:
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does kana come from?
Borrowed from Japanese 仮名(かな) (kana, “phonetic character”, literally “borrowed character”, from the way that kana were originally Chinese characters "borrowed" for their phonetic values).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).