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Katakana chart with stroke-order arrows and romanized readings

Katakana

Katakana is an angular Japanese kana script used for loanwords, names, technical terms, sound symbolism, transcription, and emphasis.

Hiragana chart with stroke-order arrows and romanized readings

Hiragana

Hiragana is a cursive Japanese kana script used for grammatical endings, particles, readings, and many words written phonetically.

Cover of the 1903 Sanseidō Kanwa Daijiten kanji dictionary

Kanji

Kanji are Chinese-derived characters adapted to write Japanese words and morphemes through context-dependent meanings, readings, and combinations.

Kanji characters with small hiragana readings placed above them

Japanese Writing System

The Japanese writing system combines kanji, hiragana, katakana, and supporting symbols in a historically layered mixed-script orthography.