ˈkänə noun
( plural kana or kanas )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Japanese
1.
a. : a Japanese system of syllabic writing dating from the 8th or 9th century A.D. and having characters that can be used exclusively for writing the language but are normally used only for foreign words, for grammatical inflections and function words not represented by kanji, or at the side of kanji to indicate pronunciation
b. : either of the two different but equivalent sets of characters that are used in the kana system and that each have 48 characters increased by the use of two diacritics to 73 — see hiragana , katakana
2. : a single character belonging to the kana system of writing