King's Kung-Fu& Tai Chi

Japanese symbol for “phoneme”

Romaji: on'in
phoneme

In Japanese, phoneme is , read (on'in).

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Meanings

  1. n phoneme (ling)
  2. n vocal sound; tone (quality); timbre
  3. n initial and final (in Chinese syllable structure)

Kanji and stroke order

sound, noise
on: オン、イン、-ノン
kun: おと、ね
9 strokes · JLPT 3
rhyme, elegance, tone
on: イン
19 strokes · JLPT 1

Other Japanese words for “phoneme”

WordReadingMeaning
おんそ onsophoneme
フォニーム foniimuphoneme
フォネーム foneemuphoneme
ごおん goonsound of a word; sounds of speech; phoneme

Related words

Words that share a kanji.

WordReadingMeaning
おんがく ongakumusic
おんせい onseivoice; speech
ろくおん rokuon(audio) recording
ほんね honnereal intention; motive; true opinion
そうおん souonnoise; din
はつおん hatsuonpronunciation
よいん yoinreverberation; swelling (of a hymn); trailing note
いんりつ inritsumetre (of a poem); meter; rhythm

See also: Chinese symbol for “phoneme”.

Data: JMdict (CC BY-SA 4.0); KANJIDIC2 (CC BY-SA 4.0); KanjiVG (CC BY-SA 3.0); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.

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