Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos
on
Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics
Quick Facts
Japanese:
“sound”
In full:
on’yomi (“sound reading”)
Related Topics:
kanji
See all related content
Britannica AI Icon
Adding us as a Preferred Source tells Google you trust our content, so our articles show up more often in your Google Search, Discover feed, and AI Overviews.
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login).
Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

on

Japanese writing
Also known as: on’yomi
Written and fact-checked by
Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
History

on, one of two alternate readings (the other is kun, or kun’yomi) for a kanji (Japanese: “Chinese character”). The ambiguity of a kanji arises from its having two values: the meaning of the original Chinese character and a Chinese pronunciation of the character. In the on reading the character is pronounced in the way that the Chinese was interpreted by the Japanese when that character came into use in Japan, and the sounds are then utilized to form a Japanese word or part of a Japanese word. Most often the on reading is used for the pronunciation of nouns, which are often written as compounds of two or more kanji.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kenneth Pletcher.