仮 Japanese kanji 仮

What 仮 means

It marks something provisional, assumed, borrowed, or not final.

In Japanese, 仮 usually marks a temporary stand-in or a working assumption. 仮住まい is temporary housing, 仮定 is an assumption, 仮面 is a mask or disguise, and 仮名 can mean kana or an alias. “Fake” is too strong as a general translation; the compound supplies the specific sense.

仮 is the shortened Japanese form in the older character family 假. The Shuowen Jiezi, a Chinese character dictionary, glosses 假 as “not true.” A late-8th-century example in the Man’yōshū, a Japanese poetry anthology, uses 仮に for a temporary or provisional action. In 仮名, Chinese characters were borrowed for their sounds to write Japanese; the term names kana, the Japanese syllabic scripts, and was contrasted with 真名.

If someone sends me 仮 alone, what does it mean?

Alone, 仮 gives a broad idea, not a complete message.

Read it as provisional or assumed in general, then use the surrounding word or sentence to choose a precise sense. It could point to a temporary stand-in, a hypothetical premise, a mask, or an alias. If you are writing, include the full Japanese word when that distinction matters.

Neutral inside Japanese compounds; alone, it can feel like a clipped fragment.

Don’t translate a lone 仮 as “fake” without context.

Part of the collection

漢

Kanji (Japanese Characters)

Who writes 仮

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Don't confuse it with

1

假

CJK Unified Ideograph-5047

仮 vs 假: 仮 is the standard shortened form in Japanese; 假 is its traditional counterpart, used in Chinese writing and older Japanese spelling.

Related characters

1

真

CJK Unified Ideograph-771F

真 appears in 真名, the term contrasted with 仮名 in Japanese writing tradition.

Combination ideas

3

What does 仮に mean? “If” or “suppose,” introducing a hypothetical condition.

An assumption: a premise treated as true for discussion.

Kana, the Japanese syllabic scripts, or an alias; the surrounding word settles which.

Questions people ask

1

Why does 仮 show as a box on some devices?

Because that device's fonts have no glyph for it. The character is still correct and still copies correctly — the box is a missing glyph, not a broken character.