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Ki (kana)

Character of the Japanese writing system

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Source updated July 14, 2026

Ki (hiragana: き, katakana: キ) is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent [ki] and are derived from a simplification of the 幾 kanji. The hiragana character き, like さ, is drawn with the lower line either connected or disconnected.

A dakuten may be added to the character; this transforms it into ぎ in hiragana, ギ in katakana, and gi in Hepburn romanization. The phonetic value also changes, to [ɡi] in initial, and varying between [ŋi] and [ɣi] in the middle of words.

A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ki in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋi].

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal k- (か行 ka-gyō)	ki	き	キ
Normal k- (か行 ka-gyō)	kii, kyi kī	きい, きぃきー	キイ, キィキー
Addition yōon ky- (きゃ行 kya-gyō)	kya	きゃ	キャ
	kyaa kyā	きゃあ, きゃぁきゃー	キャア, キャァキャー
	kyu	きゅ	キュ
	kyuu kyū	きゅう, きゅぅきゅー	キュウ, キュゥキュー
	kyo	きょ	キョ
	kyou kyoo kyō	きょう, きょぅきょお, きょぉきょー	キョウ, キョゥキョオ, キョォキョー
Addition dakuten g- (が行 ga-gyō)	gi	ぎ	ギ
Addition dakuten g- (が行 ga-gyō)	gii, gyi gī	ぎい, ぎぃぎー	ギイ, ギィギー
Addition yōon and dakuten gy- (ぎゃ行 gya-gyō)	gya	ぎゃ	ギャ
	gyaa gyā	ぎゃあ, ぎゃぁぎゃー	ギャア, ギャァギャー
	gyu	ぎゅ	ギュ
	gyuu gyū	ぎゅう, ぎゅぅぎゅー	ギュウ, ギュゥギュー
	gyo	ぎょ	ギョ
	gyou gyoo gyō	ぎょう, ぎょぅぎょお, ぎょぉぎょー	ギョウ, ギョゥギョオ, ギョォギョー

Other additional forms

**Form A (*ky-*)**
Romaji	Hiragana	Katakana
(kya)	(きゃ)	(キャ)
(kyi)	(きぃ)	(キィ)
(kyu)	(きゅ)	(キュ)
kye kyei kyee kyē	きぇきぇい, きぇぃきぇえきぇー	キェキェイ, キェィキェエキェー
(kyo)	(きょ)	(キョ)

**Form B (*gy-*)**
Romaji	Hiragana	Katakana
(gya)	(ぎゃ)	(ギャ)
(gyi)	(ぎぃ)	(ギィ)
(gyu)	(ぎゅ)	(ギュ)
gye gyei gyee gyē	ぎぇぎぇい, ぎぇぃぎぇえぎぇー	ギェギェイ, ギェィギェエギェー
(gyo)	(ぎょ)	(ギョ)

01Other communicative representations

Japanese radiotelephony alphabet	Wabun code
切手のキ Kitte no "Ki"	▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄ ^ⓘ


Japanese Navy Signal Flag	Japanese semaphore	Japanese manual syllabary (fingerspelling)	Braille dots-126 Japanese Braille

Full Braille representation

き / キ in Japanese Braille				K + Yōon braille
き / キ ki	ぎ / ギ gi	きい / キー kī	ぎい / ギー gī	きゃ / キャ kya	ぎゃ / ギャ gya	きゃあ / キャー kyā	ぎゃあ / ギャー gyā

K + Yōon braille
きゅ / キュ kyu	ぎゅ / ギュ gyu	きゅう / キュー kyū	ぎゅう / ギュー gyū	きょ / キョ kyo	ぎょ / ギョ gyo	きょう / キョー kyō	ぎょう / ギョー gyō
	ku	ku	ku	ko	ko	ko	ko

Computer encodings

Character information
Preview	き		キ		ｷ		ぎ		ギ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER KI		KATAKANA LETTER KI		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER KI		HIRAGANA LETTER GI		KATAKANA LETTER GI
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	12365	U+304D	12461	U+30AD	65399	U+FF77	12366	U+304E	12462	U+30AE
UTF-8	227 129 141	E3 81 8D	227 130 173	E3 82 AD	239 189 183	EF BD B7	227 129 142	E3 81 8E	227 130 174	E3 82 AE
Numeric character reference	き	き	キ	キ	ｷ	ｷ	ぎ	ぎ	ギ	ギ
Shift JIS	130 171	82 AB	131 76	83 4C	183	B7	130 172	82 AC	131 77	83 4D
EUC-JP	164 173	A4 AD	165 173	A5 AD	142 183	8E B7	164 174	A4 AE	165 174	A5 AE
GB 18030	164 173	A4 AD	165 173	A5 AD	132 49 151 57	84 31 97 39	164 174	A4 AE	165 174	A5 AE
EUC-KR / UHC	170 173	AA AD	171 173	AB AD			170 174	AA AE	171 174	AB AE
Big5 (non-ETEN kana)	198 177	C6 B1	199 69	C7 45			198 178	C6 B2	199 70	C7 46
Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS)	198 243	C6 F3	199 169	C7 A9			198 244	C6 F4	199 170	C7 AA

Character information
Preview	き゚		キ゚		㋖
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGI		KATAKANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGI		CIRCLED KATAKANA KI
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	12365 12442	U+304D+309A	12461 12442	U+30AD+309A	13014	U+32D6
UTF-8	227 129 141 227 130 154	E3 81 8D E3 82 9A	227 130 173 227 130 154	E3 82 AD E3 82 9A	227 139 150	E3 8B 96
Numeric character reference	き゚	き゚	キ゚	キ゚	㋖	㋖
Shift JIS-2004	130 246	82 F6	131 152	83 98
EUC-JIS-2004	164 248	A4 F8	165 248	A5 F8
GB 18030					129 57 210 50	81 39 D2 32

Watch videos about Ki (kana)Explainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Ki (kana)”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

Images, from Wikimedia Commons:

Hiragana き stroke order animation.gif by Sirgazil, CC0
Katakana キ stroke order animation.gif by Sirgazil, CC0
き-bw.png by Made by me, M4RC0, using Photoshop. We are making this kind of picture following the protocol of the section : Bitmap Image (PNG), CC BY-SA 2.5
キ-bw.png by Made by me, M4RC0, using Photoshop. We are making this kind of picture following the protocol of the section : Bitmap Image (PNG), CC BY-SA 2.0

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