Languages › Japanese Meaning of the Japanese Word Kanari Share Flipboard Email Print Petri Artturi Asikainen/Getty Images Japanese Essential Japanese Vocabulary History & Culture Japanese Grammar By Namiko Abe Namiko Abe Japanese Language Expert B.A., Kwansei Gakuin University Namiko Abe is a Japanese language teacher and translator, as well as a Japanese calligraphy expert. She has been a freelance writer for nearly 20 years. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on February 24, 2019 The Japanese word kanari—pronounced precisely as the phonetic spelling indicates—is translated in a number of ways depending on context. It can mean "pretty", "fairy", or "quite/rather". The sentence in which the word appears will indicate how the word should be used. Japanese Characters かなり Example Kesa wa kanari samukatta node, mafuraa o shite dekaketa今朝はかなり寒かったので、マフラーをして出かけた。 Translation: Since it was quite cold this morning, I went out wearing a scarf. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Abe, Namiko. "Meaning of the Japanese Word Kanari." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/kanari-meaning-and-characters-2028722. Abe, Namiko. (2023, April 5). Meaning of the Japanese Word Kanari. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/kanari-meaning-and-characters-2028722 Abe, Namiko. "Meaning of the Japanese Word Kanari." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/kanari-meaning-and-characters-2028722 (accessed June 9, 2023). copy citation Featured Video