Editing Kanji (section)

==={{translit|ja|Ateji}}===
{{Main|Ateji}}
{{Nihongo||当て字|'''Ateji'''}} are characters used only for their sounds. In this case, pronunciation is still based on a standard reading, or used only for meaning (broadly a form of {{translit|ja|ateji}}, narrowly {{translit|ja|jukujikun}}). Therefore, only the full compound—not the individual character—has a reading. There are also [[#Special readings|special cases]] where the reading is completely different, often based on a historical or traditional reading.

The analogous phenomenon occurs to a much lesser degree in [[varieties of Chinese|Chinese varieties]], where there are [[literary and colloquial readings of Chinese characters]]—borrowed readings and native readings. In Chinese these borrowed readings and native readings are etymologically related, since they are between Chinese varieties (which are related), not from Chinese to Japanese (which are not related). They thus form [[Doublet (linguistics)|doublets]] and are generally similar, analogous to different {{translit|ja|on'yomi}}, reflecting different stages of Chinese borrowings into Japanese.