On

on, (Japanese: “sound”) , in full on’yomi (“sound reading”), 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.