also: いっかな
pre-noun adjectival
what kind of; whatever sort of
Pre-noun adjectival (rentaishi) used to ask or describe the type or nature of something. Often formal or emphatic.
いかな理由があろうとも、遅刻は許されない。
No matter what the reason, tardiness will not be tolerated.
いかな場合でも、冷静に対処しなければ
In any situation whatsoever, you must handle it calmly.
adverb
no matter what; however much
Adverbial use, often in the pattern いかな…とも/ても, meaning 'no matter how much' or 'whatever'. Formal and somewhat literary.
いかに努力しても、彼には追いつけなかった。
No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't catch up with him.
Rare kanji spelling; mostly seen in formal or literary contexts.
Rare emphatic variant reading; may be encountered in older or dialectal speech.
Derived from the classical Japanese interrogative 如何 (いか) with the attributive particle な, forming a pre-noun adjectival. The reading いっかな is an emphatic variant.