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.
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.
No matter what the reason, tardiness will not be tolerated.
In any situation whatsoever, you must handle it calmly.
No matter what effort I made, I couldn't catch up with him.
what kind of; what sort of; what · no matter what; whatever; any
Usually written in kana; the kanji form 如何な is rare and literary.
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.