いかな

also: いっかな

い

か

な

Freq.FrequencyTop 100,000

Meanings

pre-noun adjectival

what kind of; whatever sort of

usually written using kana alone

Pre-noun adjectival (rentaishi) used to ask or describe the type or nature of something. Often formal or emphatic.

いかな理り由ゆうがあろうとも、遅ち刻こくは許ゆるされない。
No matter what the reason, tardiness will not be tolerated.
いかな場ば合あいでも、冷れい静せいに対たい処しょしなければならない。
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.

いかな努ど力りょくをしても、彼かれには追おいつけなかった。
No matter what effort I made, I couldn't catch up with him.

Kanji

如likeness, like, such as
何what

Related words

どんな
どんな is the common, everyday equivalent of いかな, used in both spoken and written Japanese. いかな is more formal and emphatic.
いかに
いかに is the adverbial form of 如何, used in similar patterns but more broadly as 'how' or 'in what way'. いかな is specifically pre-noun or adverbial in fixed constructions.

Word family

いかなるN1
what kind of; what sort of; what · no matter what; whatever; any

Written forms

いかなUsage59%
Usually written in kana; the kanji form 如何な is rare and literary.
如何なUsage24%
- いかな
  Rare kanji spelling; mostly seen in formal or literary contexts.
- いっかな
いっかなUsage17%
Rare emphatic variant reading; may be encountered in older or dialectal speech.

Etymology

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.