れ

• IPA^(key): [ɾe̞]

• Audio:

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Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji 礼 in the cursive sōsho style. Compare cognate shinjitai kanji 礼 (similar but less radical) and katakana レ.

れ • (re) 

1. The hiragana syllable れ (re). Its equivalent in katakana is レ (re). It is the forty-second syllable in the gojūon order; its position is ら行え段 (ra-gyō e-dan, “row ra, section e”).

• (Hiragana) 平仮名; あぁ, いぃ, うぅゔ, えぇ, おぉ, かゕが, きぎ, くぐ, けゖげ, こご, さざ, しじ, すず, せぜ, そぞ, ただ, ちぢ, つっづ, てで, とど, な, に, ぬ, ね, の, はばぱ, ひびぴ, ふぶぷ, へべぺ, ほぼぽ, ま, み, む, め, も, やゃ, ゆゅ, よょ, ら, り, る, れ, ろ, わゎ, ゐ, ゑ, を, ん, ー, ゝ, ゞ, ゟ

• Imperfective: from older *-re₂.
• Imperative: from older *-re₁.

See Old Japanese#Grammar, Old Japanese#Vowels.

れ • (-re) 

1. (archaic) perfective/imperative of り (-ri)

れ • (-re) 

1. continuative of れる (-reru)

れ • (re) 

1. [from 1915] (thief cant) the wind

   Synonym: 風 (kaze, standard)

れ • (re) 

1. [from 1931] (lumber dealer or carpenter cant) five

   Synonym: 五 (go, standard)

• Nihon Kokugo Daijiten Dai-ni-han Henshū I'inkai (日本国語大辞典第二版編集委員会) (2001-2002) 日本国語大辞典　第二版 [Unabridged Japanese Dictionary: Second Edition], Tokyo (東京都): Shōgakukan (小学館), →ISBN

れ (-re)

1. nominalizing suffix used to form pronouns, often from demonstratives: one, thing

• Omodaka, Hisataka (1967) 時代別国語大辞典 上代編 [The dictionary of historical Japanese: Old Japanese] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN, page 811