Hanja is the
Korean name for
Chinese characters (
hànzì). More specifically, it refers to those Chinese characters borrowed from
Chinese and incorporated into the
Korean language with Korean
pronunciation.
Hanja-mal or
hanja-eo refers to words that can be written with hanja, and
hanmun (, ) refers to
Classical Chinese writing, although "hanja" is sometimes used loosely to encompass these other concepts. Because hanja never underwent major reform, they are almost entirely identical to
traditional Chinese and
kyujitai characters. Only a small number of hanja characters are modified or unique to Korean. By contrast, many of the Chinese characters currently in use in Japan and Mainland China have been simplified, and contain fewer strokes than the corresponding hanja characters.