Katakana is one of the ways of writing in Japanese language. It is a syllabic script used alongside Hiragana and Kanji to represent foreign words, loanwords, onomatopoeic words, scientific names, and technical terms in Japanese writing. Katakana consists of 46 basic characters and additional modified characters, similar to Hiragana. Katakana is usually used for emphasis, such as in advertising and media, and for giving emphasis to certain words. It is also used for proper names and characters that are idiomatic in Japanese.