can a word be written with different kanji?


i was looking for the word meaning to be lit which is 付く but as a looked at
the meaning it said to see 点くwhich i found to also mean 'to be lit' so are
they both the same or are they different? and can i use them both in any case
or are there exceptions? thanks for any help and sorry for my frequent
questions




There are words which can be written using different kanji. In your example,
付く can be used for a variety of meanings, one of them being the same as 点く.
The first is a very common verb and is many times used as a suffix to other
verbs. The latter is specifically for saying something is lit or catches fire.

These meanings can easily be differentiated by looking at the meaning of the
_words_ in the dictionary. But, there are several more verbs with the same
relationship, in which the dictionary would show the different ways of writing
the same word to have the exact same meaning. Take 見る for example. It has the
same relationship with 看る as 付く has with 点く. But the dictionary shows 観る and
視る (miru and miru) to simply be different ways of writing the verb 見る.
Although this is true, these different ways of writing _do_ have an emphasis
on usually one of the meanings of 見る. To determine what's the emphasis, you
have to look at the meaning of the _kanji_ used for that writing (and usually
at the context of the word too). 視 means "inspection". 視る will thus have one
of the meanings of 見る with an emphasis on that.

That's for the kunyomi writing. Words read with the onyomi writing can be
written with different kanji and have the exact same meaning. In literature
the author might use the different kanji in a way to produce the right feeling
of a word for his work. It's not similar to the kunyomi's "emphasis" stated
above, but is purely aesthetic. There are also a lot of outdated kanji which
you should ignore for now (or forever).




There are words which can be written using different kanji. In your example,
付く can be used for a variety of meanings, one of them being the same as 点く.
The first is a very common verb and is many times used as a suffix to other
verbs. The latter is specifically for saying something is lit or catches fire.

These meanings can easily be differentiated by looking at the meaning of the
_words_ in the dictionary. But, there are several more verbs with the same
relationship, in which the dictionary would show the different ways of writing
the same word to have the exact same meaning. Take 見る for example. It has the
same relationship with 看る as 付く has with 点く. But the dictionary shows 観る and
視る (miru and miru) to simply be different ways of writing the verb 見る.
Although this is true, these different ways of writing _do_ have an emphasis
on usually one of the meanings of 見る. To determine what's the emphasis, you
have to look at the meaning of the _kanji_ used for that writing (and usually
at the context of the word too). 視 means "inspection". 視る will thus have one
of the meanings of 見る with an emphasis on that.

That's for the kunyomi writing. Words read with the onyomi writing can be
written with different kanji and have the exact same meaning. In literature
the author might use the different kanji in a way to produce the right feeling
of a word for his work. It's not similar to the kunyomi's "emphasis" stated
above, but is purely aesthetic. There are also a lot of outdated kanji which
you should ignore for now (or forever).

