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Actually, the title is pretty clear. I was wondering and came up with some
ideas like that it sounds like "killer" in Japanese. Or does it have a special
meaning or anything?


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death-note
Where does the word "Kira" come from, or what does it stand for?


As you surmise, "Kira" is how a Japanese speaker would pronounce the English
word "killer". I seem to recall somebody explicitly pointing this out early on
in the manga, though I don't remember where exactly.

That's pretty much all there is to it.


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In episode 2, at around 12 minutes, Light explains that the name Kira was
taken from the English word "killer".

[![Picture from the anime: Ryuk and Light: "Kira taken from the english word
'Killer'"](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KG921.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KG921.jpg)


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