A question about Ki and Ki(tree)

[disturbed001]

If ki in Japanese means "tree", how do we get ki as in power level?

[TripleRach]

They're called homophones, which we have plenty of in English. (Bare/bear, know/no, etc...) They're both pronounced and romanized "ki," but not the same words because they're written with different kanji:

木 = tree

気 = ki, as in energy/aura etc

Mister Satan at one point thinks they're talking about trees when they say "ki," but otherwise it's pretty obvious in context in the anime, and unmistakable in the manga.

[VegettoEX]

If ki in Japanese means "tree", how do we get ki as in power level?

In a nutshell, different kanji mean different things.

The way Japanese works (when speaking about kanji) is that different symbols/characters are pronounced differently. Going even further, two different kanji may actually be pronounced exactly the same way, but because they are two different symbols/characters, they mean different things. That is the case, here.

木 = ki (it can also be pronounced as moku or boku in certain cases; there are slight rules and context that define the pronunciation) = "tree" or "wood"

気 = ki = "energy"

Different characters can then further be combined to create new words. For example, taking the latter ki example, you can make 元気 or genki, which pretty much means "happy" or "healthy" ("Genki desu ka? / Hai, genki desu.")

For another example of a different (series of) kanji with the same reading, there's kami. ネ申 is read as kami but is the "god" interpretation, while 紙 is also read as kami but means "paper", and furthermore, 髪 can also be read as kami but means "hair". Multiple-meanings like this are played upon extensively in the Japanese language. This example was used in Flame of Recca, with the Shikigami Madougu... I believe there was a character that made mention of all the meanings, since it was kinda like a godly device that allowed attacks via paper and hair in conjunction with something else... been a few years since I watched it .

[disturbed001]

Wow, thanks so much. That all totally makes sense. Question answered.