Why 今日 is pronunciated きょう?

The converse, where the kanji characters are used for their meaning without regard to their original reading and are assigned a new reading, is also a form of ateji. An example is 煙草 (tabako) for "tobacco", where the individual kanji have no phonetic relationship to the compound. Compounds that are established in the language are known as 熟字訓 (jukujikun), while improvised uses are just ateji (for example, 宿敵 shukuteki 'mortal enemy' to be read as the English-derived word raibaru 'rival').

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