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Research Guides

Japanese Language: Reference

Resources for Japanese language learners.

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English/Japanese Dictionaries

imiwa? (iOS)

imiwa? is an English-Japanese/Japanese-English dictioanry using JMDict files based on Jim Breen's EDICT project. Free.

Eijiro on the WEB (iOS)

This app queries the Eijiro 英辞郎 dictionary on the web to search for English and Japanese words. Free.

Android Free Offline Dictionaries

Language

Japanese Text Analyzer (Android)

This is a morphological analysis tool for Japanese language, providing linguistic information, proofreading aid, dependency analysis, ruby glossing, kana to kanji conversion, and WWWJDIC lookup. Free.

Japanese Dictionaries

Jisho is Free, Convenient, and Easy to use for finding English, Japanese, and Romaji word variations.

POPjisyo is a free Japanese English translator that can pick out and provide information on individual words and phrases.

Kōjien Dai-roku-ban 広辞苑 第六版 (Android $)

Kōjien is the gold standard of Japanese-Japanese dictionaries, and this version includes color images. Does not require an internet connection. 

Daijisen 大辞泉 (Android, iOS FREE and $)

A comprehensive Japanese-Japanese dictionary including some images. 

  • 大辞泉 (App Store; free with in-app purchases; iPhone and iPad)
  • 大辞泉 (Google Play; paid)

Daijirin 大辞林 (Android, iOS $)

A comprehensive Japanese-Japanese dictionary, including images for some entries, and facilitates sharing words via Twitter. It includes a jump function, handwriting recognition, and browsing. 

Iwanami Kokugo Jiten Dai-nana-ban Shinpan 岩波 国語辞典 第七版 新版 (Android, iOS $)

Iwanami's Kokugo Jiten 7th Edition, similar in interface to Daijirin. It includes browsing capability and handwriting recognition. No internet connection required. 

Meikyō Kokugo Jiten Dai-ni-han (Android, iOS $)

It supports handwriting recognition, and includes a kanji dictionary and several appendices containing information about topics such as lunar cycles. 

 

Encyclopedias

All国語辞書, Japanese ⇔ Japanese (Android, iOS)

This dictionary searches across a variety of online 国語辞典, including Yahoo!, Weblio, Goo, Excite, Kotobank, Google, and more. It supports handwriting recognition for kanji and kana on Android. Free.

コトバンク (Android)
 
This app searches Kotobank's site for entries on various topics. Free.

Weblio 辞書 (Android)

Weblio 辞書 searchces Weblio's site for encyclopedia and dictionary entries. Free.