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What are the best Japanese/English dictionary mobile apps?

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8 Options Considered

8 Options ConsideredPriceLast Updated
Akebi Japanese Dictionary
Jan 10, 2017
Jishop
Aug 23, 2017
Jsho - Japanese Dictionary
Apr 11, 2018
imiwa?
Feb 3, 2016
新和英大辞典第5版 - Kenkyuusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, 5th Ed
Aug 18, 2016
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Akebi Japanese Dictionary

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Dan Strokirk
Top Pro

Can search kanji by radicals

•••
Dan Strokirk
Top Pro

Built in handwriting recognition

•••
Know any negative aspects of this option?
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Jishop

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thermoplastics
J Kerian
Top Pro

Limited free version available for the most common kanji

•••
The free version shows the 1006 Gakushū kanji. Some versions (desktop and android) give a 30 day full version trial before reverting to the limited version.
thermoplastics
J Kerian
Top Pro

Kanji dictionary entries are separated by 'theme'

•••
There is often a slight correlation between pronunciation and shades of meaning for kanji, which most dictionaries don't seem to show you. Jishop will try to tease these connections out, helping to significantly clarify some rather broad kanji.
J Kerian
Top Pro

Different (and better) radical lookup mechanism than the typical radkfile indexes

•••
Most EDICT skins use the radkfile mechanism, which is 1) riddled with errors and 2) rather incomplete. Jishop has its own non-bushu lookup mechanism that is significantly easier to use once you get used to the slightly quirky interface.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
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Jsho - Japanese Dictionary

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kouriku
Top Pro

Lightweight

•••
37 MB
kouriku
Top Pro

Offline Use

•••
The entire app is available offline
kouriku
Top Con

Only on Android

•••
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imiwa?

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kouriku
Top Pro

Ease of Vocabulary Lookup

•••
Lookup by Japanese kanji, Japanese hiragana/katakana, or English alphabetic romaji
kouriku
Top Pro

Free

•••
All features are free, no in-app purchases necessary
kouriku
Top Pro

Sentence Analysis

•••
Automatically inputs pasted sentence on application launch, and breaks down the sentence word by word.
kouriku
Top Pro

Large library of example sentences

•••
Allows users to lookup the dozens of example sentences for each word, providing context to dictionary definitions.
thermoplastics
kouriku
Top Pro

Offline Use

•••
The entire app is available offline so no internet connection is needs, which is good for when using a device that does not always have a data connection.
kouriku
Top Pro

Conjugations

•••
User can lookup conjugations for verbs
kouriku
Top Pro

Multilingual Support

•••
Definitions are available in English, French, German, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish
kouriku
Top Pro

Extensive Kanji resources

•••
Organizes kanji by JLPT, jouyou Kanji list, and SKIP
kouriku
Top Con

Only on iOS

•••
kouriku
Top Con

Large Size

•••
Since the app can be used entirely offline, there's a large size, 323 MB
See 8 more Pros & ConsSee 8 more Pros & Cons

新和英大辞典第5版 - Kenkyuusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary, 5th Ed

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J Kerian
Top Pro

Significantly higher quality entries than EDICT

•••
Most of the options on this page are thin interface skins over the freely available EDICT dictionary provided to the public originally by Jim Breen. (http://www.edrdg.org/jmdict/edict.html) Kenkyuusha's, on the other hand, is a professionally curated dictionary by a major Japanese publisher.
J Kerian
Top Con

More limted coverage of manga/slang terms

•••
Although this is is significantly larger and higher quality than EDICT, it will have fewer "slang" terms.
J Kerian
Top Con

That price

•••
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JED

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kouriku
Top Pro

Offline Use

•••
The entire app is available offline
kouriku
Top Con

Only on Android

•••
kouriku
Top Con

Development Hiatus

•••
Last updated in 2013
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Kodansha Kanji Learners Dictionary

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Polyglot
Top Pro

Cross-references to Heisig's "Remembering the Kanji" and other sources

•••
Polyglot
Top Pro

Easy to look up kanji through several different methods

•••
You can look up kanji through the dictionary's "SKIP" stroke-counting method or by a reading or compound word.
Polyglot
Top Con

Focused on kanji rather than words

•••
Polyglot
Top Con

Not intended to be comprehensive because it is aimed at learners.

•••
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VidaLingua

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Belle
Top Pro

An audio pronunciation of words is included

•••
There is a text-to-speech pronunciation of all its entries, so you are not left guessing on how to say a word or a phrase.
Belle
Top Pro

Its dictionary contains a large number of useful translations

•••
It contains thousands of offline entries that includes samples on how to use words or phrases.
Know any negative aspects of this option?
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9 Community Recommendations

Dan Strokirk
kouriku
J Kerian
Alvaro Fernando García
Javiera Villarroel
ColorfulTashmetum
ExcellentZirnitra
CreativeIsis
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