Dictionary pages

Word pages

A word page lists every dictionary entry written that way. The first entry is open and the others are collapsed to their headword and first meaning; click one to open it. With three or more entries, a row of headwords at the top jumps to each.

The kanji of the page are listed beside the words (in a tab on narrow screens), each with its meanings, readings and a link to its own page.

An open entry shows:

• the headword with its reading, and your level for it
• the frequency rank, and the other written forms of the word
• the meanings, grouped by part of speech, with labels such as usage notes, field and dialect, and links to related words
• a conjugation table for verbs and adjectives
• example sentences with translations
• definitions from a Japanese dictionary (国語辞典)
• names written the same way

Meanings may come with example sentences and usage notes written by AI. They are marked Generated (experimental) and can contain mistakes.

Signed in, the entry header has an Add to deck button and Level & progress, which shows how the word ranks for you and why. See Levels and progress.

Conjugation tables

Verbs and adjectives have a table with plain, plain negative, polite and polite negative columns. The first three rows are shown; Show all forms adds the rest: past, て-form, ます-stem, adverbial, volitional, imperative, the ば and たら conditionals, potential, passive, causative, causative passive and たい.

Row names and forms with a dotted underline open the grammar point that explains them. A form opens the closest match for its kind of word and what it means, not for its column: 食べさせられない opens the causative passive, 高くない opens ～くない, 静かでした opens でした. A form that is only polite or negative opens that, so 食べません opens ～ません. The dictionary form opens the lesson on its kind of word, such as る-verbs or い-adjectives.

Searching or clicking a conjugated form finds the dictionary form, and the popup names the forms that lead from one to the other. Each one opens its grammar point.

English meanings and monolingual definitions

Words have English meanings and, where they exist, definitions written in Japanese. By default the English meanings come first and the Japanese definitions follow.

The study options can put the monolingual definitions first, or hide one of the two in popups or everywhere.

A hidden dictionary waits behind a Show button. The words in monolingual definitions open popups.

Meanings in your language

When your language of explanations is not English, meanings that have been translated into it replace the English ones. These translations are made by machine and carry a small, dim translation icon. They can be wrong. Meanings without a translation stay in English.

Example sentences and usage notes written by AI, and the AI explanations in popups, are written in that language too. An entry whose examples have not been written in it yet shows the English ones until they are.

Character pages

A kanji page shows its JLPT level and school grade (or whether it is a jouyou or jinmeiyou kanji), the number of strokes, its radical, its rank among the 2500 kanji most used in newspapers, its meanings and its readings: kun’yomi (訓), on’yomi (音) and name readings (名).

Below that are its components, its stroke order and example words for each reading.

• Components: the parts the character is built from. Click a part to open it.
• Stroke order: one frame per stroke. Each frame shows the strokes so far, the later strokes greyed out, and a dot where the current stroke starts.
• Example words: words that use the character, grouped by reading.

On the website the components are a tree, so the parts of a part are shown too. Some components have a short explanation instead of a page.

To find a character you cannot type, use the radical lookup described in Dictionary search.