16.2. Online dictionaries

Edict / kanjidic based sites

The following sites are all based on the electronic dictionaries compiled by Professor Jim Breen of Monash University in Australia.

WWWJDIC: WWWJDIC is Jim Breen's own interface to his "Edict", "Kanjidic", and "Enamdic" dictionaries.
Denshi Jisho: Online Japanese dictionary by Kim Ahlstrom, based on Edict and the related dictionaries. Features a word, kanji, multiradical lookup, and example sentence lookup, and has options for romaji input and output.
Tangorin: Online dictionary by Grzegorz Bober. Features Words, Kanji, Multiradical Words, Multiradical Kanji, Example Sentences, Proper Names, Classical Japanese and Specialized Dictionaries.
Jeffrey's online dictionary: Jeffrey Friedl's interface to Jim Breen's dictionaries. The first and the longest-running of any of the online dictionary servers. It features "vague" searching patterns which can match both long and short vowels, and because it can also create Japanese character graphics, it can be used by people without Japanese capable browsers. Which is virtually no use in 2010, but still it is there if you need it. Also features giant ASCII kanji. Also extensively customizable.
popjisyo: This page helps you to read web sites which are written in Japanese. You enter a URL into Popjisyo, and it makes a page which pops up windows in your browser which show the meaning of the words as you move the mouse over them.
Todd David Rudick's Rikai: Popjisyo is a clone of this site. Rikai is just like popjisyo, but much more irritating.
rikaichan: A Firefox extension which adds popups to your browsing experience.

The following sites are based on various commercial Japanese dictionaries.

Goo dictionary: Goo's dictionary contains the EXCEED English to Japanese and Japanese to English dictionaries, as well as the Japanese to Japanese Daijirin and Shingojiten (new word) dictionaries. The interface is in Japanese. See 5.6. What "false friends" are there between Japanese and English? if the name "Goo" seems confusing.
Sanseido's online dictionaries
Biglobe's interface to the Sanseido dictionaries.: In Japanese.
Kenkyusha's Online Dictionary: A very large and authoritative dictionary. Requires payment to access.

eijiro (英字郎): A user-contributed dictionary which values quantity over quality.
Wiktionary: This is the dictionary associated with Wikipedia, with many similar problems.

Online Japanese Dictionaries and Glossaries: A list from Jim Breen, contains general and specialized dictionaries.

If you have questions, corrections, or comments, please contact Ben Bullock or use the discussion forum / Privacy