Edict

Edict is a publicly available Japanese<->English dictionary file (really more of a word list) maintained by Jim Breen (j.breen@csse.monash.edu.au) and is available at ftp.cc.monash.edu.au. It is a text file consisting of ASCII and EUC text. Each line is of the form:

   JAPANESE [READING] /English/English..../
or
   JAPANESE /English/English..../

The second form is used when the Japanese has no kanji. The READING is the kanji's reading in kana.

English

The English will often have tags indicating grammatical components, or other such information. For example, consider the entries:

The vt indicates that the first entry is a transitive verb, while the second's vi is an intransitive verb.

There are a variety of such tags:

Reading Info:

gikun
gikun (meaning as reading) or jukujikun (special kanji reading)
gikun
on-yomi, go
ik
word containing irregular kana usage
jouyou
approved reading for jouyou kanji
kan
on-yomi, kan
kanyou
on-yomi, kanyou
kun
kun-yomi
kun
kun-yomi
name
reading used only in names nanori
ok
out-dated or obsolete kana usage
on-yomi
on-yomi
rad
reading used as name of radical
sk
search-only kana form
tou
on-yomi, tou

Kanji info:

ateji
ateji (phonetic) reading
iK
word containing irregular kanji usage
ik
word containing irregular kana usage
io
irregular okurigana usage
oK
word containing out-dated kanji
rK
rarely-used kanji form
sK
search-only kanji form

Misc:

abbr
an abbreviation
aphorism
aphorism (pithy saying)
arch
archaic
char
character
chn
children's language
col
colloquialism
company
company name
creat
creature
dei
deity
derog
derogatory
doc
document
euph
euphemistic
ev
event
fam
familiar language
fem
female term, language, or name
fict
fiction
form
formal or literary term
given
given name or forename, gender not specified
group
group
hist
historical term
hon
honorific or respectful language (sonkeigo) language
hum
humble (kenjougo) language
id
idiomatic expression (kan'yougoku)
joc
jocular, humorous term
leg
legend
m-sl
manga slang
male
male term or language
myth
mythology
net-sl
Internet slang
obj
object
obs
obsolete term
on-mim
onomatopoeic or mimetic word
organization
organization name
oth
other
person
full name of a particular person
place
place name
poet
poetical term
pol
polite (teineigo) language
product
product name
proverb
proverb
quote
quotation
rare
rare
relig
religion
sens
sensitive
serv
service
ship
ship name
sl
slang
station
railway station
surname
family or surname
uk
word usually written using kana alone
unclass
unclassified name
vulg
vulgar expression or word
work
work of art, literature, music, etc. name
X
rude or vulgar term
yoji
@japwor(yojijukugo

Part-of-speech info:

adj-f
noun or verb acting prenominally
adj-i
an adjective (keiyoushi)
adj-ix
adjective (keiyoushi) - yoi/ii class
adj-kari
'kari' adjective (archaic)
adj-ku
'ku' adjective (archaic)
adj-na
adjectival nouns or quasi-adjectives (keiyoudoushi) Becomes an adjective when na appended.
adj-nari
archaic/formal form of na-adjective
adj-no
nouns which may take the genitive case particle no
adj-pn
pre-noun adjectival (rentaishi)
adj-shiku
'shiku' adjective (archaic)
adj-t
"taru" adjective
adv
an adverb (fukushi)
adv-to
adverb taking the `to' particle
aux
auxiliary
aux-adj
auxiliary adjective
aux-v
auxiliary verb
conj
conjunction
cop
copula
ctr
counter
exp
Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.)
int
interjection (kandoushi)
n
noun (common) (futsuumeishi)
n-adv
adverbial noun (fukushitekimeishi)
n-pref
noun, used as a prefix
n-suf
noun, used as a suffix
n-t
noun (temporal) (jisoumeishi)
num
numeric
pn
pronoun
pref
prefix
prt
particle
suf
suffix
unc
unclassified
v-unspec
verb unspecified
v1
Ichidan verb
v1-s
Ichidan verb - kureru special class
v2a-s
Nidan verb with 'u' ending (archaic)
v2b-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'bu' ending (archaic)
v2b-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'bu' ending (archaic)
v2d-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'dzu' ending (archaic)
v2d-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'dzu' ending (archaic)
v2g-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'gu' ending (archaic)
v2g-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'gu' ending (archaic)
v2h-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'hu/fu' ending (archaic)
v2h-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'hu/fu' ending (archaic)
v2k-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'ku' ending (archaic)
v2k-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'ku' ending (archaic)
v2m-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'mu' ending (archaic)
v2m-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'mu' ending (archaic)
v2n-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'nu' ending (archaic)
v2r-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'ru' ending (archaic)
v2r-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'ru' ending (archaic)
v2s-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'su' ending (archaic)
v2t-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'tsu' ending (archaic)
v2t-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'tsu' ending (archaic)
v2w-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'u' ending and 'we' conjugation (archaic)
v2y-k
Nidan verb (upper class) with 'yu' ending (archaic)
v2y-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'yu' ending (archaic)
v2z-s
Nidan verb (lower class) with 'zu' ending (archaic)
v4b
Yodan verb with 'bu' ending (archaic)
v4g
Yodan verb with 'gu' ending (archaic)
v4h
Yodan verb with 'hu/fu' ending (archaic)
v4k
Yodan verb with 'ku' ending (archaic)
v4m
Yodan verb with 'mu' ending (archaic)
v4n
Yodan verb with 'nu' ending (archaic)
v4r
Yodan verb with 'ru' ending (archaic)
v4s
Yodan verb with 'su' ending (archaic)
v4t
Yodan verb with 'tsu' ending (archaic)
v5aru
(godan) verb - -aru special class
v5b
(godan) verb with `bu' ending
v5g
(godan) verb with `gu' ending
v5k
(godan) verb with `ku' ending
v5k-s
(godan) verb - iku/yuku special class
v5m
(godan) verb with `mu' ending
v5n
(godan) verb with `nu' ending
v5r
(godan) verb with `ru' ending
v5r-i
(godan) verb with `ru' ending (irregular verb)
v5s
(godan) verb with `su' ending
v5t
(godan) verb with `tsu' ending
v5u
(godan) verb with `u' ending
v5u-s
(godan) verb with `u' ending (special class)
v5uru
(godan) verb - uru old class verb (old form of Eru)
vi
intransitive verb (jidoushi)
vk
Kuru verb - special class
vn
irregular nu verb
vr
irregular ru verb, plain form ends with -ri
vs
noun or participle which takes the aux. verb suru
vs-c
su verb - precursor to the modern suru
vs-i
suru verb - irregular
vs-s
suru verb - special class
vt
transitive verb (tadoushi)
vz
Ichidan verb - zuru verb (alternative form of -jiru verbs)

Field usage:

agric
agriculture
anat
anatomy
archeol
archeology
archit
architecture
art
art, aesthetics
astron
astronomy
aviat
audiovisual
baseb
baseball
biochem
biochemistry
biol
biology
bot
botany
Buddh
Buddhist term
bus
business
cards
card games
Christn
Christianity
cloth
clothing
comp
computer terminology
cryst
crystallography
dent
dentistry
ecol
ecology
econ
economics
elec
electricity, elec. eng.
electr
electronics
embryology
embryology
engr
engineering
ent
entomology
film
film
finc
finance
fish
fishing
food
food term
gardn
gardening, horticulture
genet
genetics
geogr
geography
geol
geology
geom
geometry term
go
go (game)
golf
golf
gramm
grammatical
grmyth
Greek mythology
hanaf
hanafuda
horse
horse racing
kabuki
kabuki
law
law
ling
linguistics terminology
logic
logic
MA
martial arts term
mahj
mahjong
manga
manga
math
mathematics
mech
mechanical engineering
med
medicine
met
meteorology
mil
military
mining
mining
music
music
noh
noh
ornith
ornithology
paleo
paleontology
pathol
pathology
pharm
pharmacology
phil
philosophy
photo
photography
physics
physics terminology
physiol
physiology
politics
politics
print
printing
psy
psychiatry
psyanal
psychoanalysis
psych
psychology
rail
railway
rommyth
Roman mythology
Shinto
Shinto
shogi
shogi
ski
skiing
sports
sports
stat
statistics
stockm
stock market
sumo
sumo
telec
telecommunications
tradem
trademark
tv
television
vidg
video games
zool
zoology

Dialect:

hob
Hokkaido-ben
ksb
Kansai-ben
ktb
Kantou-ben
kyb
Kyoto-ben
kyu
Kyuushuu-ben
nab
Nagano-ben
osk
Osaka-ben
rkb
Ryuukyuu-ben
std
Tokyo-ben (std)
thb
Touhoku-ben
tsb
Tosa-ben
tsug
Tsugaru-ben

Language:

bra
Brazilian

In addition, there are also (P) entries denoting the most commonly-used words in Japanese, as, "identified by examining several small dictionaries, and lists of common gairaigo from Japanese newspapers," to quote Jim Breen.

For complete information, see edict's 23 k-byte documentation file. For near real-time updates on tags used in the master database, the EDRDG project site has more.

Enamdict

Enamdict is the same type of file as edict above, except that it is dedicated to people, place and other names.

Here are the special tags used within enamdict:

s
surname
p
place name
u
person name, either given or surname, as-yet unclassified
g
given name, as-yet not classified by sex
f
female given name
m
male given name
h
full (family plus given) name of a particular person
o
organization name
c
company name
pr
product name
st
stations
ch
character
cr
creature
dei
deity
doc
document
ev
event
fic
fiction
group
group
leg
legend
myth
mythology
oth
other
rel
religion
serv
service
ship/FONT>
ship name
wk
work of literature, art, film, etc.

For complete information, see enamdict's 15 k-byte documentation file and the latest version.

Kanjidic

Kanjidic is a database of information about kanji, also developed and maintained by Jim Breen (j.breen@csse.monash.edu.au). It contains information about the over 6300 characters in the JIS X 0208 standard.

Included are

character information
- radical (bushu) number (standard and where applicable, classical)
- frequency-of-use (in modern Japanese writing) ranking (based on an analysis of news articles in Mainichi Shimbun over a four-year period)
- markings for jyouyou (with grade level) or jinmeiyou characters
- Wan Chen's Four Corner code.
- the character's SKIP pattern (from Halpern).
- the Mandarin Chinese reading(s) (Pinyin)
- the stroke count
- the character's readings
- general English meanings
- Korean reading(s)
- Cross references into JIS X 0208 and JIS X 0212
- Mis-classification code
indexes into other published works
- Jack Halpern's New Japanese-English Character Dictionary (See it at Amazon.com)
- Jack Halpern's The Kodansha Kanji Dictionary (See it at Amazon.com)
- Andrew Nelson's Modern Reader's Japanese-English Character Dictionary (See it at Amazon.com)
- Andrew Nelson's The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary, edited by John Haig (See it at Amazon.com)
- Mark Spahn and Wolfgang Hadamitzky's Japanese Character Dictionary - With Compound Lookup via Any Kanji (See it at Amazon.com)
- Mark Spahn and Wolfgang Hadamitzky's Kanji & Kana: A Handbook of the Japanese Writing System (See it at Amazon.com)
- Mark Spahn and Wolfgang Hadamitzky's Kanji & Kana: A Handbook of the Japanese Writing System, 2011 Ed. (See it at Amazon.com)
- the 13-volume Morohashi Daikanwajiten
- Kenneth Henshall's A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters (See it at Amazon.com)
- Kenneth Henshall's A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese (See it at Amazon.com)
- Gakken's A New Dictionary of Kanji Usage (See it at Amazon.com)
- James Heisig's Remembering The Kanji (See it at Amazon.com)
- P.G. O'Neill's Japanese Names (See it at Amazon.com)
- Kodansha's Japanese For Busy People (See it at Amazon.com)
- Dale Crowley's The Kanji Way to Japanese Language Power (See it at Amazon.com)
- Kodansha's Compact Kanji Guide (See it at Amazon.com)
- Nishiguchi and Kono's Kanji in Context
- P.G. O'Neill's Essential Kanji (See it at Amazon.com)
- Father Joseph De Roo's 2001 Kanji (See it at Amazon.com)
- Florence Sakade's A Guide To Reading and Writing Japanese (See it at Amazon.com)
- Tuttle's Kanji Cards (See it at Amazon.com)
- Yves Maniette's Les Kanjis dans la tête (See it at Amazon.com)
encoding information
- JIS (from which EUC, JIS, Shift-JIS, and kuten can be derived)
- UNICODE

Kanjidic contains work donated by many people, and some of its contents are copyrighted. Check out kanjidic's 55 k-byte documentation file for complete info. See also the up-to-date version.

Kanjd212

Kanjd212 is a database of information about Kanji in the JIS X 0212-1990 supplementary character set. It was developed to complement Kanjidic and is also maintained by Jim Breen (j.breen@csse.monash.edu.au). It contains information about over 5800 characters in that standard. See kanjd212's 10 k-byte documentation file for more info.

Included are almost the same number of fields as in Kanjidic, but due to a dearth of information, not as many as one would like.

Both kanji dictionaries are available at ftp.cc.monash.edu.au or at any good Nihongo mirror near you.

Kanjd213u

Kanjd213u is a newer database of information about Kanji in the JIS X 0213-2004 supplementary character set. It was also developed to complement Kanjidic and Kanjd212 and is maintained by Jim Breen (j.breen@csse.monash.edu.au). It contains information on about 952 Kanji added in the JIS X 0213 standard over those already included in the JIS X 0212 standard. The file itself is encoded in UNICODE so is only searchable if the server's UTF-8 encoding is selected. To view this, you must have fonts installed that support this standard too.

Comments appreciated

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