Shirabe Jisho Reviews

by Megiel

I’ve been using this dictionary for almost as long as I’ve been studying Japanese for, since 2 years ago. I’ve tried out Midori for a while, but didn’t want to buy it since it was too expensive, so I went for ShirabeJisho instead. Both apps have the exact same content and example sentences, except that this one is completely free, so naturally, I picked ShirabeJisho over Midori. I like the favourite function and they way I can bookmark words for later revision. If the developers can make ShirabeJisho compatible with the Apple Watch, that can allow my bookmarked words to show up on my Watch so that I can revise from my wrist on the go, I’d be eternally grateful. Of course, it’d be even better if I can also search for words from my watch too, using the Scribble function, or through a little Japanese keypad. I had to use Erudite to make it possible to add words to a list that can appear on my watch for revision, but since I’ve bookmarked hundreds of words in the Shirabe Jisho app, it’s a real pain to have to boomark all the words again.

by StubsForNubs

So I was looking for a simple Japanese dictionary but everything I tried was terrible and hard to navigate. And I stumbled upon ShirabeJisho and let me tell you, ShirabeJisho not only tells you words, but can also tell you what a certain kanji means. It can also tell you the Japanese counterpart of an English word. It tells you Japanese names and what kanji they consist of. They also have folders for words and kanji that are most commonly used in the Japanese language and explains them in an understandable manner. I can’t express how happy and satisfied I am with ShirabeJisho. 5 stars. 10/10

by 形礼武

I love ShirabeJisho. Ever since I’ve found it I’ve used it to assist myself with studying . It’s dictionaries are extensive and I love being able to look things up in both English and Japanese. I do have a problem with the flash cards though. Every time I make a flash card list from my favorites , None of the values at the top (nor do any of the values in the due cards per day section) change and I Can’t figure out why. I like having some type of process to track my progress with so it’s kind of disappointing but is a great app none the less .

by Motavator (TheBethFamily)

ShirabeJisho is really great! I've actually used the online dictionary for a really long time, it's really useful. You can write in both Japanese and English, in romaji or in hiragana which is helpful when you don't want to switch keyboards. There is the thing, where you can draw out the kanji if you forget. Also the word searches are super helpful, they tell the different way that the word is spelled, ways to use it In a sentence, kanji and you can even write notes on the words. There are lists! Word lists and kanji lists. It even shows kanji by frequency or by grade level! I mean this is a great app!!!

by Keirachan031406

so, let me start out by saying, i speak japanese… but i’m basically illiterate in it. i never found the need to know how to read or write it past the basic kana and my given/family name, other than that i simply just speak it. but, as of recently i’ve found myself actually needing to know how to read for various reasons, so i had to go looking for a jisho. i’d found a couple before but i hated the navigation of it (not to mention they required memberships at ungodly prices). when i stumbled upon ShirabeJisho i thought it was too good to be true. i decided to test my luck and download it. i tested it out on some stuff i already knew the kanji for and figured out it was correct, even with slang and phrases! I rely on ShirabeJisho heavily when reading since i’m still not on par with how i’m able to speak and i’d argue to say i use it almost every day. 10/10 do recommend if you’re in the same situation as me or you’re simply trying to learn japanese.

by Vy Dao

I’ve been using ShirabeJisho for 6 months and totally in love with it. It’s totally free and ad free. The best thing about Jisho is that not only can you look up new words but also search for names and examples. You can also put a note on a word or using your own modified flash card to memorize (which is super cool for memorizing bunch of vocabularies and kanji).

The only thing i would love to see more in Jisho is more radicals’. Some of radicals are not there and some are listed as radical ( + number) but no meaning written down.
On overall, this is the best dictionary app i’ve ever used. Thank you for the great job!

by Sauradeep Paul

This dictionary has helped me loads with my Japanese study. The way this dictionary has been designed, you can see that the developers probably use this as well for them to understand which use cases and features are important to be included here. You can search for either the Japanese and English words, there is a breakdown of the word into its kanji and they even show you the strokeorder and examples for the kanji. I happened to stumble upon this dictionary, and I am so glad that I did. This is excellent!

by Reviewerfust

I've been using ShirabeJisho daily for months and I really like it.
What I like:
- Search-as-you-type is very useful and allows the use of wildcards (e.g. suppose you want to look up 下請け but don't know the reading. Maybe you know that 下 can be typed as した, so just type 下?け, et voilà 下請け pops up)
- Search kanji by subcomponents works well too
What could be even better:
- For each kanji, there is a list of similar kanji. While this feature could be extremely useful, I found that that list is very far from exhaustive, and I ended up not relying on that feature at all.
- I wish there was a 'hybrid' kanji+kana search. Say I'm trying to look up all words starting with 半 that read はんか. It would be convenient to just be able to type 半か and get all such words
- The History, while useful, gets clustered really fast because words are added to it as-you-type. Maybe add to the history only those words that the user clicked?

Overall, great app, heartily recommended!

by Ceilidh A.

ShirabeJisho is fabulous, and I have used it for years. I began using it during my college classes in Japanese (after learning of ShirabeJisho via the Shirabe Jisho website), and it continues to be part of the backbone of my self study now. ShirabeJisho is free, which almost feels criminal with how positively amazing it is.

Features
-Flashcards, Word lists (make your own or premade), favorites
-Word lists by JLPT category, word lists by part of speech
-kanji lists by JLPT, by Japanese grade level, by stroke #
-ability to search by radical (very helpful)
-ability to hear pronunciation
-both a word and a name dictionary
-examples for most words; words that lack examples tend to be uncommon
-information on use of words and their commonness/dialect if applicable
-conjugations of verbs are given
-furigana above kanji, on dictionary entries for kanji applicable compounds are also listed

Cons
-can be redundant to navigate at times, but this matters very little to me

Overall, ShirabeJisho is a 5/5. Fantastic, free dictionary and you will NOT find a better Japanese learning tool on ShirabeJisho Store.

by Darashiganai

I’m at about the N3 level in my Japanese studies. The COMMON tag sold me immediately and have been near-exclusively using ShirabeJisho. I still use other Japanese dictionary apps, and although I still (but seldom) come across words that don’t have an entry in this dictionary, I still find it the most useful. Just an example: やめとく doesn’t exactly have an entry, but やめておくdoes. やめとく was, however, used as the only example sentence for やめておく. I’m grateful because that’s how I learned that it’s a contraction, or dialect (I’m still not actually sure). Nevertheless, immensely useful; would give 100 stars if I could.

by Yamanote

I’ve studied Japanese for 45 years and lived in Japan for 30. As a student I went through 2 copies of Nelson’s dictionary, which was then the gold standard. Then I got a Canon Word Tank, which was the first real usable electronic dictionary in the era before mobile phones. The Word Tank was incredible. Shirabe takes the best of everything in one simple to use app. It’s like Nelson’s and every other Japanese discriminate ever created in one place, easily accessible, and super easy to use. ShirabeJisho is a must have for anybody even slightly serious about Japanese language. To me, this is a miracle app.

by ScandanavianBlueberry

I have not yet fully delved into ShirabeJisho to test all of its features and abilities; however, from what I have seen, I am quite impressed.
ShirabeJisho allows one to write a kanji into a blank space and proceeds to pulls up the kanji that was attempted, or others similar in structure. Essentially, it’s perfect for one who is learning kanji, or needs a quick reference/ answer to a kanji encountered but not familiar.
On top of that, it includes accurate usage, sentences, and points of reference for individual words or ideas.
And to cap that all off, it’s free!
If you are a speaker of the Japanese language and/or are in the process of learning it, ShirabeJisho will be of immense benefit to you. From quick reference, to gaining a more clearer understanding.

by Veestah

I initially was recommended to try Shirabe Jisho by another app developer in the language studies field! I’ve come across the website version when casually googling the random Japanese word or phrase, and was delighted to find out about ShirabeJisho.
While I am not any kind of dedicated student, I definitely feel that ShirabeJisho hasn’t given me incorrect information - moreover, it’s even solved some questions I had about certain word choices.

The developer (s?) behind Shirabe Jisho are VERY respectful and responsive to questions and comments about ShirabeJisho , and the once or twice that I double checked and thought I found a bug or error, a response came in under a day - and (if actually needed!) the error was fixed in the same timeframe!

My favorite feature is being able to search for kanji via the stroke input box! I largely have no idea about 99% of them, so i can’t spell them out to search! This is by sight, and is IMMENSELY HELPFUL!!! 🤩

As a complete novice, but thoughtful app user, I definitely use and recommend this one for anyone who wants a good resource! 👍🏻
I love it, and it has a permanent space in my phone.

by Adjdjkskskks

Let me just say, ShirabeJisho did not ask for my review. Hahah. After using it for a few days I have come back to leave a review. Whoever worked on the development of ShirabeJisho worked very hard to make this actually the most useful well thought out dictionary you could possibly have. There has not been a second while using ShirabeJisho that I thought to myself, wow I wish this did _____. It’s so thorough, down to the very detail of every word, walks you through kanji strokes, breaks down word meanings, uses example sentences. If you’re studying words or verbs you want to remember, you can create folders to save your findings. It’s perfect. Literally life changing. Thank you so much for making ShirabeJisho. I consider it to be one of the best in my phone.

by Jayzhag

This is the absolute best app out there for studying Japanese. It’s so fast, accurate, and easy to use (you can easily bookmark words & phrases into separate lists, sooo useful for organizing different kinds of vocab— they even have prepopulated kanji lists for the JLTP, it was awesome to practice with when I took N2 a few years ago!!). I discovered ShirabeJisho when I lived in Tokyo for a year back in 2016 and I’ve been using it ever since. It’s so amazing because it has such a large database of words and phrases, even ones that are more “slang”, you can easily look up some common phrases that you pick up here and there! My goal this year is to read through all of 村上春樹の「スプートニクの恋人」 and ShirabeJisho has been my primary way of learning all the vocab!!!! THANK YOU TO ShirabeJisho TEAM YOU GUYS ARE MAKING SOMETHING SUPER AWESOME 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

by IceRosePhoenix

ShirabeJisho has plenty of information and is very easy to use. It has the ability to draw both kanji and hiragana in order to search them. There are usually plenty of examples for each word, which can be accessed through the word’s page or by searching within the examples field. Names are also a field that can be searched in for when trying to find out how someone’s name might be pronounced.

There are a variety of word lists already provided, organized by JLPT level, subject matter, and part of speech. ShirabeJisho also has the ability to test pre-made flash cards and lists via Spaced Repetition, as well as create your own bookmark lists to test yourself on.

This is my favorite dictionary period and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a Japanese to English dictionary!

by My Fellow Gamer

Literally the best I have found on Japanese, I’ve never seen so many definitions for a single word I have ever seen. It’s the best app I have installed (apart from my games), it gives you so much more then just a dictionary. Flash cards, Katakana/Hiragana, notes and you can go back to words that you just searched up. Amazing in my opinion, I would think that others 1 star reviews are to be appreciated for their criticisms. That’s because when the dev sees them, they can fix ShirabeJisho to make it even greater. So I’d like to thank you for testing this out before I could. Even though they are bad reviews, you can fix them. You can change them when you try it again, everything can be changed. I’d like to see more functions but that’s just for my personal use. Much appreciated thank you for making things more easy for us.

by IDK Though

I already loved ShirabeJisho and used it daily but with the new update which, lets you search for sample sentences, it now has absolutely everything I asked for. (I like it so much I actually voluntarily came to write this review without it asking me to, like some other apps) All the different categories that everything is split up into makes it really easy to focus on a specific topic. It shows you a variety of words/phrases which can help you express yourself better than if you had stuck with the basics taught in school. One of my favorite parts is that it shows you the context in which they're used, by showing a bunch of sample sentences. A lot of other dictionary apps would just translate a word with little to no additional info which is why Jisho stood out to me so much. I was honestly surprised it was free AND ad free. It's worth at least trying out if your studying Japanese no matter what level your in.

by Jajajajakksjdhb

Excellent! It’s got everything: you can draw the character, or search by radicals, or just type in the roman characters (for an English and/or Japanese word). They provide all the tenses of a word, as well as commonly used combinations of the word. Even cultural slang, obscure or archaic terms, grade level, stroke counts, etc. are given in such a simple & compact app. I’ve enjoyed Henshall’s (now under a different author) “A Guide To Remembering Japanese Characters” for its comprehensive, encyclopedia-like format. It is fun to swim through and explore, to muse on the earlier forms of kanji, and learn about the history of China. It’s a perfect manual for those who study the language and if you are familiar with it then I’d recommend ShirabeJisho as on par with that same quality & thoroughness. I had to pause and give a review because I’ve been using it for a couple years now and have had no glitches nor any disappointments in searching for a word.

by Willy Westwood Whyman

Title says it all, ShirabeJisho is soooo helpful and such a lifesaver. It really comes in handy in a pinch, like when I went to the doctor while I was in Japan and had to describe my medical condition. Even though I speak Japanese there were a lot Dow rods I didn’t know and ShirabeJisho helped me when I was drawing a blank!
I really love the kanji drawing feature. It’s a hassle to search kanji by radical and the ability to draw it helps you to find the kanji faster.
Also I love the “common word” note. Japanese has a lot of words that are kind of archaic and not really used to it’s good to know when a word is actually used commonly.

Overall this is a great app and a really great tool. Frankly it’s the best Japanese dictionary for IOS!!

by Trendsfo

ShirabeJisho is an absolute must whenever you’re learning Japanese. There have been multiple occasions in class where there were words I didn’t understand, and it was so easy to just open ShirabeJisho and look it up. Everything is right there, and there’s so much extra useful information for everything that you could ever need.

by Shayo123$

I’ve used ShirabeJisho for several years already to study kanji and it’s a great app. You’re able to find any word or kanji you need via their dictionary. Not only that, they also have premade vocab sets for things like slang and counters. You can also create your own folders and memorize kanji using their flash card type feature.

by 4chanX For IOS Someday

So many on the apple store are too distracting with their ad placements so I don't use them. Also, to date this is one of the few I have seen with a dark mode; a must for me as I study in bed at night.
The kanji write lookup tool is one of the best I've used on a phone; easily recognizing and suggesting relevant kanji despite my sloppy strokes and cracked screen.
Thank you Mr. Stanek!

by 平重盛

This is my favorite app on my phone, not only does it has all the words, it also has specialized categories such as dialects, pronouns, and lots more. I also love the feature that lets you draw a kanji on your screen, it helps a lot when you find something that you don't know the phonetics for. All in all a must-have for anyone endeavoring to learn Japanese.

by B E N J I T A C H I

As the title says, this is the first time I’ve actually written a review for an app when prompted, because Jisho has certainly earned it. The depth of this free dictionary is consistantly astounding. Search any vocabulary word or phrase, and you can search deeper into the components, stroke order, and meanings of each Kanji, then check out some sample sentences to see the nuances of each entry’s use. There’s much more that Jisho does, and I’m still amazed it’s free of charge and of advertisements. One of my favorite apps of all time, and indispensable for students of the Japanese Language.

by Catinfrance

ShirabeJisho is amazing! The compounds, example sentences, and stroke orders for each kanji are really useful, and there seems to be a wider range of vocabulary (like specialty phrases) than in other dictionaries. You can search by English, kanji, or hiragana of course, but there’s also an option to draw the kanji! The many categories of kanji lists are great for someone trying to organize their studying too. The ONLY weakness I think is the flash card tool. It seems really repetitive but maybe I just haven’t learned how to use it correctly? Overall, this is the best Japanese dictionary app I’ve used, and I highly recommend it!

by Krc999

Highly recommended! I had used another very good Japanese language dictionary app for two years. I was frustrated by that dictionary’s weakness for input drawing of kanji, hiragana, etc. I found ShirabeJisho just 8 months ago and love it! Kanji, hiragana, and katakana input is near perfect. I can now easily input even the glides (small tsu, ya, yo, ...); fantastic!!! The conjugations presented are organized and easy to read and I nearly always find what I need. My study of Japanese is way more productive now since input is so easy, and in addition to entering Japanese words, I can paste entire sentences from docs as well...to help me quickly parse and analyze text. (I input a few extra commas to help the dictionary parse the words correctly, then formulate my interpretation, then cut and paste into google translate to compare with my interpretations...and then enjoy the often entertaining errors in google translate.).

I keep discovering more and more useful features, you even can use some regular expressions for search, such as 上*る. The finger writing kanji input is so near perfect... it doesn’t even mind my left handed reverse strokes! The sample sentences really help promote learning.

This is an excellent tool for learning Japanese!

Thank you!

by Pipojones

I have been using ShirabeJisho since I started learning Japanese, 5 semesters ago. My learning experience would have been incredibly harder if I hadn’t discovered Shirabe Jisho. I use ShirabeJisho throughout the day, whenever it randomly occurs to me to look something up and when I am reading or writing in Japanese. The example sentences add a lot to learning the usage of a word. The verb “conjugation” in various forms saves me constantly. The stroke order for kanji writing keep me from developing bad habits. And... you can easily build flash card decks for kanji memorization. After initially loading my phone with apps to support my learning of Japanese, I now have only Shirabe Jisho. I’ve never tried Midori, which is not free and is supposed to be good, but this one is free. Now that I know how great Shirabe is, I can honestly say that I’d have gladly paid for it.

by 3030vision

This is an amazing tool for learning Japanese, especially vocabulary and kanji. I love that you can see the component kanji for each word, and you can enter English, romaji, or kana to search for words. The stroke order illustrations are also great if you’re learning how to write.

I don’t know why ShirabeJisho is free but I’m very grateful. I would recommend it even if it was $10/¥1000.