imiwa Reviews

While using this dictionary as an abroad student, I’ve been able to get a lot of use from it to help my Japanese learning, however imiwa has some big glaring issues.

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The kanji database and info is great, usually giving clear definitions, as well as added Chinese readings.

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Main issue lies with fact that the definitions for non simple words are usually poor. Either a group of synonyms can have the same translation with no nuance, or the translations are too broad with sometimes 12 different meanings.

Moreover, the example sentences for words are near useless, with suspect Japanese translations, and sometimes fully incorrect English translations. They’re almost always overly complicated and hard to understand.

In summary, a good kanji app, that will sometimes help you understand a Japanese word’s English meaning.

How do you make a Japanese dictionary app and not include calligraphic search capability? I have 2 other apps that both allow you to draw kanji to search, which is often times much quicker and easier than searching with SKIP/radicals. I looked for this feature for 10 minutes and I guess it doesn’t have it. I’ve heard this is a great app, but I would love to see this feature added and I would consider trying imiwa.

I’ve been using imiwa for almost a decade now I believe, back when all I had was an iPod touch! It’s been a trusty resource, always. The example sentences in particular are super helpful.

The only complaint I have, is why in god’s name is imiwa, so freaking huge!!! How is a dictionary taking up more space than ANY of the other 80+ apps on my phone? There must be a way to better optimize imiwa size. I’ve struggled with this greatly for years (I only upgraded more recently from a 32gb iPhone), and I think all others with the smallest size iPhones would greatly appreciate if imiwa size could be better optimized. I’ve had to delete imiwa several times from my phone when I wasn’t using it as often, since my phone was completely out of space.

Aside from that- thank you guys for helping enrich my Japanese studies over the past decade.

UPDATE 11/21: Taking one star away since as of the new version, there are two really annoying bugs that make imiwa much harder to use. When viewing example sentences, only the first line of each translation is displayed until the example is scrolled past (vanishes from view). When you view the example again, the full translation is then visible. This workaround doesn’t always work because not every example can be scrolled past. The other bug is that the search icon on the top right doesn’t work sometimes when viewed from an entry. The magnifying glass overlaps with an “X” and stops working. I’m not sure how exactly to reproduce this but it happens often enough.

***
This is by far the best Japanese dictionary app that has ever graced imiwa Store, bar none. It's simple to use and extremely effective, allowing you to look up the definitions you need at lightning speed. The devs deserve a big thank you for keeping imiwa free all these years.

As of iOS 11, there are a few small bugs in the UI (eg the search icon on the top right didn’t seem to work sometimes when viewed directly from a dictionary entry). Hopefully the devs can get that fixed as it’s a bit annoying when you’re looking up many words at a go and have to hit an extra key to go back each time.

I wish there was an option to make all the font in imiwa larger (like it was before the new update). I gotta put on my glasses to read the kanji now. Also, I'm not a fan of the new whole-screen window that pops up whenever I want to favorite something. The small drop down menu with all your favorites lists that appeared before was much better imo.

this app, my beloved 🖤
I’ve been using imiwa since I think 2014? I’ve always been ahead of my classes in Japanese by far and never doubted it was greatly due to the help of imiwa. Nothing compares. N o t h i n g. I recommend it to everyone learning Japanese whether they ask or not. I couldn’t imagine getting as far as I have- or continuing studying without it.

For a free program this dictionary is excellent, the only thing it lacks to be perfect (for me at least) is recognition of drawn kanji which is very useful when searching.
I’ve tried lots of similar dictionaries but this one is the only one I’ve kept over the years.

this app is the BEST English-Japanese dictionary out there. Actually it's the best cross-language dictionary I've used period. Although I admit, I mostly look at free ones, often paid ones I find are junk.

this app makes it so easy to look up terms in romaji, or if you've installed Japanese keyboards on your phone/ipad you can look up by hiragana or kanji directly. If you install the one Chinese keyboard that lets you draw the characters it's even better.

Once you've found a word, you can see example sentences, when they are available. You can also see the breakdown of the kanji in the word, and continue to see what that particular kanji means. The kanji definitions have all the readings, radicals, and brush strokes.

this app lets you have multiple lists. I save lists for fun phrases, cool words, kanji I need to study, and (when that was a concern) words for the different JLPT levels.

...I use it a lot in the car to look up a Japanese lyric I just heard. Or a random word I suddenly realize I don't know the Japanese word for but I should.

If you are studying Japanese, or even if you just like anime, it's a no-brainer to install this app on your phone.

imiwa is amazing and I recommend it to anyone who has proficient to advanced capability in Japanese language. If your new to Japanese, it’s going to take time until you start actually understanding the example sentences for certain vocabulary words. Before the enormous update for imiwa, it was kinda fuzzy though honestly.

this app has been a fantastic aid whenever I've been studying Japanese in school. All of its features are very handy. With the examples included in (most of) the definitions, it's easy to figure out what part of speech a word is, as well as to learn whether the word you tapped is the one that you actually want to use.

I only wish that imiwa was a little smaller in size. •~•

From the first time I opened imiwa with some kanji on the clipboard imiwa has been a revelation. This so much more than just a dictionary, it’s an instructional translator, a study tool, and so much more. If there’s one language app that’s actually worth throwing money at, this is it. Absolutely fantastic.

His app has been a lifesaver as I have to communicate with people in Japan through email and messengers. I just copy the text and voila! It automatically loads in the analyzer so I can read it in furigana and look up more difficult words.

The only thing I can’t figure out is an easy way to create kanji flash cards once I look up words. Is there an easy way to do this??

As I get back into Japanese study, I have to use this dictionary because I gave away all my printed books. I am finding it delightful to use. Things I especially like: 1) It automatically takes the copied characters and looks them up. (I don't have to paste them in.) 2) I am enjoying having example sentence. 3) It looks like the definitions are more comprehensive that I remember from JMdict.

Thank you.

I am a lazy person who almost never takes the time to write reviews on the apps I use frequently but I love imiwa so much that I *needed* to write this.

this app? has a number of fantastic features. The analyze capability with the auto-clipboard lookup is incredibly useful. Along with the examples sentences and its verb conjugation ability, imiwa is definitely my go-to when reading Japanese texts.

I’ve been using this app (and before it, Kotoba) since I first installed it on an iPod touch years ago. For value and sheer awesome usefulness, it can’t be beat, and the fact that all the wonderfulness happens without an internet connection makes it all the better. I just checked here to make sure it works in the latest OS version; I kinda want to upgrade my phone but can’t go there if this app can’t go there with me. It’s that good

I recently discovered the auto clipboard lookup feature, it’s just so useful I felt compelled to leave a review. As someone self studying Japanese this is such a valuable resource. The only improvements I can think of would be more options to turn off displaying some information. It can be a bit overwhelming to have so much information displayed, I want to be able to trim the fat so to say.

ありがとございます。

I think this is a must for learning Japanese. One suggestion though, I think adding some sort of graph for Pitch Accent would make it even better, since for example the pronunciation for 家具 (furniture) and 嗅ぐ(To smell) sounds absolutely the same, so having a Pitch Accent graph will help with differentiate and learn about the native sound. It could be either for each word (such hassle) or a general graph of how to identify the pitch for most words. Anyways great work, it is really appreciated!

Multi radical Kanji search, example sentences, search by romaji (so no need to use Japanese keyboard!), kanji ordered by Japanese grade level and JLPT exam... The list of amazing features imiwa has just goes on and on. Not to mention all with a seamless, intuitive UI. I am a college student studying Japanese, and imiwa is incredibly helpful for not only understanding meanings of words, but the numerous example sentences help capture the nuance (the hardest part of a word to learn) as well. Get imiwa if you know what’s good for you.

This is the best dictionary app available I believe. This is my number one ☝️ go to Japanese dictionary. ( I also have another Japanese dictionary language app I like 👍🏾 and it’s my number two app. I only use it because it’s a Kanji reader). I have tried so many Dictionaries and I keep coming back to “this app”. ALL you beginners who are learning Japanese, I recommand imiwa to you. However, you who know a little more like JLPT, analysing, reading, Vocabulary, Grammar and etc., YOU WILL LOVE imiwa. I hope I peaked your interest enough that you will open up imiwa and view it.

I’ve downloaded and used pretty much every Japanese language app available for iOS. This has been my go-to app Japanese app for almost a decade now. Being able to create dictionary lists, import and export those lists, create flashcards from the lists, and find almost any word I’ve come across with example sentences has spoiled me to no end. All of this with a great UI and for free no less! It’s not been without its bugs from time to time, but I’ve found they always get addressed with updates. Did I mention it’s free and has been going strong for over 9 years?

If you enjoy imiwa as much as I have, you should seriously consider donating to the developer’s PayPal account.

Ive tried a lot of the translation apps, and none can touch imiwa. It provides an incredible amount of extremely useful information about each word:
(1) accurate, nuanced and detailed definitions (far more accuracy and nuance than any other language app)
(2) what each kanji means (both as the whole word and broken down into individual kanji elements)
(3) the grammatical structure of the word (e.g. it is an intransitive verb)
(4) all of the forms of the verb (e.g present tense, past tense, ongoing, etc.).
(5) provides both hiragana and kanji
(6) shows u brush stroke
I could keep going, but it is easier to say the only thing it doesnt do is translate full sentences (but it will break down a sentence into its individual words).

I've been using imiwa multiple times daily for years and years. It's continued to be incredibly useful from the early stages of learning Japanese to now, as a linguist and married to a Japanese woman.
I've even started using it as a English-German/Spanish/French dictionary as well, since you can look up words in numerous languages.
I would love to buy these developers a coffee. Or a yacht.