ウィズダム英和・和英辞典 App Reviews

The recent 2.0 update is a huge improvement. Faster startup, highlighting kanji within definitions and searching for results, better interface, and searching for words within phrases, the specific word or within other definitions. The best eng-jpn/jpn-eng dictionary available on the app store.

I must say that fundamentally this dictionary is quite good and complete. I use it all the time and quite successfully. My main gripe is that theres no English support. Its all in Japanese, and nothing from within the app itself. I was looking for the expression to shoot oneself in the foot. It doesnt exist in this dictionary. So I was going to recommend it as an addition. I wonder if theyre at all interested in any critique. To say the dictionary is for Japanese users is lame. Otherwise a good dictionary even if a little pricey. Nick

Please optimize this applications interface for the iPad. Please add a column for search results on the left side of the screen and display the definitions on the right side. There is a lot of blank space on the screen and it takes more time to look through definitions. Also, please consider implementing folders for bookmarks and allowing bookmarks to be exported to different applications. There are many useful programs for studying vocabulary on iOS but we cannot export our bookmarked vocabulary. We have to copy and paste each one or print out screenshots and re-type everything. It takes a lot of time.

24 dollars and it doesnt even have romanji! It really wont help you with your English - Japanese translations, it should just be a Japanese - English dictionary. No japanese pronunciations that I have found, just English, and not good ones at that. Dont buy if you are looking for a English - Japanese dictionary.

The previous review is completely accurate, the dictionary has no romanji (which Im fine with...), but worse yet, it doesnt even offer kana to help with pronunciation. So even if youre learning Japanese and are quite familiar with hiragana and katakana, this dictionary is basically useless. Its pretty much only intended for people that are completely fluent in Japanese (and can read all of the common kanji...). It also doesnt have anything cool like the drawing input that nicer electronic dictionaries have for looking up kanji. The lookup of words seems very sluggish to me too... The Sanseido dictionary this uses is free to use online too, so I cant really see the justification for charging $24.

I translate Japanese to English for a living, so I use dictionaries on a daily basis. And while I probably dont absolutely need one on my iPhone, I figured it might come in handy and I was curious what it was like. There are better dictionaries out there, but this is certainly not a bad one. The entries are on the short side, but its very attractively presented and controls very smoothly. As another reviewer mention, there is no romaji (Romanized Japanese), and that is because this is intended for a Japanese audience. I dont think you can fault it for that. My main complaint is that there doesnt appear to be any way to look up words within a dictionary entry, or to look up words in another application, such as email. This is probably hard to implement on the iPhone, though, because it lacks any means to select text, or to copy and paste text. Overall, a pretty impressive little dictionary.

The Wisdom dictionaries are fairly well known in Japan. That said, they are written for native Japanese speakers, not people in the earlier stages of learning Japanese. If your Japanese is good, then these are very helpful. If youre still at a beginning/intermediate level, then this simply is not what you need.

I purchased this with the full intention of using it bidirectionally (english->japanese->english), but unless youre very familiar with kanji, youre not going to know how to pronounce the words it shows you when doing the english -> japanese look-up. It only shows the kanji for it, not the individual hiragana. Its pretty useful when going from Japanese to English since you already have to know how to pronounce the word to look it up, and you can just focus on the english meaning it displays. It does have audio samples, but surprisingly, theyre only for English words. (At least that Ive seen). Overall, I think they couldve done more to help aid English speakers... perhaps with an upgrade.

This electronic edition of the WISDOM dictionary, like the print edition, is designed for Japanese, not Westerners. The use of kanji only (i.e., the lack of romaji), make it very difficult to use effectively for any Westerner who has not mastered well over a thousand kanji. That said, for advanced learners who are trying to break the dependence on romaji it works very well. The definitions are concise and search terms can be entered in kana.

As a Japanese who lives in the US and needs this kind of dictionary handy, this app was a perfect fit to me. Definitely worth the price!

This dictionary appears to be a very nice Japanese to English dictionary. I imagine it would be useful to a native Japanese speaker. For a native English speaker, you cannot search for Japanese words using Roman-ji in any useful way and get a English translation. Essentially it assumes you know several thousand Kanji not to mention Hiragana and Katakana. It also uses a lot of Kanji in describing English meanings. Since it is not what it is is advertised as, I rate it as only a 1.

This is roughly half the price of even one half of the set bought in book form. For those complaining about it being oriented toward Japanese natives, you can still make great use of the J-E part when you come across Japanese words you dont know yet. Thats the kind of dictionary (although in book form) I used when first learning Japanese.

While it looks quite interesting, this app is a total disaster to install. Its resulted in me having to do a restore of my iPhone and me losing a week on info due to a corrupt backup. If you do manage to get in installed, it then messes up your ability to download & install any other apps. Honestly it should be pulled from the store until these issues are resolved.

This dictionary is intended for native speakers of Japanese or others who are fluent in the language. It is not for anyone learning Japanese, and as such is simply a good dictionary. My wife, who is Japanese, finds it extremely useful---it has replaced her word tank and paperback dictionary, and is all she needs. For me, this is an excellent reference for translations---fast and stable. I love it!

According to the developers website, the installation problem referred to in many of the reviews has been resolved in the most recent version, and mine installed without issue. The dictionary works as advertised. The Wisdom dictionary set provides excellent definitions in both J->E and E->J. Though this implementation doesnt have a lot of bells and whistles, it is extremely helpful to have at hand. Beginners beware, though. The dictionary does not include furigana for kanji.

Im very glad to write a review of this very well-written application. Its greatest strength is its amazingly good content. As the guys at Monokakido remind us, Sanseidos Wisdom E-J and J-E dictionaries are regularltop sellers at Amazon Japan. I found its entries exceedingly good: they contain several senses with good natural translations. Perhaps more importantly, they provide illuminating examples in Japanese and English. The application in its design and execution is very good too. Simple and clean. The search bar at the top uses Apples built-in On Screen Keyboard for English or Japanese text entry. Each entry is shown in very clear colors, using 2 fonts in a way that makes it easy to read without being overpowering or busy. Its probably true that if youre just getting started with Japanese, this dictionary will be harder to use: its entries use natural Japanese (i.e., a mixture of kana and kanji) without furigana or romaji that would help beginning readers. I suspect the publishers are focusing on dictionaries for native Japanese readers, but may find foreign Japanese students and readers interested since the quality level is so high. One suggestion is to check their webpage to see if the example entries shown in screenshots are hard to read before you buy the app. If youre looking for a well-built, quality mobile EJ/JE dictionary, this is well worth your consideration.

In its current iteration this is a reliable and useful application. Like many of the well-known Japanese electronic dictionaries, it is not intended for beginners: it requires an intermediate or higher level of proficiency. While it lacks the many of the additional capabilities of such electronic dictionaries, particularly those that cost several hundred dollars (you cannot search kanji by stroke count, radical, SKIP index, etc) it displays more information than its competitors, and its much more convenient than carrying around another device.

with fine user interface.

Probably one of the dictionaries with a ton of content. True this is gear more towards native Japanese but if you are medium to advanced in your Japanese level its really useful. Zoom needs to be worked on. Currently just using it in landscape is best to enlarge text. Hope they hyperlink the content like they do in their Encylopedia app.

I bought this the first week it came out. I cant read kanji so going from E-J as an english speaker the app is useless. I emailed them about it and their response tone was "thanks but dont look for it soon." meaning itll probably never have it, and I wasted $20ish bucks. Not to mention this was before apple allowed for refunds so I cant get one.