Translation Whitepaper - Online Dictionaries

Translation Whitepaper > Online Dictionaries

Like dogs are man's best friend, dictionaries are a translator's best friend. But also like dogs, each dictionary has its own personality. There's no such thing as a one-fits-all dictionary, so it's often necessary to use several dictionaries for one translation job. Below are some of the dictionaries I've found helpful along with a short description of each one. To speed your search, you can use the phontron multi-dictionary search page or learn how to use firefox keywords to speed search here.

Japanese-English, English-Japanese

• Space ALC: The best J->E, E->J dictionary freely available. In addition to having definitions for most words and phrases, it has a number of translated sentences that you can use for reference. Interface is in Japanese.
• WWWJDIC: A broad coverage J->E dictionary designed for native English speakers. Includes a Kanji dictionary and example sentences as well. Not quite as expansive as Space ALC, but still very good, and has better explanation uniquely Japanese concepts and slang. The interface is in English.
• goo Dictionary: Has the EXCEED J->E and E->J dictionaries, which I often use to get other ideas when Space ALC didn't work out.

Japanese-Japanese

• goo Dictionary: goo also provides access to "Dajirin" and "Daily Shingo Dictionary" that give a fairly broad coverage of both regular and new Japanese.
• 語源由来辞典 (Gogen Yurai Jiten): Perhaps useful more as a curiosity than for actual translation, this dictionary tells the etymology of Japanese words (including why oppai is oppai!).

English-English

• dictionary.com: A good site with data from a number of dictionaries, including specialized medical, science, terms. Also has a thesaurus, which can be useful for when you want to find just the right word.
• Urban Dictionary: A user-edited dictionary containing definitions for almost all English slang words.
• Online Etymology Dictionary: A dictionary of the etymology of English words.