5 best Japanese to English dictionaries and phrasebooks on Android

Language learning is a long, arduous process. Many tourists get by with a basic dictionary. That helps them learn enough for simple communications. Thankfully, you don’t need to buy physical phrasebooks or dictionaries anymore. There are plenty of mobile apps that do the same thing for less money and you have your smartphone on you all the time anyway. It’s a smart choice, especially for people who don’t intend on learning the full language. You can also use these to help you learn the language if need be. These apps are great for scholarly pursuits or a vacation visit to Japan. In any case, here are the best Japanese to English dictionaries on Android!

1. Dictionary Linguee
2. English Japanese Dictionary
3. Google Translate
4. Jsho
5. Takoboto
6. Japanese learning apps

Read more:

• 10 best Japanese learning apps for Android
• 10 best translation apps for Android

Dictionary Linguee

Price: Free

Dictionary Linguee is a powerful multi-language dictionary app. It features support for over half a dozen languages and Japanese is included. It works like a multi-language dictionary should. You look up a word and see that word in other languages. The app also features an offline mode, example sentences for most words, and pronunciation guides by native speakers of each language. It hasn’t seen an update in a while, but the app works just fine as is.

English Japanese Dictionary

Price: Free

English Japanese Dictionary is a fairly basic app for this stuff. It translates words from English to Japanese and vice versa. Additionally, the app features pronunciations, voice searches, antonyms, synonyms, and even some study aids and word games. It’s otherwise super basic and easy to use. There is the occasional bug and it doesn’t have every word. However, our list of complaints only really goes that far. This is a good, simple Japanese to English phrasebook or dictionary. It’s also free with ad support.

Google Translate

Price: Free

Google Translate is probably your best bet for this sort of thing. It does everything, really. You get translations from Japanese to English and vice versa along with definitions, pronunciations, and more. You can even translate with your camera. The app also includes a live conversation translation feature. You talk, it translates. The other person talks and it translates it back to your native tongue. It’s actually really fun to use. Google Translate is entirely free and works with up to 103 languages online and 59 languages offline.

Jsho

Price: Free

Jsho is an older, but effective Japanese to English dictionary. It is 100% free and 100% functional offline. It includes a search with a variety of parameters. Additionally, it shows a variety of grammatical and vocabulary words. It’s surprisingly decent for how simple it is. There aren’t a ton of downsides either. It’s a little older and it has ad support. Otherwise, we can’t find much wrong with it. It does have to download the whole dictionary, though. Thus, it takes up about 40MB of space in total.

Takoboto

Price: Free

Takoboto is another very decent and simple Japanese to English dictionary. It features full offline support. You also get some translations in French, German, and Russian. There are example sentences, definitions, and more. It works great as a phrasebook, translator, or as a dictionary. Plus, this one is entirely free with no ads and no in-app purchases. There weren’t any bugs in our testing. This thing doesn’t even use Internet access unless you’re making a contribution to the takoboto.jp project.

Bonus: Japanese learning apps

Price: Free / Varies

Many available apps teach Japanese. These apps include a variety of lessons and practice. Many of them also include phrasebooks and dictionaries. The linked app, Simply Learn Japanese, is one of those apps. It has a bunch of academically-minded features. However, it also includes as phrasebook and dictionary with over 1,200 words and phrases. These apps do a good job of bridging the gap between learning a language and just learning enough for a business trip or vacation. They usually cost a bunch of money, though. We only recommend these if you are also interested in learning the language.

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Thank you for reading! Check these out too:

• 10 best dictionary apps for Android
• 10 best Korean learning apps for Android

If we missed any great Japanese to English dictionaries for Android, tell us about them in the comments! You can also click here to check out our latest Android app and game apps!