Yomitan
-Powerful and versatile pop-up dictionary for language learning used by 50,000+ language-learners.
+Powerful and versatile pop-up dictionary for language learning used by 50,000+ language learners.
Yomitan
","text":""},{"location":"#powerful-and-versatile-pop-up-dictionary-for-language-learning-used-by-50000-language-learners","title":"Powerful and versatile pop-up dictionary for language learning used by 50,000+ language-learners.
","text":"Get Yomitan Chrome
Get Yomitan Firefox
Get Yomitan Edge
Get started
"},{"location":"#what-is-yomitan","title":"What is Yomitan?","text":"Yomitan turns your web browser into a tool for building language literacy by helping you read texts that would otherwise be too difficult to tackle in a variety of supported languages.
Interactive Popup
Interactive popup definition window for displaying search results.
Search page
Search page for easily looking up words.
Audio
Native pronunciation audio with the ability to add your own custom audio sources.
More information
Multilanguage Support
Support for more than 20 languages ranging from Japanese to Spanish to Arabic.
Supported languages
Flashcards
Automatic flashcard creation for the Anki flashcard program via the AnkiConnect plugin.
More information
And Much More
Get started
"},{"location":"advanced/","title":"Advanced Features","text":""},{"location":"advanced/#keyboard-shortcuts","title":"Keyboard Shortcuts","text":"The following shortcuts are globally available:
Shortcut Action Alt + Insert Open search page. Alt + Delete Toggle extension on/off.The following shortcuts are available on search results:
Shortcut Action Esc Cancel current search. Alt + PgUp Page up through results. Alt + PgDn Page down through results. Alt + End Go to last result. Alt + Home Go to first result. Alt + Up Go to previous result. Alt + Down Go to next result. Alt + B Go to back to source term. Alt + E Add current term as expression to Anki. Alt + R Add current term as reading to Anki. Alt + P Play audio for current term. Alt + K Add current kanji to Anki."},{"location":"advanced/#advanced-scanning-options","title":"Advanced Scanning Options","text":""},{"location":"advanced/#scanning-local-files","title":"Scanning local files","text":"To enable Yomitan scanning on local files, go to Settings > Security > Configure Yomitan Permissions, and navigate to the Allow access to file URLs option. From there, follow the link to the browser's settings pages, and check Allow access to file URLs on Chrome/Edge, or Access your data for all websites for Firefox.
Yomitan may not work on PDF files. When that happens, drag and drop your PDF file into our PDF Viewer.
"},{"location":"advanced/#scanning-in-private-windows","title":"Scanning in private windows","text":"To enable Yomitan scanning in private/incognito web browser windows, go to Settings > Security > Configure Yomitan Permissions, and navigate to the Allow in private windows option. From there, follow the link to the browser's settings pages, and check Allow in private windows on Chrome/Edge, or Run in Private Windows for Firefox.
After looking up a term, you can click on the speaker button to hear the term's pronunciation. When searching for audio, multiple audio sources are checked until the first source with audio for the term is found. If no audio is found, you will hear a short click instead. Right-clicking the button allows choosing the source manually.
"},{"location":"advanced/#japanese","title":"Japanese","text":"The default audio sources for Japanese are:
The default audio sources for other languages are from Wikimedia Commons:
While Commons has audio for many languages, some of them have limited coverage, and you may want to add additional sources, as described below.
"},{"location":"advanced/#configuration","title":"Configuration","text":"Audio sources can be configured in Settings > Audio > Configure audio playback sources to reorder them or add new ones. Besides the four sources mentioned above, you can also use your browser's inbuilt text-to-speech (TTS) engine or add a custom URL source:
To enable this, just add a new playback source with the Text-to-speech type and choose your desired voice. This is the simplest way to get pronunciation audio, though there a few points to keep in mind:
You can add a custom URL from which audio will be fetched. One use case for this is fetching audio from Forvo:
"},{"location":"advanced/#yomichan-forvo-server","title":"Yomichan Forvo Server","text":"Forvo is currently the largest online pronunciation database, with native pronunciation audio for various languages. One way to get Forvo audio in Yomitan is via the Yomichan Forvo Server Anki add-on. It fetches from Forvo, at the cost of a slight delay. After installing it in Anki, add a Custom URL (JSON) audio source with the URL http://localhost:8770?term={term}&reading={reading}&language=en (replacing en with the desired language's ISO code).
Click the Advanced toggle switch in the bottom left corner of the Settings page to enable advanced options.
MeCab is a third-party program which uses its own dictionaries and parsing algorithm to decompose sentences into individual words. MeCab may provide more accurate parsing results than Yomitan's internal parser.
In order for Yomitan to use it, both MeCab and a native messaging component must be installed. A setup guide can be found here.
"},{"location":"anki/","title":"Anki","text":""},{"location":"anki/#anki-integration","title":"Anki Integration","text":"Yomitan features automatic flashcard creation for Anki, a free application designed to help you retain knowledge. This feature requires the prior installation of an Anki plugin called AnkiConnect. Check the respective project page for more information about how to set up this software.
"},{"location":"anki/#flashcard-configuration","title":"Flashcard Configuration","text":"Before flashcards can be automatically created, you must configure the templates used to create term and/or kanji notes. If you are unfamiliar with Anki deck and model management, this would be a good time to reference the Anki Manual. In short, you must specify what information should be included in the flashcards that Yomitan creates through AnkiConnect.
Flashcard fields can be configured with the following steps:
(optional, advanced) Users can also configure the actual Handlebars templates used to create the flashcard contents.
When creating your model for Yomitan, make sure that you pick a unique field to be first; fields that will contain {expression} or {character} are ideal candidates for this. Anki does not allow duplicate flashcards to be added to a deck by default; it uses the first field in the model to check for duplicates. For example, if you have {reading} configured to be the first field in your model and \u6a4b\u306f\u3057 is already in your deck, you will not be able to create a flashcard for \u7bb8\u306f\u3057 because they share the same reading.
{audio} Audio of the term's pronunciation from one of the audio sources (if available). {clipboard-image} An image which is stored in the system clipboard, if present. {clipboard-text} Text which is stored in the system clipboard, if present. {cloze-body} Raw, inflected term as it appeared before being reduced to dictionary form by Yomitan. {cloze-body-kana} Kana reading for {cloze-body}. {cloze-prefix} Fragment of the containing {sentence} starting at the beginning of {sentence} until the beginning of {cloze-body}. {cloze-suffix} Fragment of the containing {sentence} starting at the end of {cloze-body} until the end of {sentence}. {conjugation} Conjugation path from the raw inflected term to the source term. {dictionary} Name of the dictionary from which the card is being created (unavailable in grouped mode). {document-title} Title of the web page that the term appeared in. {expression} Term expressed as kanji (will be displayed in kana if kanji is not available). {frequencies} Frequency information for the term. {frequency-harmonic-rank} The harmonic mean of frequency data for the current term. Defaults to rank 9999999 when frequency data is not found, indicating extremely low rank-based term usage. {frequency-harmonic-occurrence} The harmonic mean of frequency data for the current term. Defaults to 0 occurrences when frequency data is not found, the lowest possible occurrence-based term usage. {frequency-average-rank} The average of frequency data for the current term. Defaults to rank 9999999 when frequency data is not found, indicating extremely low rank-based term usage. {frequency-average-occurrence} The average of frequency data for the current term. Defaults to 0 occurrences when frequency data is not found, the lowest possible occurrence-based term usage. {furigana} Term expressed as kanji with furigana displayed above it (e.g. \u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u306b\u307b\u3093\u3054). {furigana-plain} Term expressed as kanji with furigana displayed next to it in brackets (e.g. \u65e5\u672c\u8a9e[\u306b\u307b\u3093\u3054]). {glossary} List of definitions for the term (output format depends on whether running in grouped mode). {glossary-brief} List of definitions for the term in a more compact format. {glossary-no-dictionary} List of definitions for the term, except the dictionary tag is omitted. {glossary-first} First definition for the term (output format depends on whether running in grouped mode). {glossary-first-brief} First definition for the term in a more compact format. {glossary-first-no-dictionary} First definition for the term, except the dictionary tag is omitted. {part-of-speech} Part of speech information for the term. {phonetic-transcriptions} List of phonetic transcriptions for the term. {pitch-accents} List of pitch accent downstep notations for the term. {pitch-accent-graphs} List of pitch accent graphs for the term. {pitch-accent-graphs-jj} List of pitch accent graphs for the term (styled after Jidoujisho). {pitch-accent-positions} List of accent downstep positions for the term as a number. {pitch-accent-categories} List of pitch accent categories for the term (e.g. heiban, kifuku, atamadaka, odaka, nakadaka). {reading} Kana reading for the term (empty for terms where the expression is the reading). {screenshot} Screenshot of the web page taken at the time the term was added. {search-query} The full search query shown on the search page. {popup-selection-text} The selected text on the search page or popup. {sentence} Sentence, quote, or phrase that the term appears in from the source content. {sentence-furigana} Sentence, quote, or phrase that the term appears in from the source content, with furigana added. {single-glossary-DICT-NAME} Same as {glossary}, but with entries from only a single dictionary. The dictionary name will likely be modified, use the options from the \u25bc dropdown. {single-glossary-DICT-NAME-brief} See {single-glossary-DICT-NAME} and {glossary-brief}. {single-glossary-DICT-NAME-no-dictionary} See {single-glossary-DICT-NAME} and {glossary-no-dictionary}. {tags} Grammar and usage tags providing information about the term (unavailable in grouped mode). {url} Address of the web page in which the term appeared in."},{"location":"anki/#markers-for-kanji-cards","title":"Markers for Kanji Cards","text":"Marker Description {character} Unicode glyph representing the current kanji. {clipboard-image} An image which is stored in the system clipboard, if present. {clipboard-text} Text which is stored in the system clipboard, if present. {cloze-body} Raw, inflected parent term as it appeared before being reduced to dictionary form by Yomitan. {cloze-prefix} Fragment of the containing {sentence} starting at the beginning of {sentence} until the beginning of {cloze-body}. {cloze-suffix} Fragment of the containing {sentence} starting at the end of {cloze-body} until the end of {sentence}. {dictionary} Name of the dictionary from which the card is being created. {document-title} Title of the web page that the kanji appeared in. {frequencies} Frequency information for the kanji. {frequency-harmonic-rank} The harmonic mean of frequency data for the current kanji. Defaults to rank 9999999 when frequency data is not found, indicating extremely low rank-based kanji usage. {frequency-harmonic-occurrence} The harmonic mean of frequency data for the current kanji. Defaults to 0 occurrences when frequency data is not found, the lowest possible occurrence-based kanji usage. {frequency-average-rank} The average of frequency data for the current kanji. Defaults to rank 9999999 when frequency data is not found, indicating extremely low rank-based kanji usage. {frequency-average-occurrence} The average of frequency data for the current kanji. Defaults to 0 occurrences when frequency data is not found, the lowest possible occurrence-based kanji usage. {glossary} List of definitions for the kanji. {kunyomi} Kunyomi (Japanese reading) for the kanji expressed as hiragana. {onyomi} Onyomi (Chinese reading) for the kanji expressed as katakana. {onyomi-hiragana} Onyomi (Chinese reading) for the kanji expressed as hiragana. {screenshot} Screenshot of the web page taken at the time the kanji was added. {search-query} The full search query shown on the search page. {popup-selection-text} The selected text on the search page or popup. {sentence} Sentence, quote, or phrase that the character appears in from the source content. {sentence-furigana} Sentence, quote, or phrase that the character appears in from the source content, with furigana added. {stroke-count} Number of strokes that the kanji character has. {url} Address of the web page in which the kanji appeared in."},{"location":"anki/#flashcard-creation","title":"Flashcard Creation","text":"Once Yomitan is configured, it becomes trivial to create new flashcards with a single click. You will see the following icons next to term definitions:
If Check for card duplicates is on, and a card for the current definition already exists in the deck, you will see the book icon. If When a duplicate is detected is set to Prevent adding, the icons will appear grayed out. If set to Allow adding, the icons will change to:
Below are some troubleshooting tips you can try if you are unable to create new flashcards:
Using the Generate Anki Notes (Experimental)... feature in the settings page it is possible to easily generate and export large amounts of Anki cards.
[!WARNING] This feature is experimental!
First, get a newline separated list of terms. For example:
\u96ea\n\u96e8\n\u7adc\u5dfb\nEnter this list into the large text box in the Anki Note Generator popup window.
Next, select either Send to Anki or Export to File.
Send to Anki:
Send to Anki will send all the terms to the active Anki deck using the active Anki model specified on the page. To change the active Anki deck or Anki model, edit them in the Configure Anki card format... setting.
Make sure to confirm you are exporting to the correct deck and with the correct Anki model. After the notes are sent to Anki there is no way to automatically undo the changes.
To include media in notes sent to Anki, make sure to enable the Add media to notes option. Media includes audio, images, and svgs. Exporting with media may take significantly longer than without it.
To prevent duplicate notes being sent to Anki, enable the Prevent sending duplicate notes option. This will check for duplicate notes that already exist. The Check for duplicates across all models and Duplicate card scope settings are used to determine what is considered a duplicate card. This does not remove duplicates in the term list.
Export to File:
Export to File will export all the terms to an Anki deck file using the active Anki card format specified on the page and in Anki's Notes in plain text (.txt) format. After exporting completes you will be prompted to save the file. This file can later be imported into Anki.
Media cannot be included when exporting in this format.
"},{"location":"community/","title":"Community","text":""},{"location":"community/#community","title":"Community","text":"This section will be a compiled list of software that works well with, or community tooling made for Yomitan.
"},{"location":"community/#compatible-software","title":"Compatible Software","text":""},{"location":"community/#anki","title":"Anki","text":"See the dedicated Anki section.
"},{"location":"community/#asbplayer","title":"Asbplayer","text":"A browser-based media player and Chrome extension that can add text-selectable and Yomitan-scannable subtitles onto video sources (e.g. Netflix and Youtube).
"},{"location":"community/#ttsu-reader","title":"Ttsu Reader","text":"An online e-book reader that works flawlessly with Yomitan.
"},{"location":"community/#community-tooling","title":"Community Tooling","text":"These are not made nor maintained by Yomitan developers, and it may break Yomitan's functionalities.
"},{"location":"community/#japanese-mining-note","title":"Japanese Mining Note","text":"Generate beautiful Anki notes straight from Yomitan. Although it is built for Japanese, it should work for virtually all languages.
"},{"location":"community/#textractor","title":"Textractor","text":"Allows for Yomitan features when playing visual novels, video games or more with ease. To use Yomitan with Textractor, refer to one of the community guides such as Animecards to set up.
"},{"location":"community/#animecards-mining-template","title":"Animecards Mining Template","text":"Animecards Anki note type which doesn't require any editing of Yomitan templates (handlebars).
"},{"location":"community/#yomichan-forvo-server","title":"Yomichan Forvo Server","text":"Anki Addon which allows for additional custom audio sources from Forvo.
"},{"location":"community/#generate-batch-audio","title":"Generate Batch Audio","text":"Anki Addon which allows for generating audio in bulk from a list of URLs.
"},{"location":"dictionaries/","title":"Dictionaries","text":""},{"location":"dictionaries/#dictionaries","title":"Dictionaries","text":"You must download and import the dictionaries you wish to use in order to enable Yomitan definition lookups.
There are several free dictionaries available for Yomitan, some of them with glossaries available in different languages.
Be aware that non-English dictionaries generally contain fewer entries than their English counterparts. Even if your primary language is not English, you may consider also importing the English version for better coverage.
"},{"location":"dictionaries/#recommended-dictionaries","title":"Recommended Dictionaries","text":""},{"location":"dictionaries/#japanese","title":"Japanese","text":"Yomitan supports dictionaries in the esoteric but popular EPWING format. They were often utilized in portable electronic dictionaries. These dictionaries are often sought after by language learners for their correctness and excellent coverage of the Japanese language.
Unfortunately, as most of the dictionaries released in this format are proprietary, you will need to procure these dictionaries yourself and import them using Yomitan Import. Check the project page for additional details.
"},{"location":"dictionaries/#bulk-importing-dictionaries","title":"Bulk Importing Dictionaries","text":"Yomitan also supports exporting and importing your entire collection of dictionaries.
"},{"location":"dictionaries/#importing-a-dictionary-collection","title":"Importing a Dictionary Collection","text":"Import Dictionary Collection and select the database file you want to importDictionaries > Configure installed and enabled dictionaries sectionExport Dictionary Collection from the backup section of Yomitan's settings pageyomitan-dictionaries-YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss.json (e.g. yomitan-dictionaries-2023-07-05-02-42-04.json)Note that you can also similarly export and import your Yomitan settings from the Backup section of the Settings page.
You should be able to replicate your exact Yomitan setup across devices by exporting your settings and dictionary collection from the source device then importing those from the destination.
"},{"location":"getting-started/","title":"Getting started","text":"This introduction will help you quickly familiarize yourself with the basics and set you up for a smooth language learning experience.
Whether you're new to Yomitan or just need a refresher, here you'll find all the essential information you need to begin your journey.
Let's dive in and get started!
"},{"location":"getting-started/#installation","title":"Installation","text":""},{"location":"getting-started/#chrome","title":"Chrome","text":"Get Yomitan Chrome/Stable
Get Yomitan Chrome/Beta
"},{"location":"getting-started/#firefox","title":"Firefox","text":"Get Yomitan Firefox/Stable
Go To Github Releases
\u203b Unlike Chrome, Firefox does not allow extensions meant for testing to be hosted in the marketplace. You will have to download the desired version and side-load it yourself. You only need to do this once, and you will get updates automatically.
"},{"location":"getting-started/#edge","title":"Edge","text":"Get Yomitan Edge/Stable
"},{"location":"getting-started/#basic-usage","title":"Basic Usage","text":"Now that you have installed Yomitan, let's explore how you can utilize her features in your language learning journey.
"},{"location":"getting-started/#quick-actions","title":"Quick-actions","text":"Click the Yomitan button in the browser bar to open the quick-actions popup.
To import the dictionaries you wish to use for term searches. head over to Dictionary to get set up!
If you do not have any dictionaries installed or enabled. Yomitan will warn you that it is not ready for use by displaying an orange exclamation mark over its icon. This exclamation mark will disappear once you have installed and enabled at least one dictionary.
"},{"location":"getting-started/#scanning-text","title":"Scanning Text","text":"Webpage text can be scanned by moving the cursor while holding a modifier key, which is Shift by default.
If definitions are found for the text at the cursor position, a popup window containing term definitions will open. This window can be dismissed by clicking anywhere outside of it.
Try it yourself!"},{"location":"getting-started/#audio","title":"Audio","text":"Click on the speaker button to hear the term pronounced by a native speaker.
If an audio sample is not available, you will hear a short click instead. For more options, see Audio Configuration.
"},{"location":"getting-started/#anki","title":"Anki","text":"To further enhance your Yomitan experience, it's worth integrating with Anki, a spaced-repetition flashcard program to help solidify the words you encounter.
"},{"location":"other/faq/","title":"FAQ","text":""},{"location":"other/faq/#frequently-asked-questions","title":"Frequently Asked Questions","text":"I can't scan text in Firefox!
In Firefox's Manifest V3, host permissions are treated as opt-in. For Yomitan to work properly, the recommended permissions must be explicitly set. In the Yomitan welcome page, go to the Recommended Permissions (Important) section and check Enable recommended permissions.
I'm having problems importing dictionaries in Firefox, what do I do?
Yomitan uses the cross-browser IndexedDB system for storing imported dictionary data into your user profile. Although everything \"just works\" in Chrome, depending on settings, Firefox users can run into problems due to browser bugs. Yomitan catches errors and tries to offer suggestions about how to work around Firefox issues, but in general at least one of the following solutions should work for you:
Will you add support for online dictionaries?
Online dictionaries will not be implemented because it is not possible to support them in a robust way. In order to perform deinflection, Yomitan must execute dozens of database queries for every single word. Factoring in network latency and the fragility of web scraping, it would not be possible to maintain a good and consistent user experience.
Is it possible to use Yomitan with files saved locally on my computer with Chrome?
In order to use Yomitan with local files in Chrome, you must first tick the Allow access to file URLs checkbox for Yomitan on the extensions page. Due to the restrictions placed on browser addons in the WebExtensions model, it will likely never be possible to use Yomitan with PDF files.
Is it possible to delete individual dictionaries without purging the database?
Yomitan is able to delete individual dictionaries, but keep in mind that this process can be very slow and can cause the browser to become unresponsive. The time it takes to delete a single dictionary can sometimes be roughly the same as the time it originally took to import, which can be significant for certain large dictionaries.
Why aren't EPWING dictionaries bundled with Yomitan?
The vast majority of EPWING dictionaries are proprietary, so they are unfortunately not able to be included in this extension due to copyright reasons.
"},{"location":"other/permissions/","title":"Yomitan Permissions","text":"<all_urls> Yomitan requires access to all URLs in order to run scripts to scan text and show the definitions popup, request audio for playback and download, and connect with Anki.
storage and unlimitedStorage Yomitan uses storage permissions in order to save extension settings and dictionary data. unlimitedStorage is used to help prevent web browsers from unexpectedly deleting dictionary data.
declarativeNetRequest Yomitan uses this permission to ensure certain requests have valid and secure headers. This sometimes involves removing or changing the Origin request header, as this can be used to fingerprint browser configuration.
scripting Yomitan needs to inject content scripts and stylesheets into webpages in order to properly display the search popup.
contextMenus Yomitan adds a context menu interface that lets you look up highlighted words.
offscreen (Chrome only) Yomitan uses this permission to create a secondary backend document that has DOM access, given that Manifest v3 service workers do not. Service workers can then reach out to out to this document in order to complete actions that require access to DOM APIs, such as any that require clipboard access.
clipboardWrite Yomitan supports simulating the Ctrl+C (copy to clipboard) keyboard shortcut when a definitions popup is open and focused.
clipboardRead (optional) Yomitan supports automatically opening a search window when Japanese text is copied to the clipboard while the browser is running, depending on how certain settings are configured. This allows Yomitan to support scanning text from external applications, provided there is a way to copy text from those applications to the clipboard.
nativeMessaging (optional, unavailable on Firefox for Android) Yomitan has the ability to communicate with an optional native messaging component in order to support parsing large blocks of Japanese text using MeCab. The installation of this component is optional and is not included by default.
Yomitan supports a variety of languages, although the level of support may vary depending on the extent to which deinflections and text transforms have been implemented.
These are the languages currently supported by Yomitan:
Language Code Albanian sq Ancient Greek grc Arabic ar Cantonese yue Chinese zh Dutch nl English en Finnish fi French fr German de Greek el Hungarian hu Indonesian id Italian it Japanese ja Khmer km Korean ko Lao lo Latin la Mongolian mn Old Irish sga Persian fa Polish pl Portuguese pt Romanian ro Russian ru Serbo-Croatian sh Spanish es Swedish sv Tagalog tl Thai th Turkish tr Vietnamese viIf you want to add or improve support for a language, consider looking at the language features documentation at GitHub.
"},{"location":"other/yomichan-migration/","title":"Migrating from Yomichan (legacy)","text":""},{"location":"other/yomichan-migration/#migrating-from-yomichan","title":"Migrating from Yomichan","text":""},{"location":"other/yomichan-migration/#exporting-data","title":"Exporting Data","text":"If you are an existing user of Yomichan, you can export your dictionary collection and settings such that they can be imported into Yomitan to reflect your setup exactly as it was.
You can export your settings from Yomichan's Settings page. Go to the Backup section and click on Export Settings.
Yomichan doesn't have first-class support to export the dictionary collection. Please follow the instructions provided in the following link to export your data: https://github.com/yomidevs/yomichan-data-exporter#steps-to-export-the-data
You can then import the exported files into Yomitan from the Backup section of the Settings page. Please see the section on importing dictionaries further below for more explicit steps.
If you do not use custom templates for Anki note creation, this section can be skipped.
Due to security concerns, an alternate implementation of Handlebars is being used which behaves slightly differently. This revealed a bug in four of Yomitan's template helpers, which have now been fixed in the default templates. If your custom templates use the following helpers, please ensure their use matches the corrected forms.
Helper Example CorrectedformatGlossary {{#formatGlossary ../dictionary}}{{{.}}}{{/formatGlossary}} {{formatGlossary ../dictionary .}} furigana {{#furigana}}{{{definition}}}{{/furigana}} {{furigana definition}} furiganaPlain {{~#furiganaPlain}}{{{.}}}{{/furiganaPlain~}} {{~furiganaPlain .~}} dumpObject {{#dumpObject}}{{{.}}}{{/dumpObject}} {{dumpObject .}} Authors of custom templates may be interested to know that other helpers previously used and documented in the block form (e.g. {{#set \"key\" \"value\"}}{{/set}}), while not broken by this change, may also be replaced with the less verbose form (e.g. {{set \"key\" \"value\"}}). The default templates and helper documentation have been changed to reflect this.
Yomitan
","text":""},{"location":"#powerful-and-versatile-pop-up-dictionary-for-language-learning-used-by-50000-language-learners","title":"Powerful and versatile pop-up dictionary for language learning used by 50,000+ language learners.
","text":"Get Yomitan Chrome
Get Yomitan Firefox
Get Yomitan Edge
Get started
"},{"location":"#what-is-yomitan","title":"What is Yomitan?","text":"Yomitan turns your web browser into a tool for building language literacy by helping you read texts that would otherwise be too difficult to tackle in a variety of supported languages.
Interactive Popup
Interactive popup definition window for displaying search results.
Search page
Search page for easily looking up words.
Audio
Native pronunciation audio with the ability to add your own custom audio sources.
More information
Multilanguage Support
Support for more than 20 languages ranging from Japanese to Spanish to Arabic.
Supported languages
Flashcards
Automatic flashcard creation for the Anki flashcard program via the AnkiConnect plugin.
More information
And Much More
Get started
"},{"location":"advanced/","title":"Advanced Features","text":""},{"location":"advanced/#keyboard-shortcuts","title":"Keyboard Shortcuts","text":"The following shortcuts are globally available:
Shortcut Action Alt + Insert Open search page. Alt + Delete Toggle extension on/off.The following shortcuts are available on search results:
Shortcut Action Esc Cancel current search. Alt + PgUp Page up through results. Alt + PgDn Page down through results. Alt + End Go to last result. Alt + Home Go to first result. Alt + Up Go to previous result. Alt + Down Go to next result. Alt + B Go to back to source term. Alt + E Add current term as expression to Anki. Alt + R Add current term as reading to Anki. Alt + P Play audio for current term. Alt + K Add current kanji to Anki."},{"location":"advanced/#advanced-scanning-options","title":"Advanced Scanning Options","text":""},{"location":"advanced/#scanning-local-files","title":"Scanning local files","text":"To enable Yomitan scanning on local files, go to Settings > Security > Configure Yomitan Permissions, and navigate to the Allow access to file URLs option. From there, follow the link to the browser's settings pages, and check Allow access to file URLs on Chrome/Edge, or Access your data for all websites for Firefox.
Yomitan may not work on PDF files. When that happens, drag and drop your PDF file into our PDF Viewer.
"},{"location":"advanced/#scanning-in-private-windows","title":"Scanning in private windows","text":"To enable Yomitan scanning in private/incognito web browser windows, go to Settings > Security > Configure Yomitan Permissions, and navigate to the Allow in private windows option. From there, follow the link to the browser's settings pages, and check Allow in private windows on Chrome/Edge, or Run in Private Windows for Firefox.
After looking up a term, you can click on the speaker button to hear the term's pronunciation. When searching for audio, multiple audio sources are checked until the first source with audio for the term is found. If no audio is found, you will hear a short click instead. Right-clicking the button allows choosing the source manually.
"},{"location":"advanced/#japanese","title":"Japanese","text":"The default audio sources for Japanese are:
The default audio sources for other languages are from Wikimedia Commons:
While Commons has audio for many languages, some of them have limited coverage, and you may want to add additional sources, as described below.
"},{"location":"advanced/#configuration","title":"Configuration","text":"Audio sources can be configured in Settings > Audio > Configure audio playback sources to reorder them or add new ones. Besides the four sources mentioned above, you can also use your browser's inbuilt text-to-speech (TTS) engine or add a custom URL source:
To enable this, just add a new playback source with the Text-to-speech type and choose your desired voice. This is the simplest way to get pronunciation audio, though there a few points to keep in mind:
You can add a custom URL from which audio will be fetched. One use case for this is fetching audio from Forvo:
"},{"location":"advanced/#yomichan-forvo-server","title":"Yomichan Forvo Server","text":"Forvo is currently the largest online pronunciation database, with native pronunciation audio for various languages. One way to get Forvo audio in Yomitan is via the Yomichan Forvo Server Anki add-on. It fetches from Forvo, at the cost of a slight delay. After installing it in Anki, add a Custom URL (JSON) audio source with the URL http://localhost:8770?term={term}&reading={reading}&language=en (replacing en with the desired language's ISO code).
Click the Advanced toggle switch in the bottom left corner of the Settings page to enable advanced options.
MeCab is a third-party program which uses its own dictionaries and parsing algorithm to decompose sentences into individual words. MeCab may provide more accurate parsing results than Yomitan's internal parser.
In order for Yomitan to use it, both MeCab and a native messaging component must be installed. A setup guide can be found here.
"},{"location":"anki/","title":"Anki","text":""},{"location":"anki/#anki-integration","title":"Anki Integration","text":"Yomitan features automatic flashcard creation for Anki, a free application designed to help you retain knowledge. This feature requires the prior installation of an Anki plugin called AnkiConnect. Check the respective project page for more information about how to set up this software.
"},{"location":"anki/#flashcard-configuration","title":"Flashcard Configuration","text":"Before flashcards can be automatically created, you must configure the templates used to create term and/or kanji notes. If you are unfamiliar with Anki deck and model management, this would be a good time to reference the Anki Manual. In short, you must specify what information should be included in the flashcards that Yomitan creates through AnkiConnect.
Flashcard fields can be configured with the following steps:
(optional, advanced) Users can also configure the actual Handlebars templates used to create the flashcard contents.
When creating your model for Yomitan, make sure that you pick a unique field to be first; fields that will contain {expression} or {character} are ideal candidates for this. Anki does not allow duplicate flashcards to be added to a deck by default; it uses the first field in the model to check for duplicates. For example, if you have {reading} configured to be the first field in your model and \u6a4b\u306f\u3057 is already in your deck, you will not be able to create a flashcard for \u7bb8\u306f\u3057 because they share the same reading.
{audio} Audio of the term's pronunciation from one of the audio sources (if available). {clipboard-image} An image which is stored in the system clipboard, if present. {clipboard-text} Text which is stored in the system clipboard, if present. {cloze-body} Raw, inflected term as it appeared before being reduced to dictionary form by Yomitan. {cloze-body-kana} Kana reading for {cloze-body}. {cloze-prefix} Fragment of the containing {sentence} starting at the beginning of {sentence} until the beginning of {cloze-body}. {cloze-suffix} Fragment of the containing {sentence} starting at the end of {cloze-body} until the end of {sentence}. {conjugation} Conjugation path from the raw inflected term to the source term. {dictionary} Name of the dictionary from which the card is being created (unavailable in grouped mode). {document-title} Title of the web page that the term appeared in. {expression} Term expressed as kanji (will be displayed in kana if kanji is not available). {frequencies} Frequency information for the term. {frequency-harmonic-rank} The harmonic mean of frequency data for the current term. Defaults to rank 9999999 when frequency data is not found, indicating extremely low rank-based term usage. {frequency-harmonic-occurrence} The harmonic mean of frequency data for the current term. Defaults to 0 occurrences when frequency data is not found, the lowest possible occurrence-based term usage. {frequency-average-rank} The average of frequency data for the current term. Defaults to rank 9999999 when frequency data is not found, indicating extremely low rank-based term usage. {frequency-average-occurrence} The average of frequency data for the current term. Defaults to 0 occurrences when frequency data is not found, the lowest possible occurrence-based term usage. {furigana} Term expressed as kanji with furigana displayed above it (e.g. \u65e5\u672c\u8a9e\u306b\u307b\u3093\u3054). {furigana-plain} Term expressed as kanji with furigana displayed next to it in brackets (e.g. \u65e5\u672c\u8a9e[\u306b\u307b\u3093\u3054]). {glossary} List of definitions for the term (output format depends on whether running in grouped mode). {glossary-brief} List of definitions for the term in a more compact format. {glossary-no-dictionary} List of definitions for the term, except the dictionary tag is omitted. {glossary-first} First definition for the term (output format depends on whether running in grouped mode). {glossary-first-brief} First definition for the term in a more compact format. {glossary-first-no-dictionary} First definition for the term, except the dictionary tag is omitted. {part-of-speech} Part of speech information for the term. {phonetic-transcriptions} List of phonetic transcriptions for the term. {pitch-accents} List of pitch accent downstep notations for the term. {pitch-accent-graphs} List of pitch accent graphs for the term. {pitch-accent-graphs-jj} List of pitch accent graphs for the term (styled after Jidoujisho). {pitch-accent-positions} List of accent downstep positions for the term as a number. {pitch-accent-categories} List of pitch accent categories for the term (e.g. heiban, kifuku, atamadaka, odaka, nakadaka). {reading} Kana reading for the term (empty for terms where the expression is the reading). {screenshot} Screenshot of the web page taken at the time the term was added. {search-query} The full search query shown on the search page. {popup-selection-text} The selected text on the search page or popup. {sentence} Sentence, quote, or phrase that the term appears in from the source content. {sentence-furigana} Sentence, quote, or phrase that the term appears in from the source content, with furigana added. {single-glossary-DICT-NAME} Same as {glossary}, but with entries from only a single dictionary. The dictionary name will likely be modified, use the options from the \u25bc dropdown. {single-glossary-DICT-NAME-brief} See {single-glossary-DICT-NAME} and {glossary-brief}. {single-glossary-DICT-NAME-no-dictionary} See {single-glossary-DICT-NAME} and {glossary-no-dictionary}. {tags} Grammar and usage tags providing information about the term (unavailable in grouped mode). {url} Address of the web page in which the term appeared in."},{"location":"anki/#markers-for-kanji-cards","title":"Markers for Kanji Cards","text":"Marker Description {character} Unicode glyph representing the current kanji. {clipboard-image} An image which is stored in the system clipboard, if present. {clipboard-text} Text which is stored in the system clipboard, if present. {cloze-body} Raw, inflected parent term as it appeared before being reduced to dictionary form by Yomitan. {cloze-prefix} Fragment of the containing {sentence} starting at the beginning of {sentence} until the beginning of {cloze-body}. {cloze-suffix} Fragment of the containing {sentence} starting at the end of {cloze-body} until the end of {sentence}. {dictionary} Name of the dictionary from which the card is being created. {document-title} Title of the web page that the kanji appeared in. {frequencies} Frequency information for the kanji. {frequency-harmonic-rank} The harmonic mean of frequency data for the current kanji. Defaults to rank 9999999 when frequency data is not found, indicating extremely low rank-based kanji usage. {frequency-harmonic-occurrence} The harmonic mean of frequency data for the current kanji. Defaults to 0 occurrences when frequency data is not found, the lowest possible occurrence-based kanji usage. {frequency-average-rank} The average of frequency data for the current kanji. Defaults to rank 9999999 when frequency data is not found, indicating extremely low rank-based kanji usage. {frequency-average-occurrence} The average of frequency data for the current kanji. Defaults to 0 occurrences when frequency data is not found, the lowest possible occurrence-based kanji usage. {glossary} List of definitions for the kanji. {kunyomi} Kunyomi (Japanese reading) for the kanji expressed as hiragana. {onyomi} Onyomi (Chinese reading) for the kanji expressed as katakana. {onyomi-hiragana} Onyomi (Chinese reading) for the kanji expressed as hiragana. {screenshot} Screenshot of the web page taken at the time the kanji was added. {search-query} The full search query shown on the search page. {popup-selection-text} The selected text on the search page or popup. {sentence} Sentence, quote, or phrase that the character appears in from the source content. {sentence-furigana} Sentence, quote, or phrase that the character appears in from the source content, with furigana added. {stroke-count} Number of strokes that the kanji character has. {url} Address of the web page in which the kanji appeared in."},{"location":"anki/#flashcard-creation","title":"Flashcard Creation","text":"Once Yomitan is configured, it becomes trivial to create new flashcards with a single click. You will see the following icons next to term definitions:
If Check for card duplicates is on, and a card for the current definition already exists in the deck, you will see the book icon. If When a duplicate is detected is set to Prevent adding, the icons will appear grayed out. If set to Allow adding, the icons will change to:
Below are some troubleshooting tips you can try if you are unable to create new flashcards:
Using the Generate Anki Notes (Experimental)... feature in the settings page it is possible to easily generate and export large amounts of Anki cards.
[!WARNING] This feature is experimental!
First, get a newline separated list of terms. For example:
\u96ea\n\u96e8\n\u7adc\u5dfb\nEnter this list into the large text box in the Anki Note Generator popup window.
Next, select either Send to Anki or Export to File.
Send to Anki:
Send to Anki will send all the terms to the active Anki deck using the active Anki model specified on the page. To change the active Anki deck or Anki model, edit them in the Configure Anki card format... setting.
Make sure to confirm you are exporting to the correct deck and with the correct Anki model. After the notes are sent to Anki there is no way to automatically undo the changes.
To include media in notes sent to Anki, make sure to enable the Add media to notes option. Media includes audio, images, and svgs. Exporting with media may take significantly longer than without it.
To prevent duplicate notes being sent to Anki, enable the Prevent sending duplicate notes option. This will check for duplicate notes that already exist. The Check for duplicates across all models and Duplicate card scope settings are used to determine what is considered a duplicate card. This does not remove duplicates in the term list.
Export to File:
Export to File will export all the terms to an Anki deck file using the active Anki card format specified on the page and in Anki's Notes in plain text (.txt) format. After exporting completes you will be prompted to save the file. This file can later be imported into Anki.
Media cannot be included when exporting in this format.
"},{"location":"community/","title":"Community","text":""},{"location":"community/#community","title":"Community","text":"This section will be a compiled list of software that works well with, or community tooling made for Yomitan.
"},{"location":"community/#compatible-software","title":"Compatible Software","text":""},{"location":"community/#anki","title":"Anki","text":"See the dedicated Anki section.
"},{"location":"community/#asbplayer","title":"Asbplayer","text":"A browser-based media player and Chrome extension that can add text-selectable and Yomitan-scannable subtitles onto video sources (e.g. Netflix and Youtube).
"},{"location":"community/#ttsu-reader","title":"Ttsu Reader","text":"An online e-book reader that works flawlessly with Yomitan.
"},{"location":"community/#community-tooling","title":"Community Tooling","text":"These are not made nor maintained by Yomitan developers, and it may break Yomitan's functionalities.
"},{"location":"community/#japanese-mining-note","title":"Japanese Mining Note","text":"Generate beautiful Anki notes straight from Yomitan. Although it is built for Japanese, it should work for virtually all languages.
"},{"location":"community/#textractor","title":"Textractor","text":"Allows for Yomitan features when playing visual novels, video games or more with ease. To use Yomitan with Textractor, refer to one of the community guides such as Animecards to set up.
"},{"location":"community/#animecards-mining-template","title":"Animecards Mining Template","text":"Animecards Anki note type which doesn't require any editing of Yomitan templates (handlebars).
"},{"location":"community/#yomichan-forvo-server","title":"Yomichan Forvo Server","text":"Anki Addon which allows for additional custom audio sources from Forvo.
"},{"location":"community/#generate-batch-audio","title":"Generate Batch Audio","text":"Anki Addon which allows for generating audio in bulk from a list of URLs.
"},{"location":"dictionaries/","title":"Dictionaries","text":""},{"location":"dictionaries/#dictionaries","title":"Dictionaries","text":"You must download and import the dictionaries you wish to use in order to enable Yomitan definition lookups.
There are several free dictionaries available for Yomitan, some of them with glossaries available in different languages.
Be aware that non-English dictionaries generally contain fewer entries than their English counterparts. Even if your primary language is not English, you may consider also importing the English version for better coverage.
"},{"location":"dictionaries/#recommended-dictionaries","title":"Recommended Dictionaries","text":""},{"location":"dictionaries/#japanese","title":"Japanese","text":"Yomitan supports dictionaries in the esoteric but popular EPWING format. They were often utilized in portable electronic dictionaries. These dictionaries are often sought after by language learners for their correctness and excellent coverage of the Japanese language.
Unfortunately, as most of the dictionaries released in this format are proprietary, you will need to procure these dictionaries yourself and import them using Yomitan Import. Check the project page for additional details.
"},{"location":"dictionaries/#bulk-importing-dictionaries","title":"Bulk Importing Dictionaries","text":"Yomitan also supports exporting and importing your entire collection of dictionaries.
"},{"location":"dictionaries/#importing-a-dictionary-collection","title":"Importing a Dictionary Collection","text":"Import Dictionary Collection and select the database file you want to importDictionaries > Configure installed and enabled dictionaries sectionExport Dictionary Collection from the backup section of Yomitan's settings pageyomitan-dictionaries-YYYY-MM-DD-HH-mm-ss.json (e.g. yomitan-dictionaries-2023-07-05-02-42-04.json)Note that you can also similarly export and import your Yomitan settings from the Backup section of the Settings page.
You should be able to replicate your exact Yomitan setup across devices by exporting your settings and dictionary collection from the source device then importing those from the destination.
"},{"location":"getting-started/","title":"Getting started","text":"This introduction will help you quickly familiarize yourself with the basics and set you up for a smooth language learning experience.
Whether you're new to Yomitan or just need a refresher, here you'll find all the essential information you need to begin your journey.
Let's dive in and get started!
"},{"location":"getting-started/#installation","title":"Installation","text":""},{"location":"getting-started/#chrome","title":"Chrome","text":"Get Yomitan Chrome/Stable
Get Yomitan Chrome/Beta
"},{"location":"getting-started/#firefox","title":"Firefox","text":"Get Yomitan Firefox/Stable
Go To Github Releases
\u203b Unlike Chrome, Firefox does not allow extensions meant for testing to be hosted in the marketplace. You will have to download the desired version and side-load it yourself. You only need to do this once, and you will get updates automatically.
"},{"location":"getting-started/#edge","title":"Edge","text":"Get Yomitan Edge/Stable
"},{"location":"getting-started/#basic-usage","title":"Basic Usage","text":"Now that you have installed Yomitan, let's explore how you can utilize her features in your language learning journey.
"},{"location":"getting-started/#quick-actions","title":"Quick-actions","text":"Click the Yomitan button in the browser bar to open the quick-actions popup.
To import the dictionaries you wish to use for term searches. head over to Dictionary to get set up!
If you do not have any dictionaries installed or enabled. Yomitan will warn you that it is not ready for use by displaying an orange exclamation mark over its icon. This exclamation mark will disappear once you have installed and enabled at least one dictionary.
"},{"location":"getting-started/#scanning-text","title":"Scanning Text","text":"Webpage text can be scanned by moving the cursor while holding a modifier key, which is Shift by default.
If definitions are found for the text at the cursor position, a popup window containing term definitions will open. This window can be dismissed by clicking anywhere outside of it.
Try it yourself!"},{"location":"getting-started/#audio","title":"Audio","text":"Click on the speaker button to hear the term pronounced by a native speaker.
If an audio sample is not available, you will hear a short click instead. For more options, see Audio Configuration.
"},{"location":"getting-started/#anki","title":"Anki","text":"To further enhance your Yomitan experience, it's worth integrating with Anki, a spaced-repetition flashcard program to help solidify the words you encounter.
"},{"location":"other/faq/","title":"FAQ","text":""},{"location":"other/faq/#frequently-asked-questions","title":"Frequently Asked Questions","text":"I can't scan text in Firefox!
In Firefox's Manifest V3, host permissions are treated as opt-in. For Yomitan to work properly, the recommended permissions must be explicitly set. In the Yomitan welcome page, go to the Recommended Permissions (Important) section and check Enable recommended permissions.
I'm having problems importing dictionaries in Firefox, what do I do?
Yomitan uses the cross-browser IndexedDB system for storing imported dictionary data into your user profile. Although everything \"just works\" in Chrome, depending on settings, Firefox users can run into problems due to browser bugs. Yomitan catches errors and tries to offer suggestions about how to work around Firefox issues, but in general at least one of the following solutions should work for you:
Will you add support for online dictionaries?
Online dictionaries will not be implemented because it is not possible to support them in a robust way. In order to perform deinflection, Yomitan must execute dozens of database queries for every single word. Factoring in network latency and the fragility of web scraping, it would not be possible to maintain a good and consistent user experience.
Is it possible to use Yomitan with files saved locally on my computer with Chrome?
In order to use Yomitan with local files in Chrome, you must first tick the Allow access to file URLs checkbox for Yomitan on the extensions page. Due to the restrictions placed on browser addons in the WebExtensions model, it will likely never be possible to use Yomitan with PDF files.
Is it possible to delete individual dictionaries without purging the database?
Yomitan is able to delete individual dictionaries, but keep in mind that this process can be very slow and can cause the browser to become unresponsive. The time it takes to delete a single dictionary can sometimes be roughly the same as the time it originally took to import, which can be significant for certain large dictionaries.
Why aren't EPWING dictionaries bundled with Yomitan?
The vast majority of EPWING dictionaries are proprietary, so they are unfortunately not able to be included in this extension due to copyright reasons.
"},{"location":"other/permissions/","title":"Yomitan Permissions","text":"<all_urls> Yomitan requires access to all URLs in order to run scripts to scan text and show the definitions popup, request audio for playback and download, and connect with Anki.
storage and unlimitedStorage Yomitan uses storage permissions in order to save extension settings and dictionary data. unlimitedStorage is used to help prevent web browsers from unexpectedly deleting dictionary data.
declarativeNetRequest Yomitan uses this permission to ensure certain requests have valid and secure headers. This sometimes involves removing or changing the Origin request header, as this can be used to fingerprint browser configuration.
scripting Yomitan needs to inject content scripts and stylesheets into webpages in order to properly display the search popup.
contextMenus Yomitan adds a context menu interface that lets you look up highlighted words.
offscreen (Chrome only) Yomitan uses this permission to create a secondary backend document that has DOM access, given that Manifest v3 service workers do not. Service workers can then reach out to out to this document in order to complete actions that require access to DOM APIs, such as any that require clipboard access.
clipboardWrite Yomitan supports simulating the Ctrl+C (copy to clipboard) keyboard shortcut when a definitions popup is open and focused.
clipboardRead (optional) Yomitan supports automatically opening a search window when Japanese text is copied to the clipboard while the browser is running, depending on how certain settings are configured. This allows Yomitan to support scanning text from external applications, provided there is a way to copy text from those applications to the clipboard.
nativeMessaging (optional, unavailable on Firefox for Android) Yomitan has the ability to communicate with an optional native messaging component in order to support parsing large blocks of Japanese text using MeCab. The installation of this component is optional and is not included by default.
Yomitan supports a variety of languages, although the level of support may vary depending on the extent to which deinflections and text transforms have been implemented.
These are the languages currently supported by Yomitan:
Language Code Albanian sq Ancient Greek grc Arabic ar Cantonese yue Chinese zh Dutch nl English en Finnish fi French fr German de Greek el Hungarian hu Indonesian id Italian it Japanese ja Khmer km Korean ko Lao lo Latin la Mongolian mn Old Irish sga Persian fa Polish pl Portuguese pt Romanian ro Russian ru Serbo-Croatian sh Spanish es Swedish sv Tagalog tl Thai th Turkish tr Vietnamese viIf you want to add or improve support for a language, consider looking at the language features documentation at GitHub.
"},{"location":"other/yomichan-migration/","title":"Migrating from Yomichan (legacy)","text":""},{"location":"other/yomichan-migration/#migrating-from-yomichan","title":"Migrating from Yomichan","text":""},{"location":"other/yomichan-migration/#exporting-data","title":"Exporting Data","text":"If you are an existing user of Yomichan, you can export your dictionary collection and settings such that they can be imported into Yomitan to reflect your setup exactly as it was.
You can export your settings from Yomichan's Settings page. Go to the Backup section and click on Export Settings.
Yomichan doesn't have first-class support to export the dictionary collection. Please follow the instructions provided in the following link to export your data: https://github.com/yomidevs/yomichan-data-exporter#steps-to-export-the-data
You can then import the exported files into Yomitan from the Backup section of the Settings page. Please see the section on importing dictionaries further below for more explicit steps.
If you do not use custom templates for Anki note creation, this section can be skipped.
Due to security concerns, an alternate implementation of Handlebars is being used which behaves slightly differently. This revealed a bug in four of Yomitan's template helpers, which have now been fixed in the default templates. If your custom templates use the following helpers, please ensure their use matches the corrected forms.
Helper Example CorrectedformatGlossary {{#formatGlossary ../dictionary}}{{{.}}}{{/formatGlossary}} {{formatGlossary ../dictionary .}} furigana {{#furigana}}{{{definition}}}{{/furigana}} {{furigana definition}} furiganaPlain {{~#furiganaPlain}}{{{.}}}{{/furiganaPlain~}} {{~furiganaPlain .~}} dumpObject {{#dumpObject}}{{{.}}}{{/dumpObject}} {{dumpObject .}} Authors of custom templates may be interested to know that other helpers previously used and documented in the block form (e.g. {{#set \"key\" \"value\"}}{{/set}}), while not broken by this change, may also be replaced with the less verbose form (e.g. {{set \"key\" \"value\"}}). The default templates and helper documentation have been changed to reflect this.