Honyaku Star is the most comprehensive free dictionary on the Web.

For Translators and Serious Students of Japanese

Honyaku Star is made for translators and serious students of Japanese. Translators and students need translations from all subject areas, from science to language to video games. A good dictionary should provide as many translations as possible, and show those terms in context.

What translator's don't need is visual distractions telling you a verb is a verb and a noun is a noun and this kanji has a code number of xyz493. If you need that level of information, then maybe Honyaku Star is not for you. There are plenty of online Japanese dictionaries that provide sort of information to you. For everyone else that needs a comprehensive resource to get work done and learn new words, Honyaku Star is for you.

The Information of Communication Should be Free

Communication is the foundation of human society, and intercultural communication requires transcending language barriers. Dictionaries, glossaries, and bilingual corpuses help close the intercultural communication gap. Honyaku Star aims to provide the best resource for translators, students of Japanese, and anyone else trying to communicate in English and Japanese. Honyaku Star is a free resource--meaning it is free to use, and you have the freedom to use it however you find most useful.

Number of Translations Matter

There is no 'right' translation for any word or phrase. Every word doesn't have a one-to-one translation. Some words may have 20 different possible translations. Context matters. Honyaku Star tries to give you as many relevant translations as possible for each search query by referencing numerous dictionaries and glossaries.

Honyaku Star currently has 2,240,000 translations

Context Matters

Translations of words and phrases are not enough. To really understand a language, you must see those terms in context. Honyaku Star tries to provide as many translations as possible, and show them in context in complex terms, phrases, and complete sentences. Honyaku Star's bilingual corpus contains sentences from multiple subject areas to give you the right context.

UI Simplicity

Clean. Simple. Easy to use. No animated ads or unnecessary distractions. Just translations.

No Pagination

All the translation results on one page. No pagination! Up to 1,000 results per search.

No Ads!

Honyaku Star is not a giant publishing company using its dictionary to sell you eikaiwa books and translation services. Honyaku Star is a free service for translators, students, and of course, honyaku stars. There is no intention to make money. In fact, running a site like this is not cheap. Feel free to donate!

Speed Matters

Mroonga

Who wants to wait for their search query to load--certainly not a honyaku star! Honyaku Star is made to be fast. Its index is powered by Mroonga. Mroonga is awesome--and fast.

Providing Translations is the Only Goal

Honyaku Star's goal is to be the best Japanese/English dictionary on the Web. The dictionary is not a front for a large publishing company with some hidden real goal to sell you eikaiwa books. Honyaku Star is only a dictionary, and the only goal is to be the best dictionary out there.

Hoppii-kun

Hoppii-kun

Hoppii-kun is not only the mascot, he also puts the star in 翻訳☆.

Hoppii is an original character design by Texas artist Vanessa Fernandez.


Learn more about Honyaku Star at the developer's blog: Localizing Japan.

Honyaku Star is made up of numerous community and publically available dictionaries, as well as original Honyaku Star dictionaries. Honyaku Star would not be possible without the efforts of the numerous people who have contributed to these awesome dictionaries.

Honyaku Star is made up of numerous bilingual copora. These are the example sentences and phrases that bring context to terms you search for. Context is everything when you are translating, and Honyaku Star's goal is to have the largest searchable bilingual corpus integrated with a Japanese/English dictionary to bring context to anything you search for.

Honyaku Star is naturally powered by free and open source software. HYS runs on Linux, PHP, MySQL, and Mroonga.

Mroonga MySQL PHP Linux

Do you find Honyaku Star useful? Want to make it even better?

If you are a translator, student, or a profession honyaku star, you can contribute to making Honyaku Star the most comprehensive Japanese/English dictionary and corpus in the world!

Most translators and students have a personal Excel or text file they've used to keep track of rare or difficult translations. In other words, a dictionary/glossary. And if you translate using translation memory software such as SDL Trados, you've been building up a personal bilingual corpus of real-world usage and example sentences.

You can help by contributing any specialized dictionaries or glossaries you have compiled, or any translation memories you've created from translation projects. Just make sure it is OK to donate these to the Honyaku Star project. And of course, we'll credit you in our about pages so you can show everyone that you are a honyaku star.

Email contribute@honyakustar.com.