JBrute Japanese Dictionary

JBrute is a stand-alone English→Japanese and Japanese →English dictionary lookup program. It uses publicly available data for the dictionary and examples (see acknowledgements below). The current distribution contains in excess of 170, 000 dictionary entries and a similar number of example-of-use sentences. It does NOT require an Internet connection to work.

Think of it as full-featured, PC-version of dedicated electronic dictionary device: a fast and easy way to look up both English and Japanese words and phrases. Features include:

Key-by-key lookup in both English and Japanese. As you type, entries that start with your query immediately appear in the left search pane. Examples:

"price" instantly lists "price", "price competition", "price control", etc.

"ねだ" instantly lists "ねだ", "ねだい", "ねだいた", etc.

"根" instantly lists "根", "根から", "根から葉から", etc.

Power searches. Every word of the dictionary and examples can be searched (including Wildcard and quoted phrase searches). Examples:

"Can I Help" finds "Can I help", "Can I help you", How can I help you" and similar examples

先？shows all two character words starting with 先

It can automatically search any Japanese text you put on the system clipboard.

Examples and Kanji meanings. Each dictionary entry includes both examples (where available, and they usually are) and information about each Kanji character used.

It supports the OS's native IME. Thus you can enter search terms in both English and Japanese. If you enter it in Japanese, you can even “paint” the Kanji. If you don't know about the OS's IME, see the Help file.

Things it's not. It's not a flash card application. It's not for adding “hints” to web pages or Japanese email. It certainly makes not pretense to translate beyond a word or phrase level.

JBrute is user-supported Shareware. A 30 day evaluation is available by free download from http://www.jbrute.com. Full registration is $10.