# Midori (Japanese Dictionary) — user reviews > 215 indexed App Store user reviews of Midori (Japanese Dictionary) by Sukolsak Sakshuwong, rated 4.80/5 from 211 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/midori-japanese-dictionary/id385231773/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/midori-japanese-dictionary/id385231773.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 188 · 4★ 11 · 3★ 5 · 2★ 4 · 1★ 3 ## What do users think of Midori (Japanese Dictionary)? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 User-friendly interface - 🔍 Comprehensive dictionary with detailed entries - ✍️ Excellent kanji handwriting recognition - 📚 Useful kanji lists organized by JLPT and school grade levels - 🔖 Ability to bookmark and organize vocabulary - 🔄 Spaced repetition flashcard system for practice - 🔍 Ability to search by drawing kanji - 💯 Invaluable for learning Japanese **Cons** - 🐛 Spoken content uses outdated voices - 🔍 Inconsistent kanji recognition accuracy - 🔖 No syncing of bookmarks/lists across devices - 🔍 Some words/definitions missing from the dictionary **Commonly reported bugs** - Translate function has issues with word boundaries - Bookmarks export/import feature is unreliable **Most requested features** - Add ability to create custom flashcard sets - Implement iCloud/cloud sync for bookmarks and settings - Improve kanji handwriting recognition accuracy - Add option to use device's default text-to-speech voice - Expand dictionary coverage, especially for specialized vocabulary ## Newest reviews (18 of 215) ### 4/5 — Нет синхронизации *2024-06-01* В целом супер постоянно пользуюсь но уже много лет обещали синхронизацию заметок на айфоне и айпаде и все так и нет! iPadとiPhoneにあるノートをシンクロする機能を追加してください！ ### 3/5 — Good *2024-05-13, version 1.9.15* Good app. I wish the app would use the iPhone’s “Spoken Content” settings. When you highlight a sentence and tap “speak” within the app, the app will unfortunately use Kyoko, a very old Japanese speech voice setting and doesn’t recognize the iPhone’s internal speech settings (my iPhone 14 Pro uses female Siri for Spoken Content but the app doesn’t use it). ### 4/5 — Should be a 5 star app *2023-11-19, version 1.9.15* Just don’t know how to invoke audio pronunciation. Other than that thank you for the developers’ hardwork. ### 5/5 — Longtime companion *2023-10-18* I’ve been using Midori for over a decade now, and love the new camera feature (hopefully it can read vertical text soon). Feature request: It would be nice to be able to search a list and bookmark/export the results. I can paste a list into the Translate section, but cannot bulk save/export the definitions. ### 5/5 — The best iOS JP dictionary! *2023-10-15, version 1.9.14* Took me from beginner to studying for JLPT N1. A million times better than using anki all the time, fast to look up words, you can save to lists and your saved words are highlighted later in kanji word listings. All around amazing. ### 5/5 — Best Japanese dictionary app on iOS! *2023-10-02, version 1.9.14* Been using this dictionary app for years, definitely the best dictionary on iOS. ### 5/5 — Just perfect app for Japanese learners *2023-09-25* I have bought ipad just to use this app after i saw it on my classmate's ipod touch. I still hate Apple devices, but for your dictionary, which is strict to order, but quite flexible to hadwriting when searching kanji. And dictinary of names, thank you for including this! I think it would be even more awesome if you build in support for other languages in notes section to make the dictionary more functional for multilinguals like me. Thank you! ### 3/5 — This dictionary has no pronunciation *2023-08-11* This dictionary has no pronunciation, not at all, so you find a word and you still don’t know how to read it ### 5/5 — wish list for study lists *2023-07-17, version 1.9.13* the intersection of 2 bookmark lists would be terrific as an export CVS file, e.g., adverb okurigana or adverb jukugo or adverb kana-only ... merci ### 5/5 — a truly magnificient app *2023-07-17, version 1.9.13* i've been using this app for longer than i can remember (well over 10 years) and it has been wonderful and rock solid every time i've used it. the ruby text enhanced translation mode is a super power for anyone wanting to learn japanese and the kanji writing system. i give it 5 stars but it really deserves 5 hearts. ### 4/5 — Good but with some errors *2023-06-22, version 1.9.13* This is a very extensive dictionary! However there are some issues: when I was looking up the verb nagusameru, it did not show up, even though it is a valid verb. In general it can sometimes not display all the possible words for a given definition (like not listing oyatsu as a word for snack) so it definitely needs some work. ### 3/5 — Does Everything Japanese Does *2023-06-08* I bought this at the suggestion of a friend. After a day of using it I discovered it’s just a paid version of the free Japanese Dictionary App that has everything it does, but even a few more functions that I’m looking for like listing what JLPT level each word is on the dictionary entry. Not really the all inclusive app I was hoping for. I don’t find the flash cards very useful without a voice playback either. Not really helpful for my ADHD learning style. ### 4/5 — Excellent *2023-04-21, version 1.9.9* Fantastic app & dictionary, though I just have one issue - the iPhone version has pitch accent information, but I don’t see it anywhere in the iPad version. If this could be fixed, the app would be perfect for my uses! ### 5/5 — AMAZING Camera Lookup. Visual Pitch Accents. *2023-04-04* The new camera function is MARVELLOUS! Rather than scanning and doing a bulk translation (as Google Translate does), this app allows you to take a photo and then tap on each word to show it’s dictionary search results… It’s hard to explain without a screenshot, but this is perfect for allowing me to have a kind of “split screen” with my Japanese photo/text in the bottom half, and a live dictionary in the too half. I might try this on Japanese video games, by using the camera feature on dialogue text. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Every word in Japanese has a binary pitch accent measured in HIGHs and lows… and since many words share the same pronunciation, the pitch pattern discriminates the target meaning. The new update now includes this feature, so now I don’t need to look up pitch patterns on the internet anymore. Thank you!!! Review Updated: 2023-04-04 ### 5/5 — Exceptional *2023-03-30, version 1.9.12* I have been using this app for years it is my go to Denshi jishou. (電子辞書) The new camera scan features rocks. 20 out of 10. ### 5/5 — Best advanced dictionary *2023-03-20, version 1.9.10* I have been using this dictionary for years, and it's always reliable and helpful. I am delighted to find that the iOS app works on the mac computers now - i am so happy. ### 5/5 — Incredible *2023-01-09* This is the best dual language dictionary I’ve ever used. I have heavily studied 4 languages and never seen anything like this. Because Japanese is so complex, with multiple alphabets, so many sounds meaning so many different things, so many different ways to say things, it’s overwhelming. But this app is highly organized. You can approach from grade level, to most used words, can save words in different folders, make notes, it breaks down how to write characters step by step…I just keep discovering more abilities with this app, it’s so cool. One of my favorite things is that you don’t have to switch keyboards to look up a Japanese word, you can write out the sound/characters of the word/syllables using the English keyboard and it will present you with the Japanese characters ### 3/5 — Speaking function no longer works on IPhone *2022-12-31, version 1.9.9* Please fix this issue. It works on the iPad but not iPhone. Please fix this soon and I will change to 5 stars. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Spoken Content Broken *2025-06-02* Update: The fact that the app’s spoken content still hasn’t been updated in 2025 is incredibly frustrating. Listening to spoken content is important for learning pitch accent, unfortunately the Midori app still uses the oldest version of Japanese iOS voices for all spoken content. So I’ve stopped using the app. Old review: Good app. I wish the app would use the iPhone’s “Spoken Content” settings. When you highlight a sentence and tap “Speak” within the app, the app will unfortunately use “Kyoko”, a very old Japanese speech voice setting and doesn’t recognize the iPhone’s internal speech settings (my iPhone 14 Pro uses female Siri for Spoken Content but the app doesn’t recognize it). ### 1/5 — Junk *2023-07-02, version 1.9.13* Wow! Beyond disappointed, I can’t believe they can get away with charging money for this. I look up 信用 and the only answer is the name of a credit union! 突然　produces no answer even if I try totsuzen. This is junk don’t waste your money. No stars ### 1/5 — Got buggy,and no update *2022-05-04, version 1.9.8* Couple months ago, when translating a text, the "delete" option dissapeared and now it has to be selected manually and then deleted. Next after that the feature of automatic jumping to translation when tapping on the word totally dissapeared. Now I have to manually search it by scrolling. I paid for this app and now I can’t use it normally for translation, as I used to. Contacted the developer by mail, no reply. I hope they can see the review and take care of the bugs. ### 1/5 — This app doesn’t backup your data to iCloud *2021-04-07* Once you delete the app, your data (bookmarks, favorites, lists, flashcards, notes, etc) are gone. ### 1/5 — Keeps crashing *2020-07-26, version 1.9.3* Keeps crashing when I try to save my bookmarks as a CSV and support never respond! Update: still the same error, DO NOT BUY THIS APP IF YOU WANT TO CONVERT YOUR SAVED WORDS TO FLASHCARDS ### 1/5 — Lost my data after switching devices. *2020-03-20* Please enable cloud sync and backup. ### 1/5 — Complete scam *2014-11-12, version 1.8.3* Don't waste your money on this. Had it for a few seconds and it couldn't even recognize a basic Japanese word like 完ぺき. Total scam! ### 1/5 — Not that good *2012-08-04, version 1.7.1* There are many other japanese app that do the same thing and usually better and for cheaper I bought this app for a big price because of the reviews and im disappointed. ### 1/5 — Lame... *2011-08-16, version 1.5* Does not write the word in English alphabet. Completely useless for communication if it does not tell you how to say the word. If I knew Japanese then why would I need a dictionary? ### 2/5 — Good features, lacking vocab *2022-02-25* I could easily recommend this app to beginners, but not for anyone who wants to fill the gaps in their vocabulary. Most of the words I’ve searched don’t show results. Vocabulary related to specific topics (for example, government, science/medical, architecture, math, etc.) is absent. One way I try to acquire new vocabulary is to read books and jot down the words I don’t know, so I can look them up afterwards and commit them to memory. I want to find an app I can rely on without pulling out my denshi jisho, but this isn’t it. For the price, I was hoping for something more sophisticated. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — User friendly *2026-03-06, version 1.9.15* I’ve been using this app for about 15 years, downloaded it when it first came out for a fee and so glad it is free now. It’s got a very user friendly interface, ability to bookmark (basically set labels) to vocabulary and kanji that you want to categorise and revise. It’s got kanji lists arranged by JLPT levels as well as school grades and frequency in societal use. The flashcard function allows you to test yourself, using the app’s preinstalled kanji lists and also using the bookmarks that you compile yourself. The ability to search kanji by drawing them is a real timesaver. My only wish for this app is for an ability to test yourself using the “random” sequence setting and be able to mark whether you got each card correct or incorrect. You are able to mark for correct/incorrect on the “spaced repetition” setting but not with the other settings. ### 5/5 — i ve been eating this app for the last 5 years *2025-10-10, version 1.9.15* I have been able to learn japanese thanks to this app. Really, from the beginning till now, it helped me so much. The dictionaries it pulls, the grammar info it has, the example sentences it has, oh so useful.. Thank you so much. Wish i could pay. ### 5/5 — Part of my daily routine *2025-10-03, version 1.9.15* I bought this app around 10 years ago, and have used it every day since. It is an invaluable resource. It contains animations on how to draw kanji, related words, lists of tenses and conjugations and lots of other things. The only thing to bear in mind is the translate feature. This is very good from a literal technical and translation perspective (highlighting and linking things to take you to the relevant entry), but won’t give you how something would be interpreted when spoken/written. You’ll need to use something else for that. This doesn’t overshadow how good the rest of the features are however. Highly recommended! ### 5/5 — 13 years *2025-05-19* I've been using this app for 13 years, and it is hands-down the best Japanese dictionary app available. The ONLY thing I wish was different is that it would save your data when changing to a new device. ### 5/5 — The best and still going strong *2025-04-22, version 1.9.15* I’ve been using Midori for as long as I can remember owning a smartphone - I remember having it on my iPhone 3GS. It’s always been solid and slowly improves with time, with solid features being added like the new photo capture recognition mode, that is flawless. Midori is the best all-rounder Japanese dictionary out there. ### 5/5 — Kanji Stroking Limitations *2024-09-15* Following up on my Aug 24 review, please look to a competing app Shirabe Jisho to see how it’s done. Their stroking function is beautifully laid out. When your kanji look up can’t come up with the character I need, I don’t bother with the radical lookup anymore. I go straight to Shirabe. Much easier. ### 5/5 — Wish the camera could do vertical text *2024-04-02, version 1.9.15* Can’t use it for novels/etc ### 5/5 — Invaluable for learning *2024-01-12, version 1.9.15* This app is amazing for learning Japanese! It's a dictionary at its core but it's so much more. You can save words into custom folders, look words and kanji up using your camera, or even draw character in. My favourite way of using this is to take pictures of vocab and kanji in the grammar book I'm learning from (Tobira Beginning Japanese), and save them into folders by Lesson, Then, the app makes you flash cards of the content and there is even SRS if that's your thing. One thing to note: I saw reviews here that there is no audio to listen to how words are pronounced. I don't know if this is a new feature since, but the way to listen to a word is to double-tap on the word and a small menu pops up with the option to listen. This is very easy to miss so not the best usability (I found this by accident), so just something to look out for. The app has a lot of features and you need to explore to get familiar/find them all, so a bit of a learning curve. But it's completely free and packed with features so can't really fault it! ### 5/5 — Camera Function is a significant upgrade *2023-11-30, version 1.9.15* I have been using Midori for years but have to say that the “scan/photo” function that I have been using more recently has transformed its effectiveness ### 5/5 — Amazing *2023-11-19, version 1.9.15* Must have for traveling! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-24.*