# Yomiwa - Japanese Dictionary — with Optical Recognition

> Japanese dictionary, translator, and OCR with flashcards and community support. (iPhone/iPad app by Nomad AI OU.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yomiwa-japanese-dictionary/id670931120 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [Nomad AI OU](https://appshunter.io/developer/670931123)
- Category: Reference, Education
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Rating: 4.70/5 from 1,123 App Store ratings · 373 written reviews indexed
- Age rating: 4+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 360 MB
- Languages: Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean and 11 more
- Released: 2013-09-29
- Data updated: 2026-08-26
- Monetization: free with in-app purchases
- User reviews in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yomiwa-japanese-dictionary/id670931120/reviews.md

## What is Yomiwa?

Yomiwa is a dictionary, translator and optical recognizer designed to help you read, write and learn Japanese.

Yomiwa's powerful offline Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine can recognize more than 4000 Japanese characters in your pictures or with your device camera. Yomiwa will help you read newspapers, books, menus, signs or your favorite mangas.

Yomiwa's dictionary is extensive, intuitive, fast, and delivers Japanese word details into more than 20 target languages. You can input words in any language, alphabet, or even by drawing.

Yomiwa helps you improve your Japanese with flashcards. Flashcards are a powerful and enjoyable way to learn new words. You can use flashcards to learn new words from the built-in lists or from your history. Then, based on your learning statistics, you will be shown everyday a deck of flashcards tailored for you.

Yomiwa features advanced Japanese text analysis. Paste or write some Japanese and the text analyser will break sentences into words, describe conjugate forms and display furiganas.

Unique social feature: whenever you have trouble with some Japanese, you can always ask a question or post a picture on the Yomiwa wall. Yomiwa's users, from beginner to advanced level, will come to help you.

EXTENSIVE DICTIONARY:
• Detailed information about words (~ 200K entries) and kanji (on-yomi, kun-yomi, meaning, stroke order, compounds etc.)
• Huge database of example sentences (> 250K) built from numerous sources
• Search definitions in any kind of alphabet: kanji / hiragana / katakana / romaji 
• Bidirectional dictionary: you can search from both Japanese words or from foreign words
• Look up conjugated forms, even if they are incomplete 
• Pitch accents for more than 60k words
• Handwriting Recognition
• Intuitive Radical search
• More than 20 target languages available, such as  English, French, German,  Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Hungarian, Chinese, Dutch, Slovene, Swedish etc.
• For advanced learners and natives: an extensive Japanese-Japanese dictionary
• Build vocabulary lists of Japanese words, kanjis or sentences (which you can share as files or text in many ways)
• Browse the numerous pre-built kanji and word lists, order by JLPT levels,  school grades and topics
• Listen to the Japanese pronunciation of words and example sentences through the "Speak" function

OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNITION (OCR):
• A powerful OCR engine which lets you recognize instantly Japanese characters in your pictures or from your camera
• Yomiwa can recognize more that 4000 Japanese characters
• Works for both horizontal and vertical Japanese text

OFFLINE TRANSLATOR:
• Translate whole Japanese sentences to English

STUDY WITH FLASHCARDS:
• You can learn words in a fun way with flashcards. Pick up any deck from the  pre-built lists or from your own lists and history, then start learning them with flashcards
• Everyday, a new deck is built based on your learning statistics in order to optimise your memorising power

TEXT READER:
• Paste some text, or import it from the OCR modes, into the Text Analyzer
• Furiganas are displayed automatically
• Tap any word to see its definition in a pop-up

OPEN SAFARI WEB PAGES:
• In Safari, tap the export button to open the web page in Yomiwa. All Japanese words will be added furiganas and you will be able to tap on each of them to have a popup definition

FURIGANAS SAFARI EXTENSION:
• Whenever you are browsing on a web page with some Japanese text, tap the "share" button at the bottom and select "Yomiwa Add Furiganas" to display all furiganas

AUTOMATIC WORD LISTS FROM THE NEWS:
• Keywords appearing in the daily news are displayed in the app everyday. You can open the source news article and add Furiganas in order to read it with ease

YOMIWA WALL:
• Get help from the user community by asking questions and sharing pictures on the Yomiwa Wall

Feedback: feedback.ios@yomiwa.net
Terms of use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

## Key features

- Offline Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
- Extensive Japanese dictionary with 20+ languages
- Interactive flashcards for vocabulary learning
- Advanced Japanese text analysis
- Handwriting and radical search
- Community-powered Q&A wall

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**Subscriptions**

| Subscription | Price | Period |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Yomiwa Pro: Yearly | $19.99 | per year |
| Yomiwa Pro: Monthly | $2.99 | per month |

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Yomiwa Pro | $29.99 | one-time |
| Outlier Essentials | $29.99 | one-time |
| Outlier Expert | $59.99 | one-time |
| Outlier Expert Upgrade | $29.99 | one-time |


## What do users think of Yomiwa?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Helpful for looking up words
- 🚀 Excellent OCR and kanji recognition
- 💡 Convenient features like flashcards and word lists
- 👍 Comprehensive dictionary with good example sentences
- 👍 Useful for reading manga and other Japanese media

**Cons**

- 🐛 Unreliable text recognition, especially for complex layouts
- 🐛 Crashes and bugs reported by some users
- 💰 Expensive premium version

**Commonly reported bugs**

- Crashes after recent iOS updates
- Issues with the study list feature replacing words

**Most requested features**

- Ability to save documents within the app
- More customization options for the user interface
- Improved handwriting recognition
- Direct integration with Anki flashcard app

## Recent user reviews (10 of 373)

All indexed reviews: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/yomiwa-japanese-dictionary/id670931120/reviews.md

### 5/5 — Application très complète

*2026-08-18*

Je découvre l’application et je la trouve vraiment très complète. On peut en plus la mettre en français, il y a la possibilité d’avoir des flash card, des rappels de réviser. Vraiment une application qui me booste dans mon apprentissage. Il me reste juste à payer la version totale pour profiter de la traduction par appareil photo qui pourra m’être utile notamment lorsque je lis des mangas japonais quand je croise un ou plusieurs kanji que je ne maîtrise pas mais déjà sur l’appli en elle même je suis convaincu bravo.

### 5/5 — Recomendado x1000

*2026-08-17*

Te amo Yomiwa、 te pongo 5 porque no hay mas.
 A veces dibujo em kanji súper feo y aún así sabe cual es, te explica con ejemplos, grammar, etc.

### 5/5 — Good

*2026-08-02*

If it is possible ,I want to be translated in more east European languages

### 1/5 — The camera feature is not very useful comparing to Goggle Translate.

*2026-07-03*

I payed 39$ for the full version so I could use the camera feature to translate symbols during my trip in Japan. The app could not provide any good translation of sentences which is basically useless. I just deleted the app and switched to Google Translate which works perfectly and it’s free.

**Developer response:** Hello. I agree with you. Yomiwa is more of a dictionary for word by word definitions, example sentences, study lists and flashcards. It's a companion app for Japanese learners and expats, not really a translator for tourists visiting Japan. Please feel free to reach out to us for a refund at feedback.ios@yomiwa.net. Vivien

### 5/5 — My fav Japanese dictionary app

*2026-06-24*

I tried 5 different Japanese dictionary apps before settling on Yomiwa. The interface, functionality, and the fact that it’s free made it a clear winner. 

I also discovered recently that the developer is incredibly responsive to bug fixes and suggestions!!! Literally they pushed out a requested update in less than 24 hours 🫪🫪🫪. You guys are the best!!

### 5/5 — Great for translating

*2026-06-12, version 5.7.5*

I am using this to learn about Japanese by changing my console language to it. This is far better than Google Translate. I just need to learn the apps potential too many features I haven’t even used yet

### 5/5 — About using experience

*2026-06-10*

This is the best application for study to Japanese because it's covered full areas in language's Japanese

### 5/5 — Good

*2026-06-06*

One of my favorite app to study kanjis
Easy to use

### 3/5 — Quitting when selecting

*2026-05-19, version 5.7.3*

Love the app but both the iPhone AND iPad version now quit whenever I select the words to add. Please fix asap. 
Used it for years and this is first time this has happened. Please fix and I’ll improve the rating to its deserved five-stars.

### 5/5 — 최고의 일본어 사전

*2026-05-06*

일단 영어랑 일본어랑 같이 보여줘서 일석이조입니다
그리고 발음도 들을 수 있고
획순도 바로바로 나오고
예문이 나옵니다
검색한 한자를 이용한 다른 단어들도 아래에 띄워주니깐
진짜 제가 찾던 일본어 사전입니다
획순 계속 누르면 볼 수 있고
아래에 획순 차례대로 사진도 있어서 진짜 감격했어요
정성들여서 신경 쓰신게 느껴집니다
덕분에 편하게 공부합니다
감사합니다

## Frequently asked questions about Yomiwa

### What does Yomiwa do?

Yomiwa is a comprehensive tool for learning and using Japanese. It functions as a dictionary, translator, and optical character recognizer (OCR). It assists users in reading, writing, and studying the Japanese language through various features.

### What are the key features of Yomiwa?

Key features include an offline OCR engine capable of recognizing over 4000 Japanese characters from images or the camera, an extensive bidirectional dictionary with detailed word and kanji information, interactive flashcards for vocabulary memorization, and advanced text analysis tools.

### How does Yomiwa help with learning Japanese?

Yomiwa aids learning through its extensive dictionary, which provides detailed information on words and kanji, example sentences, and pronunciation. It also offers personalized flashcard decks based on learning statistics and a text analyzer that breaks down sentences and displays furiganas.

### Is Yomiwa free to use?

The application is free to download and use, offering core dictionary and OCR functionalities. However, it includes in-app purchases, suggesting that some advanced features or content may require payment.

### Can Yomiwa recognize Japanese text from pictures?

Yes, Yomiwa features a powerful offline Optical Character Recognition (OCR) engine that can instantly recognize Japanese characters from your pictures or directly through your device's camera. This allows you to read signs, menus, books, or manga by simply pointing your camera at the text.

## Version history (last 5 releases)

### 6.1.2 — 2026-08-19

• Various fixes and improvements.

### 6.1.1 — 2026-08-13

Grammar, new
• New Grammar tab — search patterns like ～ながら on their own
• Nearly 1,000 points with meaning, structure, explanation and examples
• N1–N5 badges, and grammar shown on word pages
• Search by meaning in your language, or by part of a pattern
• Save notes on a point; hear any pattern or example read aloud

Study
• New Home Screen widget: streak, freezes and cards due
• Streak freezes protect a missed day
• Smart Mix quiz mode and Learning insights (Pro)

Fixes — crash when tapping two words quickly; rare crash on unusual kanji.

### 6.1 — 2026-07-31

• Completely redesigned Study mode with XP, levels, streaks, quests and an evolving companion
• New Pro quiz modes: Listening, Multiple Choice and Fill in the Blank
• Save words and kanji directly to your new Study Queue
• New Progress dashboard with card mastery, activity and upcoming reviews
• Improved pitch-accent display and voice selection
• Clearer session recaps and XP breakdowns
• Numerous design, sync and reliability improvements

### 6.0 — 2026-07-19

• Meet your new study companion, who evolves as you earn XP and level up
• Complete Daily and Side Quests, build your streak, and earn bonus XP
• Unlock Chapters by mastering more cards over time
• Explore the new Progress dashboard with card maturity, upcoming reviews, activity, and XP history
• See a clear XP breakdown after every study session
• Continue with Extra Reviews or practise cards without affecting their review schedule
• Enjoy improved flashcard reliability, syncing, backups, and numerous interface refinements

### 5.8.0 — 2026-07-10

• Bug fixes and performance improvements

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All apps by Nomad AI OU: https://appshunter.io/developer/670931123

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*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 2026-08-26.*
