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Dictionary Guide

Look up a word in Spotlight

Press Command⌘+Space to launch spotlight and enter the word to look up. You can immediately get the Japanese or English definition as well as example sentences.

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To activate Japanese dictionaries on your Mac, launch the Dictionary app (by typing command+space for Spotlight and typing in Dictionary) and on the top left corner click Dictionary > Preferences.

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By default you get the J-E dictionary The Wisdom English-Japanese Dictionary and the J-J dictionary スーパー大辞林.

You can reorder these dictionaries to either show the Japanese definition or English definition as the first result.

MacOS Popup Dictionary

MacOS comes preinstalled with a popup dictionary that can be accessed with force touch, three finger touch, or right click > Look up word.

Unlike browser popup dictionaries like Yomichan and Rikakun that only works in browsers, this popup dictionary works on all native apps and almost every desktop app.

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You might need to activate this feature in System Settings > Touchpad

Add Jisho, Weblio and other online dictionaries

You can easily add Jisho, Weblio, or other online dictionaries as a Service.

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Launch Automator by pressing Command⌘+Space for Spotlight, typing in automator, and hitting Enter.

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Create a Quick Action.

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For Workflow select receives current text.

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Add a Run JavaScript action by searching for javascript in the upper left search bar and double clicking the Run JavaScript item.

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Replace the line “ // Your script goes here” with this line of code

input[0] = 'https://jisho.org/search/' + input[0];

Or use this line of code for Weblio:

input[0] = 'https://ejje.weblio.jp/content/' + input[0];

Next, search and add a Website Pop-up action to the workflow.

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I set the Site Size to iPhone so the popup window doesn’t take over my screen.

Press Command⌘+ S and save the quick action as Jisho.

Now back in your browser or any other app, select a word and right click Services > Jisho.

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Close the window by pressing the Esc key.

Text to Speech in Japanese

To enable text to speech in Japanese, you have to configure a Japanese system voice.

In System Preferences > Accessibility > Speech, click System Voice and select Customize.

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Scroll down to select Japanese (Japan) voices. It might take a few minutes to install these voices. After hitting OK, switch the system voice to the newly installed voice.

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Whenever you right click on a text selection, select Speech > Start Speaking to hear the word being said.

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The voice in text-to-speech is synthetic. If you prefer natural voice, use online services like Jisho or Forvo.

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