Japanese Slang

About Japanese Slang

Japanese Slang is an urban dictionary and self-study tool for the digital generation! Although Japanese culture is best known for its formality and politeness, the Japanese are particularly fond of playing with language, in large part thanks to the versatility and nuance that their writing systems provide. This results in playful combinations of kanji, kana, and English, where conventional phrases are twisted wryly or turned entirely on their heads to cleverly capture the social attitudes of the time.

While most of the slang described here is a natural part of everyday speech, this dictionary doesn’t shy away from some of the ruder language that lurks around many online (and offline) spaces. After all, learning a language takes more than knowing how to politely ask about the weather. The real world is a whole lot messier than a classroom, and Japanese Slang will help you make sense of this natural language that lives in the wild.

Designed for ALL learners
• Japanese Slang was made for students of all levels!
• Are you a total beginner? Don't worry! Even if you can't read Japanese yet, there are English and rōmaji translations for every word to help you understand each spelling, pronunciation, and meaning!
• Are you an advanced learner of Japanese? Awesome! You can reinforce your learning and test your vocabulary, kana, and kanji knowledge with flashcards and quizzes!

Dictionary lists
• 850 detailed entries to boost your studies and build your Japanese vocabulary!
• Japanese Slang provides a comprehensive listing of each expression in English, rōmaji and its conventional forms in kanji, hiragana, or katakana.

Flashcards
• Build and test your knowledge with random flashcards!
• Flashcards are a fun and effective way to learn new Japanese vocabulary, while helping to refresh your memory on the words you already know.
• Each flashcard provides a detailed overview of the current word's meanings, plus the spellings in both English and Japanese.
• Save flashcards to your own Favorites list to study them later!

Quizzes
• Test yourself with customizable quizzes to improve your Japanese vocabulary and literacy!
• Choose between having questions in English and answers in Japanese, or vice versa. Switching between these modes is a great way to boost your Japanese reading skills, especially for beginners.
• Advanced learners can use the Japanese-to-English quiz to improve their kanji knowledge.
• Choose how many questions you want to answer (5, 10, 15, or 20).
• Advanced Japanese learners can also test their knowledge of each word's meanings, giving an extra layer of challenge to the quizzes.

Quick search
• All the words, translations, and meanings can be quickly searched for instant results!
• Search for the English or Japanese word itself, or even search for a keyword to see all the related entries.

Theme support
• Japanese Slang supports Light and Dark modes, as well as portrait and landscape orientations.
• The UI has been designed to be clear and concise, so that the information is easy to access and learn from, with as few button presses as possible.

Free vs. Pro versions
• There are no ads or limits in the Pro version.
• The Pro version has more than double the number of words and definitions (Pro: 850 / Free: 416). This applies to the Dictionary, Flashcards, Search, and Quiz activities.
• The Pro version has more robust quiz features: (1) You can choose the number of questions you want to answer. (2) The Meaning button to show definitions can be used for each question with no limits, providing a better learning experience for anyone who wants to learn Japanese.
• In the Free version, the quiz question numbers are fixed, and the Meaning button is limited to two uses per quiz.

Technical support
If you run into any problems while using Japanese Slang, you can send a message to [email protected]. We'll do our best to address the issue as swiftly as possible.