About Yomitan
Yomitan is a pop-up dictionary for the web. Point at a word on any page and a window shows its definitions, readings and pronunciation audio. It began as Yomichan, a Japanese reader that its creator shut down in February 2023, and a community team took over the code as Yomitan. It now handles more than 20 languages, and it is free and open source.
It supports several dictionary formats, so a lookup can show the sources you trust. Kanji stroke order is a click away, and a custom search page lets you query directly. If you use Anki, one keypress sends a lookup to your deck as a flashcard. asbplayer, also on this list, recommends pairing with it.
The trade-off is setup. You choose and configure your dictionaries, and flashcards need Anki with the AnkiConnect add-on. It asks for access to all websites to read the text under your cursor, and its documentation says it also requests audio and connects to Anki. We found no Safari version. If you read in your target language and will configure a tool once, start here.
Pros and cons
- Free and open source, with no account
- Covers 20+ languages, not just Japanese
- Turns lookups into Anki flashcards with one keypress
- Actively updated, and a Firefox Recommended extension
- Takes setup: dictionaries and Anki need configuring
- Flashcards need Anki and the AnkiConnect add-on
- No subtitles, courses or study plan of its own
Permissions
It asks for access to all websites so it can scan text and show the pop-up, plus storage for settings and dictionaries. Its documentation says it also requests audio and connects to Anki.
