Yomitan is a pop-up dictionary extension popularly used by learners of the Japanese language. By holding the SHIFT key and hovering over a word, the user can see the definition of the word in a pop-up window, listen to the pronunciation, and even create Anki cards directly from the pop-up. The extension is available for both Chrome and Firefox and is free to use.
In this post, I’ll be showing you how to use Yomitan for Korean, using a set of custom dictionary files I’ve created based on the 한국어 기초 사전 (Korean Basic Dictionary) by the National Institute of Korean Language, as well as other minor sources. Let’s get started!
Step 1 - Install Yomitan Link to heading
To install Yomitan, simply install the extension from either the Chrome Web Store or the Firefox Browser Add-ons pages.
Once installed, you will be greeted by a welcome page, from which you can enter the settings.
Step 2 - Download the Dictionary Files Link to heading
Once you have installed Yomitan, you can install the latest version of the Korean dictionaries I’ve created from the GitHub repository. There are three versions of the dictionary: a bilingual, monolingual, and English version:
| Bilingual | Monolingual | English (don’t recommend) |
|---|---|---|
 |  |  |
In addition to these main dictionaries, there is a hanja dictionary, as well as a conjugation dictionary which can be downloaded from the same repository.
Download one of the krdicts, I recommend the bilingual version, the hanja dictionary, as well as the conjugation dictionary. Make sure to also download the yomitan-settings...json file, as there are some settings you need to import to make Yomitan function on non-japanese text.
Step 3 - Configure Yomitan Link to heading
Navigate to the Yomitan settings page (by clicking on the extension icon and then the settings icon), then to the Backup section. From there, import the yomitan-settings.json file you downloaded in the earlier step:
Next, navigate to the Dictionaries tab. From there, you can import the dictionaries you’ve downloaded:
BEWARE: IMPORTING THE CONJUGATIONS DICTIONARY WILL TAKE A LONG TIME, AS IT IS A VERY LARGE FILE WHEN UNCOMPRESSED. GO DRINK SOME WATER
You’re all set! Now if you hover any Korean text while holding down the SHIFT key, Yomitan will show you matching words, hanja characters and definitions. If you’ve imported the conjugation dictionary, it will try to find the base form of the verb, as well as the ending and let you explore those individually.
Don’t forget that you can use Yomitan within itself, if you are not sure about a Korean word in your Korean definition for a Korean word.
Step 4 - Wait for the next post :') Link to heading
NEXT UP - ANKI INTEGRATION, CREATE ANKI CARDS DIRECTLY FROM YOMITAN!
I’ll be sharing how to connect Anki to Yomitan, so you can create Anki cards directly from the pop-up window. I’ll include my Anki card templates too for you to use. Stay tuned!
Thank you for reading. For any questions, ping me on Discord @mabini.