Hoshino

Look a word up. Then actually learn it.

Hoshino is a Japanese dictionary and a study tool in one. Search a word, tap it, and it is already waiting in your study pile. Everything lives on your phone: no connection, no account, nothing to pay for.

Get the Android beta How it works

Free. Works offline. No account.

Live demo

Try the dictionary

Type in kanji, kana, romaji or English. Results appear as you type, the same way they do in the app.

    A taste of it. The app holds 217,000 words and 13,000 kanji, all on your phone.

    What it does

    A dictionary that remembers what you looked up

    Four parts, one app. Each one is built to get you from a word you do not know to a word you do, in as few taps as possible.

    • Dictionary

      217,000 words and 13,000 kanji, searchable by kanji, kana, romaji or English. Type a conjugated form like 食べました and it resolves to 食べる. Every entry shows readings over the kanji, example sentences, and a full conjugation table.

    • JLPT reference

      Ten built-in lists, N5 to N1, for vocabulary and for kanji. Browse a level, see which words you already know, and start studying any list with one tap.

    • Study

      Flashcards with spaced repetition, so each word comes back just before you would forget it. You set a daily budget of new words, and each word climbs a ladder from New to Mastered. Review-only sessions when you are short on time. No accuracy score, no shaming.

    • Reader

      Paste any Japanese text. Every word gets its reading, and a tap opens the full entry. The words you look up are collected into Searched Terms, so reading and studying feed each other.

    Every word you look up is already waiting to be studied

    Searched Terms is a list the app keeps for you. Any word you open, from search or from the reader, lands in it. When you are ready, study the list like any other and the words you actually met become the words you learn.

    Why it feels fast

    Built to get out of your way

    1. Everything is on the device

      The whole dictionary ships inside the app. Search on a train, in a basement, or on a plane. Nothing waits on a connection.

    2. One tap from a word to its entry

      Results, the reader, flashcards and lists all open the same word page. There is no menu to learn and no second screen in the way.

    3. A pile, not a backlog

      A study session is a fixed size. Miss a week and you come back to twenty cards, not a wall of hundreds. The scheduler simply picks up from where you left off.

    Download

    Android beta

    Hoshino is in beta on Android. The Google Play listing is being prepared, and this page will link to it as soon as it is live.

    Google Play, coming soon

    iOS and web are on the roadmap.

    Roadmap

    Shipped
    • Dictionary with conjugation tables and examples
    • JLPT lists, N5 to N1, vocabulary and kanji
    • Study system with spaced repetition
    • Reader for pasted text
    • Reduced motion setting
    In progress
    • Google Play release
    Next
    • Accounts and sync across devices (optional; the app stays fully usable without one)
    Later
    • A library of saved texts in the reader
    • iOS
    • Web
    • More study modes