JMdictPy

Fast Python wrapper for jmdict-simplified with SQLite backend and automatic updates.

Features

• 🚀 Fast lookups - SQLite with indexed queries (sub-millisecond)
• 🔄 Auto-updates - Checks for new releases on initialization
• 🌍 Multi-language - Supports 10 languages (eng, ger, rus, hun, dut, spa, fre, swe, slv)
• 📦 Zero config - Downloads and builds database automatically
• 🔍 Full-text search - FTS5 for meaning/gloss searches
• 📚 Complete coverage - JMdict, JMnedict (names), Kanjidic (characters)

Installation

pip install jmdictpy

Or install from source:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/jmdictpy
cd jmdictpy
pip install -e .

Quick Start

from jmdictpy import JMDict

# Initialize (downloads ~11MB on first run)
jmd = JMDict()

# Lookup by kanji/kana
result = jmd.lookup("食べる")
for entry in result.entries:
    print(entry)
# 食べる【たべる】: to eat; to live on

# Lookup by reading
entries = jmd.lookup_by_reading("たべる")

# Search by meaning (full-text search)
entries = jmd.search("to eat")

# Lookup kanji character
char = jmd.lookup_character("食")
print(f"{char.literal}: {char.meanings}")
# 食: ['eat', 'food']

# Lookup names (JMnedict)
names = jmd.lookup_name("田中")

API Reference

JMDict Class

JMDict(
    db_path=None,       # Custom database path (default: ~/.jmdictpy/jmdict.db)
    language="eng",     # Translation language
    auto_update=True,   # Check for updates on init
    memory_mode=False,  # Load DB into RAM for faster queries
    common_only=False,  # Only download common words
)

Methods

Data Models

@dataclass
class Entry:
    id: str
    kanji: list[Kanji]      # Kanji writings
    kana: list[Kana]        # Kana readings
    senses: list[Sense]     # Meanings/translations

@dataclass
class Sense:
    part_of_speech: list[str]
    glosses: list[Gloss]    # Translations
    fields: list[str]       # Field of use (math, comp, etc.)
    dialect: list[str]
    misc: list[str]

@dataclass
class LookupResult:
    entries: list[Entry]        # JMdict entries
    names: list[NameEntry]      # JMnedict names
    characters: list[Character] # Kanjidic characters

Configuration

Environment Variables

Languages

Supported language codes (ISO 639-2):

• eng - English
• ger - German
• rus - Russian
• hun - Hungarian
• dut - Dutch
• spa - Spanish
• fre - French
• swe - Swedish
• slv - Slovenian
• all - All languages

Updates

JMdictPy checks for updates from jmdict-simplified releases automatically.

# Check current version
print(jmd.version)  # 3.6.1+20251229123436

# Check for updates
local, remote, available = jmd.check_for_updates()

# Update to latest
jmd.update()

License

MIT License

Dictionary data from JMdict by the Electronic Dictionary Research and Development Group, used under EDRDG License.