辞書

Pattern visualization

Examples

1. 辞書を引きます。▶ —
   I look it up in the dictionary.
2. いい辞書を買いました。▶ —
   I bought a good dictionary.

Collocations

Mnemonic

辞書 jisho — kanji "words (辞) + book (書)". Verb collocation is 引く (hiku, to pull/draw out) — looking up = pulling out a word. Korean uses "find / chajda"; Japanese uses the drawing-out metaphor. 広辞苑 (Koujien, Iwanami Shoten 1955-) is the canonical Japanese dictionary. 電子辞書 (denshi jisho, electronic dictionary) was a 1980s Japanese invention — Casio and Sharp went global until smartphone apps displaced them. 和英 / 英和 / 和韓 bidirectional dictionary vocabulary thrives. One word compresses lexicographic history, electronics industry, and language-learning culture.

Quick check

1. Correct collocation for "look up in a dictionary"?

   • 辞書を引く (draw-out metaphor)
   • 辞書を見る (literally "look at", awkward)
   • 辞書を取る (pick up)
   • 辞書を読む ("read", only for full read-through)