Word in Japanese — Translator with Kanji and Meanings

Type any English word into the search box and the tool returns its Japanese translation in kanji, hiragana, and romaji along with the literal meaning, alternate writings with their nuances, and an example sentence. Each of the 30+ curated words includes a kanji-by-kanji breakdown showing stroke counts and readings, plus tattoo and cultural notes that distinguish near-synonyms like 愛 (ai, love) versus 恋 (koi, romantic love).

Every entry uses the standard, dictionary-approved kanji form so the meaning is correct. We also flag known ambiguity — for example 愛 covers all kinds of love while 恋 is specifically romantic, and 龍 is the traditional dragon form preferred for tattoos while 竜 is the modern simplified form. Read the tattoo notes for each word before committing. We strongly recommend asking a native speaker or professional Japanese calligrapher to confirm your final design.

Kanji are Chinese-origin characters that carry meaning (愛 = love). Hiragana is the Japanese phonetic script that spells out the pronunciation (あい = a-i). Romaji is the Roman-letter spelling (ai). For most meaningful words like love, strength, or peace, the kanji is the visually iconic form; hiragana shows you how to read it; romaji shows you how to pronounce it.

Yes. Each word page includes a tattoo notes section that highlights the visually-best kanji form, common pitfalls (single-character versus compound choices, traditional versus simplified forms), and which font style to ask your artist for. Avoid stylised English-display fonts that distort kanji strokes — request a kaisho (block) or gyousho (semi-cursive) reference image so the artist replicates the strokes faithfully.

Romaji is read with consistent vowel sounds: a as in father, i as in machine, u as in flute, e as in pet, o as in go. Double vowels (oo, ou, uu) are held longer. Consonants are pronounced as in English with a few exceptions: r is a soft tap between l and r, and tsu is a single sound. So tomodachi reads as toh-moh-dah-chee.

Kanji is reserved for words of Chinese or Japanese origin that have an established character. Words from other languages — including foreign personal names, country names, and modern loanwords — are written in katakana, the angular phonetic script. So Michael becomes マイケル (katakana) but love becomes 愛 (kanji). For converting names to katakana, use the Name in Japanese tool linked below.

Many of these characters originated in China and overlap in form, but readings, simplification levels, and some meanings differ. Modern Japanese kanji (新字体) were simplified after 1946, so 龍 became 竜 in mainland Japan but Traditional Chinese still uses 龍. Tattoo customers should specify Japanese kanji to artists who may default to Simplified Chinese characters that look similar but read differently.