Words from Japanese Newspapers in Order of Frequency
The "About" Page

About the Data for These Quizzes

• I took all the words in Alexandre Girardi's wordfreq file (ftp.cc.monash.edu.au). To find out how many times words appeared in Japanese newspapers, data from four years of Mainichi Shimbun was analyzed.
• I then merged the counts for words which were the same, but entered in that database under different inflections.
  • My "cleaned-up" list is here: http://ftp.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/wordfreq_ck.gz (723 Kb.)
• After that, I put that data through Jim Breen's WWWJDICT (Copyright Notice / EDICT link) to grab the definitions.
• Then I removed a certain amount of the data such as names of people, words marked as BU and other things that did not seem appropriate.

About the Quizzes

• The question order and the position of the correct answer is randomly chosen. The distractors are then randomly chosen from other words in the list.
• After the quiz is over, you are given the option to retry the words that you missed.
• The "part of speech" data at the beginning of English definitions does not show in the questions, but is later shown in the "previous question" data at the bottom of the window.
• The number following the "part of speech" data is the number of times the word appeared in the 4 years of Mainichi Shimbun that were analyzed.

About the Flashcards

• The order is randomly shuffled each time you go through the set of "cards."
• One possibility is for you to go through all the words using the quiz, then go through the same words as flashcards.

Limitations / Known Problems

• The readings and definitions were automatically grabbed, so there is the possibility that one or the other is not the word that the original "wordfreq" file meant it to be.

Quick Links

• Nouns with Kanji from Newspapers #1 (1-25)
• Nouns with Kanji from Newspapers #2 (26-50)
• For more quizzes, just click the "Next Quiz" link at the bottom of each quiz. [Total Words = 23,403]

• Verbs with Kanji from Newspapers #1 (1-25)
• Verbs with Kanji from Newspapers #2 (26-50)
• For more quizzes, just click the "Next Quiz" link at the bottom of each quiz. [Total Words = 2,787]

• Adjectives with Kanji from Newspapers #1 (1-25)
• Adjectives with Kanji from Newspapers #2 (26-50)
• For more quizzes, just click the "Next Quiz" link at the bottom of each quiz. [Total Words = 2,411]

• Adverbs with Kanji from Newspapers #1 (1-25)
• Adverbs with Kanji from Newspapers #2 (26-50)
• For more quizzes, just click the "Next Quiz" link at the bottom of each quiz. [Total Words = 289]

• All "Parts of Speech" Mixed Together
  Good for "flashcards," but not so good for multiple-choice quizzes.

Codes, Etc.

• If at the end of the definition you see two capital letters, this is the code indicating which dictionary the data was taken from.
• If there is no 2-letter code, then the data came from EDICT.
• Parts of speech are show at the bottom of the screen for the previous word.
  The following is word for word from "edict_doc.html."

  abbr 	   abbreviation
  adj 	   adjective (keiyoushi)
  adv 	   adverb (fukushi)
  adv-n 	   adverbial noun
  adj-na    adjectival nouns or quasi-adjectives (keiyodoshi)
  adj-no    nouns which may take the genitive case particle "no"
  adj-pn	   pre-noun adjectival (rentaishi)
  adj-s	   special adjective (e.g. ookii)
  adj-t	   "taru" adjective
  arch 	   archaism
  ateji     ateji reading of the kanji
  aux 	   auxiliary word or phrase
  aux-v 	   auxiliary verb
  conj	   conjunction
  col 	   colloquialism 
  exp	   Expressions (phrases, clauses, etc.)
  ek	   exclusively kanji, rarely just in kana
  fam 	   familiar language 
  fem 	   female term or language
  gikun 	   gikun (meaning) reading
  gram 	   grammatical term
  hon 	   honorific or respectful (sonkeigo) language 
  hum 	   humble (kenjougo) language 
  id 	   idiomatic expression 
  int	   interjection (kandoushi)
  iK 	   word containing irregular kanji usage
  ik 	   word containing irregular kana usage
  io 	   irregular okurigana usage
  MA 	   martial arts term
  male 	   male term or language
  m-sl 	   manga slang
  n	   noun (common) (futsuumeishi)
  n-adv	   adverbial noun (fukushitekimeishi)
  n-t	   noun (temporal) (jisoumeishi)
  n-suf     noun, used as a suffix
  n-pref    noun, used as a prefix
  neg 	   negative (in a negative sentence, or with negative verb)
  neg-v 	   negative verb (when used with)
  num       number, numeric
  obs 	   obsolete term
  obsc 	   obscure term
  oK 	   word containing out-dated kanji 
  ok 	   out-dated or obsolete kana usage
  pol 	   polite (teineigo) language 
  pref 	   prefix 
  prt       particle
  qv 	   quod vide (see another entry)
  sl 	   slang
  suf 	   suffix 
  uK 	   word usually written using kanji alone 
  uk 	   word usually written using kana alone 
  v1	   Ichidan verb
  v5	   Godan verb (not completely classified)
  v5u	   Godan verb with `u' ending
  v5u-s	   Godan verb with `u' ending - special class
  v5k	   Godan verb with `ku' ending
  v5g	   Godan verb with `gu' ending
  v5s	   Godan verb with `su' ending
  v5t	   Godan verb with `tsu' ending
  v5n	   Godan verb with `nu' ending
  v5b	   Godan verb with `bu' ending
  v5m	   Godan verb with `mu' ending
  v5r	   Godan verb with `ru' ending
  v5k-s	   Godan verb - Iku/Yuku special class
  v5z	   Godan verb - -zuru special class (alternative form of -jiru verbs)
  v5aru	   Godan verb - -aru special class
  v5uru	   Godan verb - Uru old class verb (old form of Eru)
  vi 	   intransitive verb 
  vs 	   noun or participle which takes the aux. verb suru
  vs-i	   suru verb - irregular
  vs-s	   suru verb - special class
  vk	   Kuru verb - special class
  vt 	   transitive verb
  vulg 	   vulgar expression or word 
  X	   rude or X-rated term (not displayed in educational software)