FEATURES OF THIS DICTIONARY
Below is a description of the principal features of this dictionary, withemphasis on how they are useful to the learner. See the Introduction
on p. 17a for a discussion of dictionary aims. To derive maximum
benefit from the dictionary, consult also the Guide to the Dictionary onp. 35a, which describes the entry format in detail and supplements theinformation here.
attention to and detain are merely variantsof the same basic concept. The core meaning
thus integrates widely differing senses into asingle conceptual unit.

1 LEARNER'S DICTIONARY
The primary aim of this dictionary is to serveas an effective learner's dictionary, as a powerful learning aid that promotes understanding
and stimulates a desire to learn. It incorporates most of the features of its parent work,
the New Japanese-English Character Dictionary, as well as some new and unique featuresthat enable the learner to gain an in-depth,
systematic understanding of character meanings. The most important of these are described below.

The core meaning is useful to the learner infive ways:
1. It serves as a concise keyword that conveys
the character's most fundamental meaning.
2. It acts as the central pivot that links theprincipal meanings of a character to eachother.
3. It provides an instant grasp of the meaning
and function of the character as a wordbuilding element.
4. It helps illustrate the differences and similarities between kun homophones and easily confused characters.
5. It is easy to memorize, since it conveys acharacter's meaning as a concise thought
package.

1.1 Core Meaning

A striking feature of this dictionary is thepresentation of a core meaning for each entry
character. This is a concise keyword thatprovides a clear grasp of the central or mostfundamental concept that links the principal
senses of a character into a single conceptualunit.
Consider KEEP, one of the core meanings of:

A brief glance at the character meanings
makes the above relationships clear, thanks to
the use of RED CAPITALS both for the core
meanings and for the core words (words in acharacter meaning that match a core meaning).
This is a new feature not found in any otherdictionary.

JKEEP: cause to remain in a given place or condition:
C [original meaning] KEEP in place, keep frommoving, keep in position
D KEEP in custody, detain
E KEEP for future use, leave behind

The core meaning is unique to the NJECD andthe Kanji Integrated Tools (KIT). Since it
functions as a concentrated thought packagethat appeals to the learner's powers of asso-

By grasping that the central concept repreis KEEP, it is immediately clear
sented bythat such seemingly unrelated ideas as pay#=FEATURES

ciation, it is widely praised by students andeducators as an effective learning aid.

shown on the right.

1.4 Order of Senses

1.2 In-depth Meanings

Unlike traditional dictionaries, which usuallyorder senses chronologically, this dictionary
present the senses in a cogent order thatshows their interrelatedness. The core meaning serves as the basis of organization, and thevarious senses are grouped around it in clusters so that they can be perceived as a logicallystructured, psychologically integrated unit.

A central feature of this dictionary is the indepth manner in which it treats meaning. Not
only are the character meanings clear, complete, and accurate, but they include meaningsfound only in KIT dictionaries.
The principal features that contribute to clarity of meaning are:, for example, has several distinct senses, butthey are clustered around the core word KEEP
in a way that shows their differences andsimilarities, greatly reducing the burden ofmemorization. If the senses were arranged asshown in the left column below, they would
appear to be an arbitrary list, rather than as astructured unit.

1. The core meaning.
2. Clear and accurate character meanings.
3. The ordering of senses in a manner thatshows their interrelatedness.
4. Numerous illustrative compounds.
The precisely worded character meanings arepresented in a manner that shows exactly howeach character is used as a word element, andhow the hundreds of thousands of compoundwords in Japanese can be generated from astock of a few thousand building blocks.

Arbitrary List

C keep from moving
D detain
E leave behind

1.3 Interrelatedness

Expansion from CoreKEEP in place
KEEP in custody
KEEP for future use

To provide the learner with a clear understanding of character meaning, the meanings
are presented in a manner that shows theinterrelatedness between individual senses.
Four features achieve this aim:

1.5 Degree of Importance

1. The red core words make the relation

The meanings of each character are normally
illustrated by numerous high-frequency compounds that provide useful examples of eachsense. All the compounds needed for theintermediate level, and numerous compounds
for the advanced level, are given.

The degree of importance of each sense isindicated by typographical differences andlabels for three levels of study (see p. 41a).

1.6 Compounds and Examples

between senses instantly obvious.
2. The senses are ordered in a manner thatshows their interrelatedness.
3. The sense division numbers establish alogical hierarchy between character senses.
4. The explanatory glosses (e.g. (of a vehicle)) show how the senses differ from one
another, while the supplementary glosses(e.g. said esp. of God) provide additional discrimination.

Unlike other dictionaries, the compounds areclassified by meaning in a way that clearlyshows how they are formed from their constituent parts, which makes it easy to infer themeanings of unlisted compounds.

Together these features help integrate thesenses so that they can be perceived as a structured unit, rather than as an arbitrary list, asFEATURES

A new feature of this dictionary is the subsense indicators, which are tiny letters that$=show the beginning of a new subsense groupin the compounds list. This makes it obvious
how the entry character contributes its meaning to each compound.

kanji lexicography, and a growing number ofelectronic dictionaries have implemented it aspart of their retrieval systems.

2.2 Five Lookup Methods

To assure maximum convenience to the user,
this dictionary provides a choice of five methods of looking up characters:

2 READER'S DICTIONARY
The student learning how to read contemporary Japanese faces several difficulties, such as
the need to identify more than 2000 characters,
many of which have complex shapes, as well as
the need to learn their thousands of readings
and meanings. Moreover, numerous characters have multiple readings and meanings, andthere is no reliable way to determine which
one applies in a particular instance.

1. The Pattern Index allows characters to bequickly located from their SKIP numbers.

2. The Scan Method is a shortcut for locatingsome characters almost instantly.

3. The On-Kun Index lists the charactersalphabetically by both their on and kunreadings.
4. The Radical Index lists the characters by
their traditional radicals.
5. The Direct Method allows characters to belocated without using any index.

In addition to being a learner's dictionary, this
dictionary also has been designed as a reader'sdictionary. The various features described
below enable the reader to locate the readings
and meanings of unknown characters andcompounds with little effort.

2.3 System of Guides

The various guides in the margins of the page
have been carefully designed to facilitate thespeedy location of entry characters.

2.1 Efficient Indexing System

The lack of an efficient scheme for orderingkanji has long been a source of frustration tolearners and native speakers alike. Looking up
characters by traditional radicals, or by mostalternative systems, is both laborious andunreliable.

2.4 Character Readings

Seven kinds of readings are given: principal
readings, on readings, kun readings, specialreadings, unapproved readings, other readings,and name readings. The readings are given inromanized transcription, with parentheses
indicating okurigana endings. Unapproved
readings are given only when they are sufficiently important to learners.

A major feature of this dictionary, unique to
KIT dictionaries, is the speed and facility withwhich entries can be looked up. The System ofKanji Indexing by Patterns (SKIP) classifies
each character under four easy-to-identify
geometrical patterns: -  left-right, +up-down, ( ! enclosure, and G " solid.
Within each group the characters are further
subdivided to achieve maximum access speed.

2.5 Importance of Readings

The relative importance of readings is shownby various typographical conventions, such as
distinguishing unapproved readings fromordinary readings by a superscript solid triangle Þ, and preceding name readings with >.

Designed for efficiency and ease of use, SKIP
enables the user to locate entries as quickly
and as accurately as in alphabetical dictionaries. Since the system can be learned by beginners in a short time, many Japanese language
educators consider it an important advance in

2.6 Character Forms and Styles

This dictionary presents three kinds of character forms and calligraphic styles, which weremethodically checked by experts to ensure
their accuracy. A much more detailed%=FEATURES

treatment is given in the NJECD.

dictionary. The features that make it a convenient tool for writing are described below.

1. The standard form is the form given in theofficial J½y½ Kanji and Jinmei Kanji lists,

3.1 Stroke Order Diagrams

To write a character in the proper form, it isnecessary to learn the stroke order. The strokeorder diagrams, in which the last frame shows
the full character in the standard square style,indicate the stroke order.

which are widely used in the media, government, and education. All entry characters are given in the standard form.
2. The nonstandard form is the traditionalvariant used in prewar literature and innames. Appendix 4 lists 386 variant forms,
which includes important variants of Jinmei Kanji and all variants appearing in theJ½y½ Kanji list.
3. The square style (kaisho), which isthe standard handwritten style, appears in
the last frame of the stroke order diagram.

Thoroughly researched for accuracy, thesediagrams were prepared by experts specificallyfor this dictionary and the NJECD. Unlike
other reference works, which rely heavily on
cross-referencing, the order of writing is presented stroke-by-stroke to ensure maximum
convenience to the user.

2.7 Easily Confused Forms

3.2 Kun Homophones

Some characters, such ashei currency andhei evil practice, are very similar in form
but unrelated in meaning. Some of these are sosimilar that even native speakers tend to confuse them. Such characters are crossreferenced to each other in the NOTE section. A
new feature of this dictionary is that thesecharacters are followed by their core meanings,
which aids the learner in easily grasping theirdifferences.

Japanese has numerous kun homophones.
These are kun words that are pronounced thesame but written differently, and usuallydiffering in meaning, as shown below.
noboru go up (steps, a hill)
noboru climb, scalenoboru ascend, rise (up to the sky)

Although on homophones, such as
kik½
mechanism andkik½ returning to theharbor, are very common, they are not likely
to be confused since each character conveys adistinct meaning. On the other hand, many
kun homophones are written with a bewildering variety of characters that are often close intokeru andmeaning. For example,
tokeru are interchangeable in the sense ofmelt, thaw but not in the sense of comeloose. Thus kun homophones are easily confused, even by native speakers, and pose special problems to the learner.

2.8 Romanization

All character readings, headwords, and compounds are transcribed in the Hepburn systemof romanization, set in easy-to-read sans serif
boldface type to distinguish them from otherexplanatory matter. A description of the system and kana tables are given in Appendix 3.
Kana and Romanization.

3 WRITER'S DICTIONARY
The student learning how to write Japanese
faces several difficulties, such as the large
number of characters and their complex
shapes, the need to learn the correct strokeorder, and the numerous homophones.

To help the learner overcome these problems,the HOMOPHONES section lists groups of kun
homophones and their entry numbers. Theseact as a network of cross-references for quickly
identifying and locating each member of agroup from any of the others.

In addition to being a learner's dictionary, this
dictionary has also been designed as a writer'sFEATURES&=

the counting process.
3. Difficult-to-count characters are crossreferenced at common incorrect strokecount locations.

A new feature of this dictionary is that eachhomophone cross-reference is followed by its
core meaning, which allows the user to immediately identify their differences without consulting the corresponding entry character.

4 OTHER FEATURES

By using the cross-references to compare themeanings and compounds for each homophone, the learner can grasp the often subtle
differences between them. These meanings,
which are derived from the usage notes of theNJECD, are based on several years of researchas part of the first full-scale analysis of kun
homophones to be presented in English.

4.1 Character Importance

Since this dictionary is aimed at learners,
considerable effort has been made to indicate
the degree of importance of the entry character, based on the most recent and comprehensive statistical surveys. This enables the learnerto know the importance of each character, andhelps the teacher compile graded lessons. The
following information is provided:

In conclusion, the HOMOPHONES section helps
the learner distinguish between the meanings
of words pronounced alike, thereby providing
a better understanding of each. It also helps
the learner write with greater precision byassisting in the selection of the character mostappropriate to the context.

1. The frequency level of the entry character,which divides the characters into four subclasses, is given in the reference data box(see p. 37a for details). Levels A and B, thefirst 1000 characters, account for about
95% of all kanji appearing in newspapers.
2. The frequency ranking of the entry character is given in the reference data box. Thisis the relative frequency of occurrence of acharacter in newspapers, based on a surveyof some 24 million kanji published in July
1998, just before this dictionary went topress (see p. 910 for details).
3. The grade indicates the entry type (J½y½
Kanji or Jinmei Kanji) and the school
grade during which the character is taught.
A grade of 1 to 6 indicates a character inthe 1006 Education Kanji taught in the six
elementary school grades.
4. Important characters are presented in red.
This means that the character in questionis either in the Education Kanji list, or is
one of the 1000 most frequent characters(frequency levels A or B). Some learners
may wish to concentrate on these 1183
characters in the initial stages of study.
5. Appendix 5 lists the top 1000 characters byfrequency ranking, along with their core
meanings. This is useful to both the learnerand the teacher.

Since the complex problems inherent in kun
homophones have been mostly ignored byexisting reference works, this feature should
prove to be of great value to the student.

3.3 Okurigana Endings

The kun readings in the entry-head data include parentheses that indicate okurigana
endings in conformity with the official rules
published by the Ministry of Education. The
headwords and compounds also follow theserules when applicable. Important nonstandard
variations are given when necessary.

3.4 Stroke Counting

The ability to count strokes is necessary bothfor writing the characters correctly and forusing character dictionaries effectively. Thefollowing information is provided:
1. The reference data box gives the strokecount data for each entry character.
2. The principles of stroke counting are
explained in Appendix 2. How to Count
Strokes, along with charts to help speed up'=FEATURES

4.2 Character Codes

For the convenience of learners using computers and those needing more advanced information, the reference data box gives charactercodes and the NJECD entry number.

The functions of each character as an independent word (free form) or word element(affix or combining form) are indicated, while
the meanings of independent words are clearly
distinguished from those of word elements.

1. The Kuten number is used for indexing

4.5 Character Etymology

This dictionary presents the following information on radicals and character etymology.

characters in the Japanese character set
standard JIS X 0208-1997. This is useful forentering kanji codes in computer systems
or when consulting standards and electronic dictionaries.
2. The Unicode value is given for each entry
character, which should be useful to computer users. This conforms to the international character standard ISO 10646, whichis rapidly gaining popularity as an international character set.
3. The NJECD Entry Number is convenient forlooking up the entry character in the New
Japanese-English

Character

1. The reference data box gives the radical
and radical number for each entry character. This aids in understanding its etymology, since radicals often function as semantic components, and is also useful for
looking up characters in other dictionaries.
2. The traditional radicals of lost-radical
characters are given in the Radical Index.
3. The Quick Reference Radical Chart gives
convenient access to information on radicals, including standard and variant forms,
stroke-counts, and radical names.
4. The original meaning, which is the firstmeaning associated with a character after
its formation in China (rarely Japan), is often given, especially when it helps clarify
the character's meaning or helps illustrate
how the senses are interrelated.
5. A description of how to use traditional
radical indexes effectively.

Dictionary,

which gives a more comprehensive treatment, including synonyms, usage notes,
compound formation articles, orthographic variants, and other features.

4.3 System of Labels

A labeling system including status, subject,and functional labels gives information onetymology, style, function, level of formality,etc., providing practical guidance on the styleand usage associated with each sense.

4.6 User Friendliness
Another feature of this dictionary is a layoutthat is both visually attractive and easy to use.
Typographical design with the aid of cuttingedge font technology was used to achieve aharmonious blend of font styles and weights(Adobe's Myriad and Minion multiple master
fonts for English and Heisei Mincho for Japanese). Some of the world's leading font designers, such as Adobe's Robert Slimbach, havecontributed to this effort, which has resulted
in an esthetically pleasing design that stimulates a desire to browse and to truly enjoy
studying kanji.

4.4 Character Functions

Each character may have various grammaticaland syntactic functions. An important function of kanji is their role as word elements;that is, their ability to form numerous compound words by being combined with eachother. Words can be formed by adding an affix(suffix or prefix) to a base, or by joining combining forms with each other. For example,-zumi completed is attached totenken inspection to yieldtenkenzumi
inspection completed.

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