The Wordtank G50 was the flagship model of the Wordtank line of Electronic Japanese dictionary by

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before it was replaced by the Wordtank G55, which was again superseded in capability by the later G70 (though not replaced – it is still available as a cheaper alternative to the G70). It was introduced in May 2004.

Features

The Wordtank G50 is a bidirectional

electronic dictionary An electronic dictionary is a dictionary whose data exists in digital form and can be accessed through a number of different media. Electronic dictionaries can be found in several forms, including software installed on tablet or desktop computers ...

, integrating both Japanese-English (97,000 entries) and English-Japanese (270,000 entries) dictionaries. It also contains a standard

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

dictionary (230,000 entries) and an abridged version of the

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

(80,000 entries). In addition, there is a kanji dictionary (13,112 entries), with several thousand of the kanji having stroke order animations available. The G50 was the first electronic dictionary to feature stroke order animations, making it useful to students of the Japanese language who are learning kanji. The G50 also includes a

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived f ...

dictionary (52,000 entries), a Japanese

reverse dictionary A reverse dictionary is a dictionary alphabetized by the reversal of each entry: :kcots (stock) :kcotseid (diestock) :kcotser (restock) :kcotsevil (livestock) Before computers, reverse dictionaries were tedious to produce. The first computer-prod ...

(230,000 entries), and an illustration dictionary (2,600 entries). Although the G50's feature set, particularly its variety of dictionaries, is extensive, it lacks stylus input (which, on some models, allows

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

to be looked up by drawing them) and sound output (for pronunciation), which are available on some competing models. It also lacks any furigana help for kanji, this mean that if you want to translate a word from English to Japanese you will only get the translation in Chinese characters. No translation with Hiragana is extremely unhelpful for non-Japanese.

Use

Although

only sells and supports its electronic dictionaries in Japan, the G50 has been exported (primarily by Japanese retailers) and sold to English-speaking students of the Japanese language around the world. The appeal of the G50 is that it can replace large paper volumes, including bidirectional dictionaries and kanji dictionaries, with a portable device, while also making the search process faster.
Canon Wordtank Official Page

{{Dictionaries of Japanese Japanese dictionaries