Katakana Loanword Detector

Paste any Japanese text and discover the English words hiding in katakana. Each loanword is highlighted with its origin.

Around 10% of modern Japanese vocabulary consists of gairaigo — foreign loanwords written in katakana. English is the dominant source, contributing words like テレビ (terebi, television) and コーヒー (kōhī, coffee). This tool scans Japanese text and identifies every katakana word with its English origin.

  1. Paste Japanese text
  2. Katakana loanwords are highlighted with English origins
  3. See the full summary table below
Immerse Japanese Extension

See Japanese vocabulary — including loanwords — highlighted inline on any website you browse.

Learn More →

Frequently Asked Questions

What are katakana loanwords (gairaigo)?

Gairaigo are foreign-origin words written in katakana that have been adopted into Japanese. They make up approximately 10 percent of modern Japanese vocabulary. English is the dominant source, contributing common words like terebi (television, テレビ), kōhī (coffee, コーヒー), and konbini (convenience store, コンビニ).

How does this katakana loanword detector work?

This detector scans Japanese text for katakana character sequences using Unicode ranges, then matches each identified katakana word against the JMdict dictionary's loanword corpus (gai1 and gai2 frequency tags). Words with known English origins are highlighted inline and displayed in a summary table with their English source word.

What are the most common English loanwords in Japanese?

The most frequent English loanwords in Japanese include terebi (television, テレビ), kōhī (coffee, コーヒー), aisu kurīmu (ice cream, アイスクリーム), sumātofon (smartphone, スマートフォン), and konpyūtā (computer, コンピューター). These words are used daily in Japanese media and conversation.

Related tools: Romaji Converter · JLPT Quiz