Kimchi Reader's Popup Dictionary Guide

Understanding Lemmas

A "lemma" is the dictionary form of a word. For Korean, pinpointing the exact lemma from a text can be tricky. While Kimchi Reader tries to identify the right lemma, sometimes there's no perfect guess. In these cases, we offer multiple options. We narrow down the choices significantly, but you make the final call.

Word Statuses Explained

When using Kimchi Reader, words within the text are underlined in specific colors to signify their status:

• Unknown - This word is new to you.
• Seen - The moment you encounter a word, I recommend to mark it as 'seen' even before delving into its definition or ensuring memory retention.
• Known - You are familiar with this word and its meaning.

Mixed Statuses

If the word's associated lemmas have varying statuses (e.g., one lemma is green while another is red), the word will default to a yellow underline, indicating a mixed status.

Why the Same Lemma Appear Multiple times in Different Tabs?

At times, you might notice the same lemma displayed more than once. This is because a single lemma in Korean can function in various roles - it might be a descriptive verb in one instance, an action verb in another, or even a noun or adjective. As such, these different forms are separated into multiple tabs for clarity.

However, it's essential to note that the word status is consistent across all tabs of the same lemma. Marking one as 'known', for example, will reflect the same status across its other tabs.

Splitting Single Words into Multiple Lemmas

Occasionally, what appears to be a single word in Korean might actually comprise two distinct words fused together without a space. For example, the word "금도끼" combines "금" (gold) and "도끼" (ax) to mean "golden ax."

In such cases, Kimchi Reader identifies and separates these component words, presenting them individually for a more detailed understanding. This is why you might sometimes see multiple tabs for what seems like one word.

Dictionary Source in Kimchi Reader

Kimchi Reader primarily utilizes krdict (available at krdict.korean.go.kr ) as its dictionary source. As of now, there are no plans to integrate additional dictionaries, with the exception of upcoming features that will incorporate stdict and opendict.