YABAI

YABAI is a Japanese slang dictionary that explains the vibe, not just the meaning. It gathers 308 Japanese slang, internet, fandom and everyday words into a single browsable collection and presents each of them on a card built around giant Japanese typography. Every card carries a punchy one-line meaning, the full sense in plain English, an original Japanese example sentence with a translation, a usage check, a culture note and the story behind the word. You can read every word on the website, or put all 308 of them in your pocket with the paid Android app on Google Play. The site opens by naming the exact gap it fills: 'Textbooks teach Japanese that stops at the classroom door. YABAI is the other half.' The words that fill real Japanese conversation, such as やばい, 推し, 草 and エモい, rarely come with clean one-to-one translations. やばい alone can read as 'Amazing,' 'Terrible' or 'Insane' depending on the situation, which is why YABAI's own video is titled 'One Japanese word means Amazing! and Oh no.' Slang, internet words, fandom words and untranslatable words shift with context and audience, so a single dictionary gloss is not enough. A learner also needs to know how a word sounds, when it is appropriate and who actually says it. That surrounding context is what YABAI sets out to supply for every one of its entries. The heart of the product is the word card, and the site is explicit that every word gets the same five things, one of which is the piece dictionaries never give you. First comes the Meaning: one punchy line followed by the full sense in plain English, so you get both a fast read and a complete one. Second comes the Example: an original Japanese sentence with a translation, and the site notes clearly that examples are never a quote and never a brand. Third comes the Vibe, a usage and tone signal. Fourth comes a Culture note explaining where the word sits in Japanese life, included whenever there is something worth knowing. Fifth comes The story, a short read on where the word came from and who says it now. The Vibe field is the part that answers the question the site poses up front: who you can actually say a word to. Each entry is labelled Safe to use, Friends only or Be careful, so a reader can tell at a glance whether a word belongs in polite conversation or is better kept among friends. On top of the safety label, entries carry tone hints such as self-deprecating, internet or Kansai dialect. These signals matter because the risk with slang is rarely understanding it, it is using it in the wrong room. A learner who has only just met a word can use the vibe check to decide whether to try it out, hold back, or adjust how they use it depending on who is listening. The story and culture sections are where YABAI goes beyond translation. Each card includes a short read about the origin of the word and the people who use it today, and the product takes an unusual stance on uncertain etymology: when an origin is genuinely disputed, the card says so instead of picking one. That choice keeps the dictionary honest and teaches the reader something about how living language works, since many slang words simply do not have a settled history. The culture note adds the surrounding detail about where a word sits in Japanese life, giving each entry a small amount of context that a bare definition cannot carry. The 308 words are organised into eight categories, each with its own count: Slang (72), Internet (58), Otaku (46), Everyday (44), Untranslatable (30), Reactions (26), Cute (24) and Anime-ish (8). You can browse all 308 words A to Z, or start with the site's selection of eight words, one drawn from each category, which introduces やばい, 推し, 草, エモい, それな, もふもふ, タイパ and ツンデレ. The category structure gives two ways in: follow a topic you already care about, such as otaku or internet vocabulary, or sample the whole range through the starting eight. On the app side, the dictionary ships inside the app rather than being pulled from a server, so it works offline, and the site states that nothing you collect leaves your phone. The dictionary is available in 13 languages, and every word can be read aloud by your device, so a learner can hear the word as well as read it. There is also video: the site presents 'やばい in thirty seconds', one word and one story, with more videos on the yabai page and on seven other word pages. The product was built end to end with AI agents in Claude Code, which the Product Hunt description states directly. Because the app is deliberately light, the experience is framed as a 'Japanese culture snack': open it for a minute, meet one word, close it. There are no streaks, no tests, no levels and no guilt, so there is no backlog to fall behind on and no pressure to perform. The outcome for a user is a growing, remembered feel for words they actually hear, rather than a list of definitions memorised for a review session. The cards themselves are designed to be looked at, with giant typography at the centre of each one, which makes the browsing itself part of the appeal. In practice, YABAI fits the moments when a learner runs into real Japanese. You hear a word in an anime, a drama, a song or a social feed and want to know what it means and how it sounds. You want to check whether that word is safe to use with a colleague, a friend or a stranger, which is exactly what the Safe to use, Friends only and Be careful labels are for. You want a short read on where the word came from, plus the honesty to be told when that origin is disputed. You want to browse a topic such as otaku or internet slang and pick up several related words at once. Or you simply want a one-minute culture snack, meeting a single word during a spare moment, in one of 13 languages, offline, with the word read aloud by your device. YABAI is built for people who study or consume Japanese and keep meeting words that never appear in a textbook: learners, anime and manga fans, J-pop and fandom followers, and anyone who reads Japanese social media and wants to know what they are actually looking at. It is available on the web at yabai-app.pages.dev, where all 308 words can be browsed, and as an Android app on Google Play. The site states plainly that it is a paid app with no ads, no sign-up and no subscription. The dictionary is shipped inside the app in 13 languages and works offline, which suits people who want to look a word up wherever they are. The takeaway is simple: YABAI is a Japanese slang dictionary that treats meaning as only the beginning. By pairing each of its 308 words with an example, a vibe check, a culture note and a story, it answers not just what a word means but how it sounds and who you can actually say it to, and it does so without streaks, tests or XP weighing the experience down.