旺文社国語辞典
First edition : 1960
Latest edition : 2013 (11th edition)
Publisher : 旺文社
Number of words : 83.500 words
Nickname : 旺国
While we’re listing the first edition as being from 1960, this is actually a re-title of the 1958’s 学生国語辞典 and can also be traced back to the 1954 中学国語辞典. Two somewhat interesting aspects of the Oubunsha are the 中心義 and 変遷 (central meaning and transition), central meanings looks at polysemous words (which is just a fancy way of saying words that have multiple meanings) and looks at the root that ties together these multiple words.
With transition we mean the changing of the meaning from words through ancient to modern texts. This transition overview gives an overview how it has changed throughout the years, which is quite useful for people studying ancient Japanese, but for Japanese Language Learners it’s less interesting. The central meaning is useful for learners too, though.
While both of these aspects are present, which is quite unique for a short dictionary, there are actually only 108 words that have this central meaning, and only 47 words that have the transitory information.
Another thing setting the Oukoku apart is that certain, representative waka and haiku are listed along with interpretations.