Terms of Use

App Onomatope オノマトペ · version 1.6 · last updated: 26 September 2026

What you get

Onomatope オノマトペ is an educational app about Japanese onomatopoeia. Levels 1 and 2 are free in full. A single non-consumable in-app purchase — Onomatope Premium — unlocks levels 3, 4, 5 and 6 and covers material added to them later.

Version 1.6 adds a separate, optional feature: the “Sentences” tab with an “AI” badge, in which a language model tells you what the onomatopoeia in a sentence you paste or scan means there (“What it means in this line”), or suggests the onomatopoeia for a sound, a movement or a sensation you describe in your own words (“Describe a feeling”). It is paid for with the subscription described below.

Purchases and refunds

The app is licensed under Apple's standard licence terms (Licensed Application End User License Agreement). These terms supplement them and cover what applies to Onomatope only; where the two conflict, Apple's terms prevail.

Purchases are processed by Apple under the App Store terms. Refunds are handled by Apple, not by the developer — request one at reportaproblem.apple.com. “Restore purchases” in Settings re-checks your entitlements on any device signed in with the same Apple Account.

AI Help — auto-renewing subscription

The “Sentences” tab is the only part of the app that costs money every time it is used, which is why it is sold as a subscription rather than a lifetime purchase.

Everyone gets a free sample every month — currently 5 requests — with or without Premium and without a subscription. The app shows how many are left and when they come back.
An empty answer — when a sentence has no onomatopoeia in it or nothing fits a description — does not use up a request from your allowance.
More requests come with the AI Help subscription, monthly or yearly. The app shows the price and the period before you buy, in your currency. The subscription has a daily and a monthly request limit that protects the service from abuse.
The subscription renews automatically until you turn it off. The charge for the next period is taken from your Apple Account within 24 hours before the current period ends.
Cancelling: in your Apple Account settings (Settings → your name → Subscriptions) or with the Manage subscription button in the app, at least 24 hours before the current period ends. The subscription keeps working until the end of the period you paid for.
The subscription does not unlock levels 3–6, and Onomatope Premium does not include the subscription. They are two separate products; material bought once stays yours regardless of the subscription.
The “Sentences” tab needs an internet connection and may be temporarily unavailable — during maintenance, for example, or an outage at the model provider. The rest of the app keeps working normally.

The learning content

The words, example sentences, translations and explanations are original work and are provided for personal study. They may not be reproduced, redistributed or used to train machine-learning models.

The meanings of onomatopoeia are genuinely disputed among native speakers of Japanese — that is a fact about the material, not an excuse. Onomatope follows 小野正弘, Nihongo Onomatope Jiten (Shogakukan, 2007) and says so plainly where usage is contested. Judging whether a given sentence calls for a particular sound is yours to do, not the app's. The six levels describe how the material is ordered for learning; they are not examination levels, and the app is not affiliated with, authorized by or endorsed by any body that administers a Japanese-language examination.

Answers in the “Sentences” tab

The meaning of onomatopoeia in a sentence and the onomatopoeia suggested for a description are generated by a language model, and they can be wrong — including on points native speakers disagree about, and a sentence lifted out of a speech bubble or a dialogue can be ambiguous without its context. An onomatopoeia from outside the app's material is marked as such and has not been through the review the app's words go through. Treat the answer as a starting point to check, not as a tutor's opinion or a dictionary entry. It does not count towards your progress, your reviews or your practice, and a sentence added with Add as an example does not become a question.

No warranty

The app is provided "as is". While the content is checked carefully and validated automatically, no guarantee is given that it is free of error. The developer is not liable for damages arising from its use. This does not limit any consumer rights under mandatory law.

Your data is your responsibility

Progress is stored on your device only. Use “Export progress” in Settings if you want a copy; importing one replaces everything on the device it is imported into. Deleting the app deletes your progress with it. The exception is the “Sentences” tab, and only when you tap the button yourself: the sentence or description you typed is sent to the server. What exactly is kept, and for how long, is set out in the privacy policy.