I have been trying out monolingual dictionaries however I keep stumbling upon various symbols I know nothing about, I tried looking for a guide on how to read them even on the dictionary websites themselves however nothing seems to fit the bill. Are there any guides out there or at least some one who knows what it means?

The symbols I refer too are things like :-

△　▲　※ ▼ 『』　(is there a difference between 「」 and 『』?)

Thanks in advance.

This might help: http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?p...8#pid83698

http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/guide/je/je11.html

Not sure how much it differs for different dictionaries.

Edit: As for the brackets, in general the differences are enumerated here: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/e...5.BC.A7.29 (Elsewhere on Wikipedia it mentions the double is used both for book titles and quotes within quotes.)

Also in that list it mentions ※ being used as a reference similar to an asterisk.

They do differ from dictionary to dictionary, for instance http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/help/jn/03_02.html is part of the guide for the 大辞泉 and says that it uses × to mark non-Jouyou kanji (same as Progressive) but ▽ to mark Jouyou-kanji-with-non-Jouyou-reading, where Progressive uses ▲.

Conclusion: you need to look up the symbol information for the dictionary you're using. If it's not one of these and it's a free online one and you're still stuck, try pointing us directly at it and we might be able to find the info for that dictionary.

「」are called かぎかっこ and are a direct quotation of speech, or phrases calling for attention/emphasis

『』are ふたえかぎ and are used for quotations within quotations or the titles of books, plays, magazines, etc.

Thanks people, I was trying sanseido, but I will try those others mentioned instead.