Looking for foreign language dictionaries.

July 18, 2009 4:53 PM

Need help compiling a list of monolingual dictionaries.

Looking for any online dictionaries where the definitions are given in the language itself. Example: Yahoo's Japanese-to-Japanese monolingual dictionary.

Particularly keen on Russian or German resources, but am grateful for anything.

Oh yeah ... English doesn't count. Got that covered. ;)

posted by RavinDave to Education (11 answers total)

There are a bunch of monolingual dictionaries for every language that has a lexicographical tradition. The most famous for Russian are probably Dahl (prerevolutionary) and Ozhegov (Soviet-era), but there are many many more. Can you put some parameters on this? It seems like you're asking people to do a lot of work here. (I mean, I could look up a bunch of Russian ones, but it would be a pain in the ass, and I'm not sure how many you need/want or what you want them for.)
posted by languagehat at 5:04 PM on July 18, 2009

Best answer: I haven't used these myself, but Google turns up this for Russian-Russian and this for German-German. It's a start.
posted by pemberkins at 5:13 PM on July 18, 2009

I also think this is a fully Russian dictionary (but I don't speak the language, so I can't tell!).
posted by pemberkins at 5:18 PM on July 18, 2009

Best answer: Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (Spanish, from Spain)
posted by cmgonzalez at 5:28 PM on July 18, 2009

Response by poster: languagehat ...

Not looking for anything deep or scholarly. And nothing real comprehensive. Just asking for a few bookmarks people might have laying around.

I've grown very fond of Khatzumoto's (over at AJAAT) systematic use of SRS software like ANKI to learn Japanese, though I'm mostly adapting it to Chinese. I'd like to use it to brush up on a few others.

Part of Khatz's approach involves sentences harvesting and using native dictionary definitions to fill in the gaps. (btw: I'm not totally sold on the notion; I've yet to encounter a language whose written and spoken forms matched real well, but that's another message. On the other hand, since my primary goal is mostly reading, I've kinda thrown myself into it; giving it a test spin.)

Thus, the call for simple dictionaries. If they're in a language that I'm not interested in, I'm sure I'll still find use for them by passing them on to friends are.

(I should add some more tags.)
posted by RavinDave at 5:36 PM on July 18, 2009

Response by poster: @pemberkins ... that first link is especially handy; a whole slew of'em Dutch/Dutch, Italian/Italian, Chinese/Chinese, Russian/Russian, Spanish/Spanish, German/German, etc.
posted by RavinDave at 8:37 PM on July 18, 2009

Best answer: French: Le dictionnaire
posted by helios at 12:46 AM on July 19, 2009

Best answer: zdic is good for Chinese, both as a character and a word dictionary (also has a chengyu search); has cites from literature as a proper dictionary should, etymology etc. and a pleasant interface.
posted by Abiezer at 3:05 AM on July 19, 2009

Best answer: SAOL, Svenska Akademins Ord Lista, is the standard Swedish dictionary.
posted by Iteki at 3:51 AM on July 19, 2009

I am surprised no one has yet mentioned Wiktionary.
posted by fings at 4:18 PM on July 19, 2009

Best answer: Dutch: Van Dale
posted by eendje at 1:59 AM on July 20, 2009