Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with dictionary

Visual dictionary for children on the iPad?

viggorlijah — Fri, 24 May 2013 00:32:38 -0800

I'm looking for an iPad app (Kindle or other ebooks are fine too if they can do this as I can get my hands on one for this) which is lots of big busy pictures with little words in them where you can press the picture and hear the word said - basically a speaking version of the Usbourne's First 1,000 words. All I can find after several hours searching are flashcards or spelling-type games or dictionaries where the words are arranged A-Z. I keep thinking this must exist as the iPad would be perfect for this, but I'm just not turning up anything!

No, no, NO!

Mitheral — Fri, 03 May 2013 18:24:42 -0800

Can I remove "Add to Dictionary" from the Firefox context menu? I never do this except by accident so not only does it waste space I end up with common misspellings in my dictionary. I'd just like to completely remove this option from the context menu. Everything I've been able to find via google points to
this extension but apparently it doesn't work with FF20.

Is there a multilingual dictionary of trans terms?

Michele in California — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 14:55:50 -0800

I am looking for a foreign language transgender/transexual dictionary or glossary. I have done a bit of searching and there seem to be several English glossaries or dictionaries of trans terminology. But I am having trouble finding any sources for foreign language terms. I can't tell if I just don't know what search terms to use or if such a source simply doesn't exist. My mom is foreign born (German) and speaks English as a second language. My dad is American. I grew up with lots of stories and examples of funny or embarrassing bad translations. So I am very aware that it can be a big problem to try to plug words or phrases into a bilingual dictionary or translator. Idioms and newer terminology can be especially troublesome. Please help me either find or put together a source of good foreign terms for this topic.

If there are no foreign language glossaries for this topic, I would appreciate it if anyone who knows some of the terminology in another language would post the foreign terms here. For example, the medical term for "top surgery" (for FTM) is "bilateral mastectomy". What is the proper medical term and/or common slang for either of those in another language? (German translations would be especially appreciated.)

Here is a trans (FTM) glossary that I found if you need some examples of English terminology to translate.

Thanks.

Old MS Word Easter Egg?

Admiral Haddock — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:16:37 -0800

I dimly recall a MS Word dictionary (or thesaurus) Easter Egg (I think) that I stumbled upon in college a million years ago. Does it ring a bell with any of you? In my freshman year of college (93-94), whatever version of Word I used on Mac System 7 had an Easter Egg (I think) in the dictionary or thesaurus. I want to say that if you typed "Bill Gates" the recommended spelling was a two-word phrase along the lines of "obstreperous Lissajous." "Lissajous" was definitely in there, as far as I can recall, though I don't remember the other word.

Does this ring a bell with anyone else?

Help me find a hulking French-English dictionary

gnossie — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 05:20:03 -0800

I'm looking for the biggest, most complete French-English dictionary available in one volume. I'm aware of Le Petit Robert, but I need French-English, not French-French. The biggest I've found so far is the Collins-Robert, but that can't be the biggest. Any recommendations? Note that this can't be an online resource. Thanks.

A Fair Price For a Used Compact Edition of the OED

Alvy Ampersand — Sat, 22 Dec 2012 21:11:38 -0800

What is a fair price to pay for a used Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (Reprint or possibly original 1971 edition) that looks to be in good shape, including the slipcase & magnifying glass? Used on Amazon looks to be about $50+Shipping to Canada, but I am leery to buy something like this sight unseen; a local used/rare book store has it for $100, and I'm not sure if that is a bargain (The latest edition is $275 on Amazon.ca) or if I could find it cheaper.

Foreign Language Dictionary App for iPhone?

undercoverhuwaaah — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 12:42:14 -0800

Any good dictionary apps for foreign languages on the iPhone? I was on an international flight sitting a few rows behind a gentleman that was using what appeared to be a dictionary app. He was reading a hard copy magazine article in English, looking up words in this app that he didn't know (the definition was in English), then he was able to "save" the word he just looked up to some sort of list. I guess it's possible it was just an English dictionary app. I'd like similar functionality, but for French and/or Spanish. The ability to look up a word, read it's definition in the target language, and save the word to some sort of "I looked up these words recently" list for future reference. Any recommendations for iOS apps available in the US that fit the bill?

I need a Russian Larousse Gastronomique

ivan ivanych samovar — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 21:57:41 -0800

Can anyone recommend any good all-around Russian-English or Russian-French culinary dictionaries, online or in print? I am trying to decipher some recipes in Maksim Syrnikov's Русская домашняя кухня, and they are kicking my ass.

Specifically, the general purpose dictionaries I own are fine for vegetable and animal names, and really crappy for cuts of meat, or collective nouns of vegetables: I figured out from context that he meant a "bunch of parsley" or "cloves of garlic", but all I can tell from some of the meat phrases is that there was a shank or a shoulder involved.

I have found the following resources so far, but they are far from exhaustive, and seem to cover more ingredients than methods of cooking. As you might surmise from the use of wayback machine, most of these are not recently maintained, as well...

cuts of beef, cuts of beef

cuts of veal

cuts of lamb, cuts of mutton, cuts of lamb

cuts of pork

Russian food dictionary (does not cover meat)

other food dictionary, somewhat arbitrary choices

how to add new dictionaries on mac osx?

221bbs — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 11:10:05 -0800

Is there any way of adding new dictionaries to the system dictionary app for Mac OSX? I am learning russian and would love to be able to highlight a word and receive an english-to-russian or even just russian definition. I am running the latest version of mountain lion.

Which dictionaries are prescriptivist/descriptivist?

aswego — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 05:54:33 -0800

Is there some super-secret linguistics resource that sorts dictionaries by prescriptivism/descriptivism? Either in a binary chart or along a spectrum? Which dictionaries are known to fit these categories, and which are known to straddle them?

Kindle/Nook and learning Spanish

pakora1 — Thu, 31 May 2012 15:32:08 -0800

Kindle (or Nook) and Spanish books+Dictionary I am learning Spanish and want to slowly start reading books in Spanish on a reader (Kindle, Nook or other). Trying to decide which one. My question is this-

I have a limited Spanish vocabulary and want the ability to look up a word in the book whilst I read it. So if I come across a word that I do not know, I want to click on it and have a Spanish/English dictionary pop up and let me know what the word is.

Does anyone know if this is possible? If so on which reader. Is there a software I can load to enable this (I have a Nook so any software to enable it would be great)

Thank you!

Help me find online resources for how to pronounce difficult words

Susan PG — Sat, 05 May 2012 13:32:12 -0800

I have terrible pronunciation. Can you direct me to dictionary-type sites that teach how to pronounce words using high-quality audio files? Merriam-Webster has the basics and is easy to use, but I am also looking for resources that cover more specialized vocabularies such as cooking terms, medical terms, technology terms, the names of important cultural figures, place names, and product names. Obscurity/difficulty level: stuff like sambal oelek, Yulia Tymoshenko, Mies van der Rohe, SUSE, Schenectady, Elidel, Saucony. I already know about this VOA site and HowJSay.com -- am looking for more & better. Thanks.

Database, Spanish/English words, reasonably priced?

sninctown — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 16:21:31 -0800

I'm looking for a Spanish/English translation dictionary in electronic table/database format. I'm trying to make what's basically an online dictionary, and I need an actual dictionary for the site to query. My Googling only turned up one database costing ~$4000. Are there cheaper options?

New spelling, new root?

meinvt — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 16:42:02 -0800

I'd like to check if changed spellings are changed words. For a commercial oproject I have in mind, I want to be able to compare to words and see if the spellings are versions of the same word or not. For example age can become ages and aged and it is the same root, but garbage is a new word. Conventional dictionaries show this by listing prefixes and suffixes for words, but online dictionaries I've found are all just exhaustive lists of spellings. Are there dictionaries that exist electronically structured as root plus legal suffixes and prefixes? As noted, for commercial use, but we may be able to pay licensing.

Help me learn a very selective slice of Greek and Latin words.

Kirn — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:00:55 -0800

Is there a resource where I can learn about the Greek and Latin words that commonly underlie words and names in English? I don't want to learn Greek or Latin, I'm talking about only the words which are commonly useful as 'clues'. Some examples (these probably aren't all correct): mortis (death), chronos (time), cryo (ice), pyro (fire), pelagos (sea), didymos (twin), dysprositos (hard to get). These kind of words and more crop up when you Wikipedia the etymology of a name and I enjoy when I'm able to spot them first, so I'd like to expand my stock.

Any books, websites, anything you can point me to? Or does nothing like this exist?

Öffentliches durchsuchbares Wörterbuch, bitte.

StoneSpace — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 06:33:53 -0800

Where can I find a German dictionary which I can use to run simple linguistic experiments? Basically, I'm looking for some data structure which holds words, function (verb, noun, etc), and some extra information (zB, gender of nouns, whether a verb is separable or not (or both), some basic conjugation such as past participle, etc)

I want to do experiments, such as:

- is there a notable difference between verbs which keep the -en ending in the past participle (sehen -> gesehen) and those who do not (schauen --> geschaut)? Maybe some are more active, more abstract, etc. Or, there is no pattern.

- do the majority of nouns which can be formed by cutting off the -en ending of a verb masculine? (der Tanz, der Rat, but das Spiel). I have found no exception except Spiel for now.

and so on.

Basically, what I want is LEO, but in my computer, locally, and fully accessible.

Help?

Gold teeth and a curse for this town were all in my mouth

holdkris99 — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:38:14 -0800

What words have you made up that you use regularly? I have been doing some reading on the invention of words and how language evolves, etc and am curious what words MeFites have made up that you use in your day to day life? Please give the word and the definition, part of speech etc. The more detail the better.

I am looking for words that can be pronounced using standard rules of the language it is in.

To be specific, I am not really looking for existing words that you have repurposed, puns, acronyms, just random letter combinations that can't be pronounced, proper nouns (mainly names) used as words (for instance, for fans of the US version of the office "schruted"), combinations of existing words (like assplate) or just some random words that you can make up on the spot that you have never used.

In addition, if anyone has any stories to tell about using their invented words or if you can detail the etymology and creation story of your word, that would be awesome.

I am curious about words that you yourself have come up with, stuff that I can't necessarily find on the internet, unless there are new words that have gone mainstream that you are personally responsible for (bonus points for those words).

Also, I only speak English but please words in any languages will be awesome.

Mrs. Holdkris99 says I am putting too many restrictions on this and should just let people answer and that their should be a word for doing that. I told her there is: asshole. But that is not my intention.

How can I best use ebooks (and ebook readers) to learn German and Spanish?

Monday, stony Monday — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:28:01 -0800

How can I best use ebooks (and ebook readers) to learn German and Spanish? I live in Canada. I'd like to read fiction and history books in German and Spanish. For fiction, I'd be looking at popular science-fiction and fantasy, and relatively easy-to-read classics, including translations (e.g.: Jane Austen).

I figure using an ebook reader would be the easiest/cheapest way. So...

Which reader? I'm in Canada, so I'm thinking either Kindle or Kobo. Influencing factor: how easy it is to look up a word in a unilingual dictionary, which is my preferred way of understanding words I don't know?

Where do I buy the books? (related to the first one, since I understand that if I go Kobo I can't buy from Amazon) I've looked at the store on the Kobo site, and there doesn't seem to be much in the way of Spanish or German. Would I be able to buy ebooks from German/Spanish/Latin-American stores?

Please Help Me with a Word

millerizer — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 15:40:12 -0800

Is there a common English word or a technical term that names the process of taking a page or picture from the real world to the virtual? In other words, if I took a physical page and, with a scanner or camera, turned it into a file on my computer; what would you call that action?

Old words with new meanings?

Shelf — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 12:24:01 -0800

What are some words whose definitions have changed significantly in the last few centuries? One example would be "awful" (which no longer indicates awe-inspiring).

(I'm not looking for slang like "gay" or repurposed words like "web".)

adding t9 dictionaries to cellphones

yonation — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 12:46:16 -0800

Adding another language T9 dictionary to an LG GX200? I live in Brazil but want to buy a GX200 (dual sim) when I'm in the US next week. I don't need the menu language or anything changed, but I would love to know if there's any possible way to flash a T9 portuguese and/or spanish dictionary onto the phone. What would be the process? I'm willing to pay for the service.

Dictionary Recommendations

Paquda — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 11:12:44 -0800

English dictionary recommendations? I'd like to find an English dictionary that covers vocabulary I come across in Shakespeare and contemporary scholarly literature in the areas of history and philosophy. I don't need definitions of 'e-mail,' 'lol,' or 'grow your business.'

I have the Shorter OED at home (and it covers the vocabulary range I need), but the volumes are too physically bulky to be easily handled--I'm looking for something to keep by my bed and to carry with me on the subway and on holidays.

As a 'nice-to-have' consideration, one that uses IPA symbols to give pronunciations would be attractive, since I've had to get used to that system while learning French.

"What's a cubit?!"

usonian — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:08:28 -0800

How do I go about (legally) compiling a small glossary with intent to publish? I have an idea for a small dictionary/glossary of archaic and old-fashioned English words which appear in Masonic lectures and ceremonies; I have found that a lot of Masons hear these words for years and sometimes even memorize them without even knowing what they mean, and I'd like to put together a booklet explaining them to new members.

Is this as simple as taking a public domain English dictionary from Project Gutenberg and picking out the definitions I need? (For example, this version of Webster's dictionary.) The fact that Webster still exists as an entity (in the form of Merriam-Webster) makes me a little uneasy.

This is really just a pet project and I am probably over-thinking it; I'd like to make it available on Lulu or some other self-publishing site, but I have no illusions that I'll sell many (if any) copies or make any money on it. Nevertheless, I would really like to avoid any legal nastygrams over copyright issues. I am in the United States.

How do I collect dictionary definitions for ~350 words to put into a database?

iamkimiam — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 11:12:04 -0800

I have a list of about 350 words that I'm putting into a database that I'm building from scratch. For each word in the list, I'd like to include its American English dictionary definition (preferably American Heritage Dictionary), UrbanDictionary entry, and Wikipedia page link (I realize that entries may not exist for some columns for many of these words). Is there some way to streamline or data-mine this process, so I don't have to look up each word individually in 3 separate sources x350+, not to mention all the copying and pasting? This is for academic research purposes and I have no funds. Filling the database with the definitions/part-of-speech/pronunciation is one very small part of the bigger project (not shirking research responsibilities, but rather getting hung up on this tangential but integral step).

Bonus points if anybody has tips as to how to enter International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) characters into the database...they will inevitably be part of the dictionary definition (the pronunciation guide(s)) and I can't seem to find out any information about what the convention/standards/mappings are for SQL database entry and IPA symbols.

Thank you.

How to convert a dictionary in XML format to a text file for use in a flashcard program?

snoogles — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 07:15:11 -0800

I use Anki as a flashcard program to learn languages. I have an XML file of an open source English-Swedish dictionary. I'd like to turn this file into a text file that Anki can import. I know nothing about XML files (I don't even quite know what to open it with. OSX tries to use Adobe Illustrator, but surely that can't be right?). Is there any way to do this more or less easily? Below is an example of the entry for the word "ord", meaning "word", as displayed on the website.

The current format that I use for my cards includes fields for the word in Swedish, the definition, the inflections, and examples. It would already be fantastic to be able to extract this data from the XML file and produce a comma, semicolon or tab-separated text file.

Even better would be to have a way to extract all the idioms, and separate the ones from the same entry every time there is a comma.

Even more amazing (but now entering the realm of language learning OCD) would be to automatically capitalize the example sentences and add a period at the end of the sentence (which is indicated by a space followed by an opening bracket) if there's no other punctuation mark.

Being able to do this would save me a considerable amount of time. I'm therefore ready to commit a reasonable amount of effort to making it work...

Can anyone the best tools for this (preferably on OSX, but I can find a computer that runs Windows if necessary)? If you can't/don't want to walk me through how to do this step by step, what are some good tutorials that might help me figure it out?

---------

ord noun, word

Pronunciation: [o:r_d]

See Saldo: associations inflections

Inflections: ordet, ord, orden

Synonyms: glosa, glosor

Explanation: minsta självständiga språkliga enhet

Example: fula ord (foul language, swearwords),
säg inte ett ord till någon! (don't say a word to anyone!)

Idiom: med andra ord ("annorlunda uttryckt") (in other words ("put in another way")),
ord för ord ("ordagrant") (word for word ("literally verbatim")),
ha ord om sig ("vara känd för") att vara snål (be known to be mean),
innan man vet ordet av ("mycket snabbt") (before I knew where I was ("very quickly")),
ta till orda ("börja tala") (begin to speak),
hålla sitt ord ("hålla vad man lovat") (keep one's word ("do what one has promised")),
begära el. ha ordet ("vilja hålla el. hålla ett anförande") (ask to speak (ask for the floor) or have the floor ("want to address, or address, a gathering")),
ordet är fritt ("vem som helst får yttra sig") (the debate is open ("anyone may speak")),
ta någon på orden ("tro på vad någon säger") (take sby at their word ("believe what sby says")),
ha sista ordet ("vara den som bestämmer") (have the last word ("be the one to decide"))

Compounds: glåpord (taunt, jeer),
ord|följd (word order),
ord|lista (word list, glossary)