Dictionaries

May 3, 2011·
Julio Batista Silva
Julio Batista Silva
· 2 min read
blog Linux

Updated in October 2021.

Online Dictionaries

There are several online dictionaries that are very good for casual queries.
The best ones I know are:

Portuguese

German

Offline Dictionaries

Sometimes I need to make several queries or I am in a place without internet access.

The most complete program I found is GoldenDict. Some other programs are only available for Windows, but you can run them with Wine.

Wine

There are Windows versions of the Portuguese dictionaries Aurélio and Houaiss.
Both work reasonably well via Wine. Aurélio needs Windows fonts.

Considering they were installed in the Wine Prefix called dicts, you can add the following aliases in ~/.zshrc to call the dictionaries from the command line:

  alias houaiss='WINEPREFIX="/home/julio/.local/share/wineprefixes/dicts" wine /home/julio/.local/share/wineprefixes/dicts/drive_c/Program\ Files/Houaiss3/Houaiss3.exe & disown'

  alias aurelio='WINEPREFIX="/home/julio/.local/share/wineprefixes/dicts" wine /home/julio/.local/share/wineprefixes/dicts/drive_c/Program\ Files/Positivo/Miniaurelio/aurelio.exe & disown'

GoldenDict

In Windows, I used to use Babylon.
Instead of running it through Wine, I found some of its dictionaries in .bgl format and converted them to Stardict (.ifo/.dict/.idx/.syn), which also work with GoldenDict.

In addition to Babylon dictionaries, I also found some from Apple, ABBYY Lingvo, among others in a format compatible with GoldenDict.

Just place the files in a folder (~/Dicts, for example) and configure GoldenDict to read the folder recursively.

Dark Theme

$ wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ilius/5a2f35c79775267fbdb249493c041453/raw/5c616fa8120fbf8aee9bc2d33e70f54e0990e759/article-style.css
$ wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ilius/5a2f35c79775267fbdb249493c041453/raw/5c616fa8120fbf8aee9bc2d33e70f54e0990e759/qt-style.css
$ mkdir -p ~/.goldendict/styles/dark-theme
$ mv article-style.css ~/.goldendict/styles/dark-theme/
$ mv qt-style.css ~/.goldendict/

Edit » Preferences… » Interface:

  • Add-on style: dark-theme
  • Display style: Default

Arc Dark Theme

$ wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ManiaciaChao/ddb14a09a12c95f134003bcd552dced4/raw/af583740c303e31eb466d945389b7346bb56bf0d/article-style.css
$ wget https://gist.githubusercontent.com/ManiaciaChao/ddb14a09a12c95f134003bcd552dced4/raw/af583740c303e31eb466d945389b7346bb56bf0d/qt-style.css
$ mv qt-style.css ~/.goldendict/
$ mkdir -p ~/.goldendict/styles/dark-theme
$ mv article-style.css ~/.goldendict/styles/dark-theme/

Google Translate

$ git clone https://github.com/OPHoperHPO/GT-bash-client.git ~/bin/translate

Edit » Dictionaries… » Sources » Programs » Add…:

  • Name: GT: en > pt
  • Command Line: bash /home/julio/bin/translate/translate.sh en pt %GDWORD%

Shortcuts

Ctrl + C + C translates the selected or copied word.

More shortcuts: http://goldendict.org/wiki/index.php/Hotkeys_(Shortcut_keys)

Android

I also use GoldenDict on Android. The MDict format (.mdx) doesn’t work, but the others do.

In addition to that, I also use the dict.cc app (Pt↔En/En↔De/De↔Pt), the Pleco app (Mandarin), the Diccionario de español, and the LEO dictionary. For everything else, I use the Google Translator or DeepL apps when connected to the internet.

Julio Batista Silva
Authors
Senior Cloud Developer

I’m a Brazilian computer engineer based in Germany, passionate about tech, science, photography, and languages.

I’ve been programming for about two decades already, exploring everything from mobile apps and web development to machine learning. These days I focus on cloud SRE and data engineering.

I volunteer in the open source and Python communities, helping organize PyCon DE and PyData Berlin, mentoring, and contributing with code and translations.

On my blog, I share Linux tips, setup guides, and personal notes I’ve written for future reference. I hope others find them helpful as well. The content is available in multiple languages.

Browse my gallery for some of my photography.

Away from the keyboard, you’ll find me at concerts, playing clarinet, cycling, scuba diving, or exploring new places, cultures, and cuisines.

Always happy to connect! 🙂

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