Change the dictionary

How To
1

Readlang allows you to use online dictionary in the sidebar, provided that the word to translate appears in the URL.

  1. Enter the Settings page:

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  1. Enter the URL of the dictionary you’d prefer, using {{query}} in place of the word to translate:

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  1. Click Preview to check that it looks OK.

  2. If satisfied, click Use this Dictionary.

Your chosen dictionary will now be available in the reader page sidebar.

NOTE: unfortunately, since I originally added this feature, many online dictionaries have tightened their security settings to prevent them from being embedded within other websites. In this case, it will still be possible to use them by clicking the “Open in new window” button in the Dictionary tab of the reader page sidebar.

4 Likes
Dictionary opens blanc window
2

I am trying to get this to work with the rae dictionary for Spanish in order to switch to mono language translations but using the suggested url

dle.rae.es{{query}}

Doesn’t seem to work anymore.

Perhaps I am not doing it right or maybe it has changed. Any workaround to get access to rae from readlang?

3

I’m afraid that that https://dle.rae.es/ now has a security policy that prevents it from being loaded within another webpage. Unfortunately more and more sites are doing this which is making this custom dictionary feature less useful :frowning:

4

Thats for your response, Steve. That is indeed a pity.

5

@m11 Have you tried using the Spanish version of Wiktionary? I’m not sure about the quality of the Spanish to Spanish dictionary, but I often use the English to Spanish version, which is quite valuable in my opinion.

6

Yes, I do have that which is an option, thank you.

However, the RAE has a lot more, including lots of regional variations.

7

This wouldn´t help on the tablet, but would be interesting on the laptop:

Steve, would it be possible to have an option to copy the current word or phrase which has been highlighted in Readlang into the copy paste clipboard? Then we can have the RAE or other dictionaries open in a side window and with one keystroke copy them into the search field. It is hard to select text in readlang otherwise.

8

As an experiment I created an AI-powered Spanish to English dictionary: https://dict.readlang.com/

This is now the default dictionary for Spanish to English in Readlang so if you open the Settings page and select Custom Spanish Dictionary → Reset to default you should see it.

Although it’s AI-powered this actually did take a lot of my time too, more than I initially expected. I think it’s decent now but there will surely be problems. If you notice any please use the “Report an error” button at the bottom of each entry. My initial thought was that if it works well I could extend it to support other languages, but I now realize that new language will require quite a bit of work so I’m not so sure about this. If you find it useful or have any other feedback, please let me know.