The Best Free Online/Offline Dictionary Software for Windows PCs

WordWeb
Looking up word definitions in a physical dictionary can be boring and tiring. This is especially evident when you are in a hurry to get back to some other task. Even more, it is usually not possible to carry such a dictionary along with you when you are outside your home and office or when you are travelling. However, if you own a computer, especially a laptop, netbook or tablet PC then you probably have it with you most of the time. You can download and install free and comprehensive dictionary apps that rival and even surpass the functions of a physical dictionary. These dictionaries will come in handy at any time whether you are online or offline.
The following are some of the best offline dictionaries available for free download. These dictionaries also have online functions.
WordWeb
Word Web is probably the best free dictionary app available and it is my favorite. It provides a dictionary with more words than you will ever need to use. WordWeb also includes a thesaurus and so each word is accompanied by synonyms and where available antonyms, meronyms, hypernyms, holonyms and so on. It classifies every word into its part(s) of speech e.g. noun or adjective, and provides example sentences of its usage as such.
WordWeb has a keyboard shortcut which allows you to look up any word anywhere on your computer. By default the shortcut is "CTRL + Right Click" but this can be changed by the user. This shortcut works perfectly with most applications but can be slightly off sometimes on web pages or PDF files.
WordWeb also includes Web References which allow you to access word definitions from the internet if WordWeb does not have a definition for it or if you would like a better definition of a word. They include Wikipedia, Wiktionary and WordWeb Online. Other features include:
- Pronunciation which makes use of Window's speech-to-text capability.
- Word search history.
- Ability to copy results.
- Clicking on any displayed word inside the application to produce a new definition and much more.
All in all, WordWeb has a neat and easy-to-use interface which includes tabbed headings for easy navigation. There is also a paid version of this dictionary: WordWeb Pro.
TheSage
TheSage is another excellent offline dictionary and thesaurus. It is freely downloadable and offers many features such as its large dictionary of more than 210,000 word definitions. Along with the definitions are thesaurus look-ups offering synonyms, antonyms, meronyms, and some more. Word definitions are also accompanied by example sentences showing how the words can be used. There are about 50,000 such examples.
After installation, TheSage is integrated into the operating system's menu so that word definitions can be looked up with just one click. It offers word pronunciations, the ability to copy results and other features like:
- An "As you type" tool that allows you to browse TheSage's index while you type in your word. This feature helps especially if you are not really sure of the word you are looking for.
- Online references like Wikipedia and Google (for both definitions and translation) and any other possible web destination for that matter.
- Anagram search, look-up history and more.
TheSage can also be run from a USB device.
Everest Dictionary
Everest dictionary may not have many of the functions that the above two dictionaries possess but it more than makes up for it in other ways. Everest dictionary boasts of a dictionary that covers most of the main European languages which include English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Romanian. You can search for words across all these dictionaries and you can translate words online between English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Portuguese languages. There is a shortcut for this translation: Right CTRL + Right Click which works on most Windows applications.
Additional features include word search history, pronunciation for English words, and a game to help you improve your vocabulary.
Other good free offline dictionaries include:
LingoPad: This offers an English-German dictionary by default. Other dictionaries and wordlists can be added to it.
Lingoes: This application allows you add as may free dictionaries as possible and offers features comparable to those of the other dictionaries mentioned above. It also offers text translation.
JLearnIt: JLearnIt is a multilingual dictionary which includes the English, French, Spanish, Dutch, German, Italian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian, Hungarian, Russian, Latin and Czech languages. It runs on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.
Many of these dictionaries also allow you download other dictionary databases from such sites like Dicts.info.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Bitcoins

Image
Bitcoin logo Bitcoin has been in the news a lot recently for good and bad reasons. There have been stories like the one of the man who bought  $27 worth of Bitcoin in 2009 which are now worth almost $900,000 . How about the  shutdown of the infamous Silk Road website  which was an online black market where people sold and bought illegal drugs and weapons and even paid to have people killed using Bitcoins as currency? Even most recently, a company started installing  physical ATMs for Bitcoin transactions . Having had my interest in Bitcoin piqued high enough, I decided I wanted to own Bitcoins. However, I had to know what advantages and disadvantages using Bitcoin presented. I carried out a bit of research and this is what I found. What is Bitcoin? Bitcoin, according to Bitcoin.org is a new kind of money which uses peer-to-peer technology to conduct transactions. It is an open source, decentralized payment system which means that it has no central regulating authority and do
Read more

Advantages and Disadvantages of Symmetric and Asymmetric Key Encryption Methods

Image
Methods of encrypting messages include the: - Symmetric Key Encryption and - Asymmetric or Public Key Encryption methods. While each system has its proponents and opponents, both methods have pros and cons which are outlined below: Symmetric Key Encryption Symmetric key encryption is also known as shared-key, single-key, secret-key, and private-key or one-key encryption. In this type of message encryption, both sender and receiver share the same key which is used to both encrypt and decrypt messages. Sender and receiver only have to specify the shared key in the beginning and then they can begin to encrypt and decrypt messages between them using that key. Examples include AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and TripleDES (Data Encryption Standard). Advantages -  Simple:  This type of encryption is easy to carry out. All users have to do is specify and share the secret key and then begin to encrypt and decrypt messages. -  Encrypt and decrypt your own files:  If you u
Read more

Advantages of Not Deleting Your Internet Browsing History

Image
All over the internet there are numerous websites and articles dedicated to tutorials on how to delete browsing history from your computer. There are even software products created specifically for deleting internet browsing history from computers. Only a few of these websites or articles bother to tell you why they advocate clearing your browsing record and virtually none of them tell what you may be losing when you delete your history. Browsing history is made up of the record of the following: - Websites visited - Files downloaded - Cookies and other site data - Saved passwords - Saved form data - Web cache - Search history - Authenticated web sessions Each and every one of the components of your history has benefits which is why internet browsers are programmed to store them. Benefits of Having a Browsing History Faster Loading Times: Whenever you visit a website, your web browser stores certain data from the site in its cache. Next time you visit the si
Read more