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Open Source Translation Dictionaries?

Posted by Cliff on from the open-source-in-every-language-available dept.

jools asks: "I have to work with lots of documents in German. I can speak it mostly, but an online dictionary would be invaluable. When I'm on the Internet I can use Babelfish, but during the day Internet is expensive in the UK. So the question is are there open source foreign language dictionaries around, or even commercial packages for Linux. "

4 comments

  1. used dictionaries by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    most of the stuff i've seen available freely isn't that great. dictionaries require constant maintenance as language changes, but the stuff on the net tends to be fairly old. to get a properly maintained dictionary, you really need a group that is willing to do what (often) really boring work all the time. it's not a one shot deal by any means. add to that the inherent deficiencies of translation dictionaries, and you've got something that's just about useless.

    if you're looking for bargain-rate information, i'd suggest going to a used bookseller and picking up some dictionaries.

  2. just getting of the ground... by cwinters · · Score: 1
    The dictionary Laixicon (www.laixicon.com) is just getting off the ground. It's geared toward engineers and technical folks. Lots of potential and it's a little different by having the potential for definitions, even encyclopedic ones, for words and terms. Still very much in beta, particularly the layout.

    I'm biased though, since I helped create it :)

    --

    Chris
    M-x auto-bs-mode

  3. Ding by bgdarnel · · Score: 1

    http://www.tu-chemnitz.de/~fri/ding/

    Ding is a dictionary lookup program that includes a German-English dictionary. The program is GPL; the web page doesn't mention a separate copyright for the dictionary data, so I assume it is also GPL.

  4. LEO Dictionary by Twinky · · Score: 1

    The best English<->German Online Dictionary I know is at leo.org. I consider it open, because you can contribute to it and they promised to provide a download in future (when they finished the cleanup).

    They also have a list of other online dictionaries.