Machine-readable dictionary

An electronic dictionary is a dictionary, the contents of which is present in digital form. This allows opposite the printed dictionary and multi -media content such as voice recognition, animation, and sound recordings, as well as easier to connect and search options. Electronic dictionaries can be created for online or offline use.

Variants

In addition to the platform- independent software solutions for electronic dictionaries that are installed on individual PCs, and those that are tailored to individual operating systems, such as the Babylon Translator, following options are available:

Electronic pocket dictionary

Since the 1980s, there are handhelds that have a translation function. The first device of this kind was the Langenscheidt world " alpha 8 English ", which was launched in 1983 to market. Later there were also versions of the model in French and Latin. Such handhelds include one or more editorial dictionaries with search and look-up. Compared to printed dictionaries records of handhelds are usually specially prepared to represent, for example, idioms or Sample sentences special way or can specifically look for it.

Word list

The simplest form of an electronic dictionary is a single-or multi-language text file (usually ASCII or UTF -8), which contains in alphabetical order the terms and which is integrated to spell check, or for translation assistance in word processing programs.

Online Dictionary

An online dictionary is a retrievable over the Internet, database-driven dictionary. Front in this case is usually the browser. This form often offers the user the possibility to turn to a connected internet forum of the provider, for example if the work used a lemma or not treated unsatisfactory. Well-known examples are the deals from LEO ( with forum ), Duden, PONS and Linguee.

A new form of online dictionaries are those that can be edited and completed online by the users themselves, such as the Wiktionary.