Google Dictionary
Google Dictionary is an online dictionary service of Google that can be accessed by using the "define" operator and other similar phrases in Google Search. It is also available in Google Translate and in the form of an extension for Google Chrome. The dictionary content is licensed from Oxford University Press's OxfordDictionaries.com. It is available in different languages such as English, Spanish and French. The service also contains pronunciation audio, Google Translate, word origin chart, Ngram Viewer, and word games among other features for the English-language version. Originally available as a standalone service it was integrated into Google Search with the separate service being discontinued in August 2011.
Microsoft's Bing also provides a similar dictionary service which licences dictionary data from Oxford Dictionaries as well. Apple also licences dictionary data from Oxford for its iOS and macOS products.
History
The service originated in Google Translate, and was launched as a standalone service in December 2009. Google displayed definitions from Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary for English until August 2010 when it switched to the Oxford American College Dictionary.After being integrated into Google Search the dictionary was discontinued as a separate service on August 5, 2011. And can now be accessed by using the "define" operator or by simply searching for the meaning of a word. The dictionary service is also still available in Google Translate and can be accessed by selecting a single word. Google has also released the service as an extension for Chrome.
Google licenses dictionary data from OxfordDictionaries.com for multiple languages such as British/American English, Spanish and French among others.
On Arabic Language Day in 2015 Google added an Arabic-language dictionary, available globally, to the service that showed definitions, translations, and example usages of the word in a sentence.
In February 2017, online news website Daily Caller accused Google of changing the definition of the word "fascism" in Google Dictionary. It was later found out that the definition was exactly from an external source and was not written by Google.
Google added a Hindi dictionary from Rajpal & Sons licensed via Oxford Dictionaries which also supported transliteration and translation to the service in April 2017.
In July 2017, the dictionary was made directly available by typing "dictionary" in Google Search and additional features such as a search box, autocomplete and search history were also added.
In January 2018, a "Similar-sounding words" feature was added to the English dictionary which highlights words that sound similar such as "aesthetic" and "ascetic", "pray" and "prey", "conscientious" and "conscious" etc. "Google Word Coach" vocabulary game was made available along with dictionary searches and as a separate game on mobile devices in February 2018. In August 2018, Google Search added an English and Hindi dictionary for mobile users in India with an option to switch to the English only dictionary.
A "learn to pronounce" option was added to the English dictionary in December 2018 which shows how a word is pronounced with its non-phonemic pronunciation respelling and audio in different accents along with an option to slow the audio down, visemes for pronunciations were also added in April 2019.
Languages
Google displays dictionaries for the following languages licensed from Oxford Dictionaries which provides data from its own and other published dictionaries.| Language | Dictionary | Publisher | Notes | Example search | |
| Arabic | Available worldwide Search operator: "ما معنى" | ||||
| Chinese | :zh:现代汉语规范词典|现代汉语规范词典 | Oxford University Press :zh:外语教学与研究出版社|Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press | Available worldwide | ||
| English | Oxford Dictionary of English Oxford Thesaurus of English | Oxford University Press | Shown worldwide | ||
| English | New Oxford American Dictionary Oxford Thesaurus of English Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus | Oxford University Press, Inc. | Shown in North America | ||
| English-Indic | Oxford Wordpower Dictionary | Oxford University Press | Shown in India | ||
| French | Le Petit Robert Google Translate: :fr:Multidictionnaire de la langue française|Multidictionnaire de la langue française | Dictionnaires Le Robert Google Translate: :fr:Les Éditions Québec Amérique Inc.|Les Éditions Québec Amérique Inc. | Available worldwide | ||
| German | Duden | Bibliographisches Institut GmbH | Available worldwide | ||
| Hindi | राजपाल हिन्दी शब्दकोश | Rajpal & Sons | Available worldwide Supports transliteration Operator: "ka matlab"/"ka arth" | ||
| Italian | Il Devoto–Oli | Mondadori Education S.p.A. | Available worldwide | ||
| Japanese | Available worldwide | ||||
| Korean | 뉴에이스 국어사전 New Ace Korean Language Dictionary | DIOTEK | Available worldwide | ||
| Portuguese | Houaiss Dictionary of the Portuguese Language | :pt:Objetiva |Editora Objetiva | Available worldwide | ||
| Russian | Dictionary of the Russian Language | "Universe and Education" Publishing House Ltd. | Available worldwide | ||
| Spanish | Diccionario General de la Lengua Española Vox | Larousse Editorial SL | Available worldwide | ||
| Thai | พจนานุกรมไทย ฉบับทันสมัยและสมบูรณ์ | SE-Education Public Company Limited | Available worldwide | ||
| Turkish | Arkadaş Türkçe Sözlük | Arkadaş Publishing Ltd | Available worldwide |
See details for Oxford Dictionaries dataset licensing for other languages here.