Online Dictionaries and other resources to look up words, phrases, acronyms, synonyms, etc., are necessary for every translator. And also for every kind of writer. There are some posts on this website about dictionaries you can download as desktop apps (e.g., GoldenDict, LingoPad, and QuicDic). But why did we so far not add any online dictionaries to provide you with the needed resources? The simple answer is that there are too many of them. If you are a translator or writer, you probably already have your favorite online dictionary.
Below I will give you some of the resources I consider helpful. Since I’m German, they will be related to my language pair (English <> German). However, most of those resources also provide services for other language pairs. And if you have dictionaries or other resources you consider to be of utmost importance, just let me know, and I might add them to the list below. Update: I also added some resources used by my friends and colleagues.
Table of dictionaries and other resources
| Website | Comments |
|---|---|
| Linguee | Many languages to choose from, some languages only allow one pairing (e.g., there is only one pairing possible for Japanese, which is English <> Japanese). Linguee provides many contextual translations from internet sources. Linguee is a service of DeepL, a deep learning company, which also provides the DeepL Translator, a free machine translation system |
| LEO | 10 language pairs, except for English <> Spanish, all pairs have German as one part of the pair |
| Weblio | a purely English <> Japanese dictionary and translation service, used by translators I know (had to mention this because I do not speak/read Japanese) |
| Glosbe | A multilingual online dictionary supporting many language pairs provides context as well |
| TheFreeDictionary | A multilingual dictionary that also provides thesaurus, acronyms, idioms, and more |
| bab.la | online dictionary for 28 languages |
| Jisho | Jisho is a powerful Japanese-English dictionary. It allows you to find words, kanji, example sentences and much more quickly and easily. |
| DWDS | only German <> German, with examples, definitions, and more |
| Macmillan English Dictionary | The award-winning Macmillan English Dictionary was first published in 2002 in both British English and American English. The corpus contains millions of examples of English as used around the world |
| Duden | The standard reference book for German spelling |
| Lexico.com | Lexico.com is a new collaboration between Dictionary.com and Oxford University Press (OUP). Lexico is powered by Oxford’s free English and Spanish dictionaries and features a multi-language dictionary, thesaurus, and translation content. |
| The STANDS4 Network | Online since 2001, STANDS4 LLC is a leading provider of free online reference & educational resources, including Grammar, Abbreviations, Definitions, Phrases, Synonyms, and more |
| Snappywords | Snappywords.com is an online resource for exploring the English language, offering synonyms, antonyms, and a visual dictionary to deepen understanding. This entry was suggested by Sohana. Thank you, Sohana! |
| ISO 18587 | This website explains the subsections of the ISO 18587 quality standard for translation services, post-editing the output of a machine translation, and the requirements. A detailed published version of this standard is available here (but it is NOT free). |
| Machine Translation Post-Editing Guidelines (Japanese) | By the Asia-Pacific Association for Machine Translation (AAMT). These Machine Translation Post-Editing Guidelines provide practical guidelines that should be shared by clients, contractors, and workers, and are a guide to achieving the optimal balance between quality, cost, and delivery time. |
By the way, you can, of course, also use DeepL Translator, Google Translate, or other similar services as dictionaries. They usually already provide a bunch of good information.
