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Why I built a dictionary app

wordnote.app

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Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#41

Post by rsaz »

liquidise wrote: post #31

Well this is... eerie. I just released Stictionary[1] on Friday. It is an offline, ad free, dictionary that remembers words you look up. It gives a word of the day and provides (admittedly underfeatured atm) flashcards to review your word lists. It includes optional syncing to keep your word lists across devices. I've been holding off posting about it while i complete the website[2]. Love to see someone else had such…

App looks amazing, I didn't know I wanted this but can see myself using it a ton now that I do.

By the way, you may be aware but there's a typo in the iOS app in the "Your Words" tab when your list is empty.

> You can swipe words off your list later if [you] add a word you'd rather not see.

Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#42

Post by zehfernandes »

ashish01 wrote: post #33

This brings back so many memories. I was in a same situation (reading a book) and needed on digital offline dictionary. I couldn't find anything for my phone back then. It was a Sony Ericson phone with 64 MB memory and J2ME as development environment. So I wrote a offline dictionary with a friend of mine based on wordnet and J2ME polish. It was my first real world project - http://cornucopia.sourceforge.net/

That's fantastic ashish01. So cool to see the screenshots. Different times and capabilities.

Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#43

Post by prawn »

liquidise wrote: post #31

Well this is... eerie. I just released Stictionary[1] on Friday. It is an offline, ad free, dictionary that remembers words you look up. It gives a word of the day and provides (admittedly underfeatured atm) flashcards to review your word lists. It includes optional syncing to keep your word lists across devices. I've been holding off posting about it while i complete the website[2]. Love to see someone else had such…

It's very stupid, but I check dictionary definitions in an incognito window because I'm horrified of someday people coming across my browser history and thinking "Wow, he didn't know the definition of that?! What an idiot!" The idea of a dictionary that tracks my searches horrifies me in a silly way. Ha!

Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#44

Post by jahewson »

kccqzy wrote: post #2

Actually, iOS already has built-in support for dictionary and thesaurus. In any native text input field, select a word and choose Define or Look Up. The choice of dictionary is customizable; I usually choose New Oxford American Dictionary and Oxford Dictionary of English (not to be confused with the venerable Oxford English Dictionary). They are high quality dictionaries. They are basically the same except that the p…

You can also use spotlight search from the home screen and type "define: whatever" and the first result will be from the iOS dictionary.

Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#46

Post by zehfernandes »

Hey Hacker News!

I'm thrilled to read all the comments with ideas and improvements. I will try to answer and keep up with the thread.

Kudos to all the similar initiatives trying to solve the problems I outline in the article. It's wonderful to see a zeitgeist about dictionaries.

Who wants to jump the article and try the version I built, feel free to download the iPhone [1] or Android [2] version or run it by itself with the open source repo [3]

1: https://apps.apple.com/app/wordnote-dictionary/id1596537633

2: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zehfernand...

3: https://github.com/zehfernandes/wordnote

Cheers!

Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#47

Post by nomilk »

When I hear/see a new word I write it in a google doc along with it's definition (from www.tfd.com/) and reference to where I came across it (e.g. a quote or link to youtube video).

The doc has a short and distinct name so can quickly be accessed via command + L (to go to address bar) and the distinct 5 character name for chrome to auto suggest it.

It's now ~10 years old. I used to add to it often, but the pace slowed as my vocabulary grew. It contains around 1-2000 words. I occasionally review it. One day I'll parse/analyse it.

Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#48

Post by zehfernandes »

csomar wrote: post #24

A bit unrelated but, I tried to search for this app on the AppStore. Typing "wordnote" returns it in the 30-40 results. This is despite the fact that there is no other app named wordnote or a derivative of that.

Yes, this is very weird. I think Apple Store is not given a proper rank because it's a new app.

You must write the full name "Wordnote Dictionary" to find it.

Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#49

Post by dionidium »

prawn wrote: post #43
liquidise wrote: post #31

Well this is... eerie. I just released Stictionary[1] on Friday. It is an offline, ad free, dictionary that remembers words you look up. It gives a word of the day and provides (admittedly underfeatured atm) flashcards to review your word lists. It includes optional syncing to keep your word lists across devices. I've been holding off posting about it while i complete the website[2]. Love to see someone else had such…

It's very stupid, but I check dictionary definitions in an incognito window because I'm horrified of someday people coming across my browser history and thinking "Wow, he didn't know the definition of that ?! What an idiot!" The idea of a dictionary that tracks my searches horrifies me in a silly way. Ha!

I look up words for which I already know the primary definition all the time. Sometimes it's just to confirm that it doesn't mean something subtly different than I remember. Sometimes it's to find alternate/secondary uses. Sometimes it's to confirm spelling. Sometimes it's a jumping off point for synonyms or related words. I wouldn't assume you were totally unfamiliar with a word just because you looked it up.

Re: Why I built a dictionary app

#50

Post by zehfernandes »

xtreak29 wrote: post #25

I too wrote a similar app for my personal problem and also served to be a good way to learn about kotlin and Android ecosystem. I also tried a rewrite in flutter and compose. The idea was to use select the word and then click meaning from context menu so that meaning occurs as notification and disappears in 15 seconds. I used Wiktionary as dataset source and app works offline. https://play.google.com/store/apps/detai…

Hey @xtreak29, that's awesome. I wish had found your repo sooner and use your wikidictionary parser tool, so good. Thanks for sharing.

I loved that you built the context menu it's something I was thinking to. Congratulations.

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