Google Dictionary
Online dictionary service by Google
Google Dictionary was an online dictionary service of Google that was accessible with the "define" operator and other similar phrases in Google Search. It was also available in Google Translate and as a Google Chrome extension. The dictionary content was licensed from Oxford University Press's Oxford Languages. It was available in different languages, such as English, Spanish and French. The service also contained pronunciation audio, Google Translate, a 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 discontinued in August 2011. As of 2026, a discrete pre-defined definition result within a Google search has been replaced by an "AI overview" result.
Microsoft's Bing provides a similar dictionary service that also licenses dictionary data from Oxford Languages. Apple also licenses dictionary data from Oxford for its iOS and macOS products.
01History
The service originated in Google Translate, and was launched as a standalone service (google.com/dictionary) 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 was accessible with the "define" operator or by simply searching for 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.
As of 2023, Google licenses dictionary data from Oxford Languages for multiple languages, including British/American English, Spanish, and German.
On Arabic Language Day (December 18) 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 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 (such as British and American) along with an option to slow the audio down, visemes for pronunciations were also added in April 2019.
As of June 2026, the dictionary feature has been removed from access to the public and has been replaced by AI search.
02Languages
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 | Refs. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | Available worldwide
Search operator: "ما معنى" |
ما معنى أيان | |||
| Chinese (Simplified) | 现代汉语规范词典 [Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian]
(The Standard Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese) |
Oxford University Press | Available worldwide | define 船 | |
| English (UK) | Oxford Dictionary of English
Oxford Thesaurus of English |
Oxford University Press | Shown worldwide (except North America) | define apple | |
| English (US) | New Oxford American Dictionary
Oxford Thesaurus of English Oxford American Writer's Thesaurus |
Oxford University Press, Inc. | Shown in North America | define apple | |
| English-Indic (Hindi/Marathi/Tamil) |
Oxford Wordpower Dictionary | Oxford University Press | Shown in India
(only on mobile devices) |
define apple | |
| French | Le Petit Robert
Google Translate: |
Dictionnaires Le Robert
Google Translate: |
Available worldwide | define légende | |
| German | Duden | Bibliographisches Institut GmbH | Available worldwide | define Kraus | |
| Hindi | राजपाल हिन्दी शब्दकोश [Rajpal Hindi Shabdkosh]
(Rajpal Hindi Dictionary) |
Rajpal & Sons | Available worldwide
Supports transliteration Search operator: "का अर्थ" |
शब्द का अर्थ | |
| Italian | Il Devoto-Oli | Mondadori Education S.p.A. | Available worldwide | define attrezzo | |
| Japanese | Available worldwide | define こんにちは | |||
| Korean | 뉴에이스 국어사전 [Nyueiseu Gug-eosajeon]
New Ace Korean Language Dictionary |
DIOTEK | Available worldwide | define 한국어 | |
| Portuguese (Brazil) | Houaiss Dictionary of the Portuguese Language | Editora Objetiva | Available worldwide | define alho | |
| Russian | Dictionary of the Russian Language (Ozhegov) | "Universe and Education" Publishing House Ltd. | Available worldwide | define ресторан | |
| Spanish | Diccionario General de la Lengua Española Vox | Larousse Editorial SL | Available worldwide | define trastienda | |
| Thai | พจนานุกรมไทย ฉบับทันสมัยและสมบูรณ์
[Phcnanukrm Thiy Chbab Thansmay Laea Smburn] (Complete Thai Dictionary) |
SE-Education Public Company Limited | Available worldwide | define ด | |
| Turkish | Arkadaş Türkçe Sözlük | Arkadaş Publishing Ltd | Available worldwide | define iltifat |
See details for Oxford Dictionaries datasets licensing for other languages here.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Google Dictionary”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Google search dictionary.png by Gotitbro, Fair use
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