Dictionary FAQ

[antheawood]

I did just this on my original Kindle 3 now I have a new Kindle 3 and it looks like this setting is not an option any more. Is this true or am I missing something?

Q: How does the kindle decide which dictionary to use
A: You can change the primary dictionary under menu -> settings -> menu -> change primary dictionary. This dictionary will be used for every book, with one exception:

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by antheawood

I did just this on my original Kindle 3 now I have a new Kindle 3 and it looks like this setting is not an option any more.

What is your exact problem?

A) The Kindle doesn't display a dictionary definition, even though the entry exists in the dictionary.

or

B) The Kindle displays definitions, but doesn't use the right dictionary.

I occasionally encountered problem A when I restored the Kindle documents folder after a firmware update or when I copied a new dictionary and lots of other books to the Kindle at the same time, because the Kindle needs to some time to index the books and the dictionary. (To see the indexing status, press the home key, then press the '.' key and click the right arrow key to select search my items.)

If you have problem B, make sure that your ebooks have the correct language codes and that your home-made dictionaries have the correct input language code (many of them don't).

If all else fails restart the Kindle.

[grasida]

So I recently bought a Kindle Touch and am trying to get it to work with Chinese dictionaries. I've gotten to the point where I can use one dictionary to go from English to Chinese and another dictionary to go from Chinese to English, but I can't do instant lookup from a Chinese ebook. Apparently Duokan can do this, but Duokan doesn't work on the Kindle Touch. Does that mean I'm just out of luck? When I do the instant search with a Chinese dictionary as default, it just tells me there are no results. This is with both the ebook and the dictionary set as being in English. The only thing I can think to do is to convert them to Chinese, but I can't make Caliber convert the dictionary and the Mobi2Mobi GUI doesn't have Chinese as a selectable language. Can anyone offer any ideas?

[Doitsu]

Originally Posted by grasida

I've gotten to the point where I can use one dictionary to go from English to Chinese and another dictionary to go from Chinese to English, but I can't do instant lookup from a Chinese ebook.

The word lookup used to only work with languages that use the Latin alphabet, however, with latest firmware updates Kindle 3 and higher support non-Latin language lookup dictionaries.

Originally Posted by grasida

Apparently Duokan can do this, but Duokan doesn't work on the Kindle Touch.

It appears that the Duokan developers are working on versions for K4s. They released a K4NT version this week and I wouldn't be surprised if they followed up with versions for other Kindles.

Resources For Kindle – Kindle 资源收集 offers free Chinese-English dictionaries for download, but I don't know if they work on the Kindle Touch.

[intangible]

Originally Posted by stehk

Apparently there are a lot of problems with the dictionary support on the kindle fire and the k4s. This FAQ is not valid for them.

Though there is no support for add-on default dictionaries on the Fire, I'm not aware of any particular problems with dictionary support on K4. Has anyone run into problems? I am aware of one K2/K3 bug with looking up certain Spanish accented words that is actually fixed on K4 and Kindle Touch.

[Edit promotion - moderator]

[intangible]

Originally Posted by jennie

I routinely read books in four different languages, and half the time the ebook and dictionary languages are incorrectly matched. So, I might be interested in creating a huge multi-dictionary that will contain headwords for all languages.

Amazon improved things for readers like you on Kindle 4 and Kindle Touch so you can now set a different default dictionary for each language. Once you've downloaded at least one dictionary for a given language, you'll see that language listed in the "Dictionaries" setting screen.

The Kindle Touch 5.1 software update introduces another new behavior: if a lookup does not find a word in your selected default dictionary, it will then check in other available dictionaries for that language. So a reader with a sufficiently advanced reading level could, for instance, set a German-English bilingual dictionary as default for reading German books, but use the Duden German monolingual dictionary as a backup if the word isn't found in the bilingual. (With some of the new models, you either get non-English monolingual dictionaries bundled, or can download them from "Manage Your Kindle".)

[Edit promotion - moderator]

[Nible]

I have some questions regarding Duokan.

First of all, is a version for this year's new Kindle (is it called Kindle 5?) and Kindle Paperwhite coming? I currently don't own a Kindle but I'm thinking of buying one of this year's new models. I would only use it to read books in Chinese and Spanish, so this dictionary function is very important to me.

Secondly, does the Chinese-English StarDict dictionary work like the original Kindle firmware's dictionary, where I just need to highlight a word to get a translation?

Thirdly, are there Spanish-English dictionaries as well, or would I need to uninstall and install Duokan when I want to switch between reading Chinese books and Spanish? That would be very impractical, as you understand.

[aztec999]

Hi all,
can somebody please answer these

1. can kindle define two word definitions like "gun carriage" or "Occam's razor" (is that even possible with a keyboard)?
2. can i open a definition of a word within an already open definition
3. for somebody who is going to use the def option frequently (foreign language learning etc.) is a touchscreen significantly more practical than a keyboard (i.e. scrolling to the word vs just highlighting)

thx in advance

[digbybare]

Originally Posted by Doitsu

AFAIK, the word lookup only works with languages that use the Latin alphabet.


It appears that the Duokan developers are working on versions for K4s. They released a K4NT version this week and I wouldn't be surprised if they followed up with versions for other Kindles.

Resources For Kindle – Kindle 资源收集 offers free Chinese-English dictionaries for download, but I don't know if they work on the Kindle Touch.

Of the 3 Chinese-English dictionaries linked, 2 are actually English-Chinese dictionaries, and the third link didn't work for me. I ended up creating my own CC-CEDICT dictionary in mobi format (In case anyone is interested, I just created a mobi for CC-CEDICT (see attachment). It's been working very well for me on a Paperwhite (on stock Kindle software--no Duokan needed).

The OP should be updated, as Chinese dictionaries DO work without Duokan (at least on the Paperwhite, I can't speak for the other models).

[PoP]

@aztec999

1) No, it doesn't. It will single out gun
and won't even recognize Occam's, let alone pair it with razor

2) Yes, you can nest lookups and use the back key to return to previous searches.

3) I have a Kindle Keyboard and find it slightly tedious to cursor my way to the word I want to lookup. I have never tried the Touch but I imagine it should be much quicker to directly highlight the word to lookup.

[NiLuJe]

To expand on PoP's answer, yes, it's much faster on the Touch. I'd even go so far as to say that it's even better on the PaperWhite (capacitive vs. infrared grid).

[aztec999]

ok thank you very much both, you ve been most helpful

-so if i had a basic how would i see a 2word def? would i need to type the words in and look in the dictionary

-does that mean it is possible on a touch? you just highlight and drag to both words, right?

[PoP]

If you mean to see the dictionary definition of a two words combination I don't think that is possible, as shown in the screen capture of my above post.

[aztec999]

Originally Posted by PoP

If you mean to see the dictionary definition of a two words combination I don't think that is possible, as shown in the screen capture of my above post.

no,no ive meant is it possible to see with a kindle touch by just highlighting both words, as on a kindle basic that is harder, if impossible, to do with just buttons.(and thx again for the images, it really helped to see how it works with a keyboard)

[NiLuJe]

@aztec999: Nope, as soon as you move over a word separator (ie. select more than one word), it's a highlight, not a definition. That hasn't changed.