# Software development  - anyone know where I can get dictionary data?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-development-anyone-know-where-i-can-get-dictionary-data/518506>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 22, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-development-anyone-know-where-i-can-get-dictionary-data/518506 "2009-11-22T06:40:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Libre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85e7bf/32.png) [@Libre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Libre)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-development-anyone-know-where-i-can-get-dictionary-data/518506/1 "2009-11-22T06:40:28Z")

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Does anyone know of where I can get free dictionary data (word definitions, pronunciations, synonyms, antonyms, etc) that I can use for a software program I am making that includes a fully functional on-board dictionary?

I came across the Princeton Wordnet dictionary data that is used by several popular apps, and while I have found the definitions adequate, they are not necessarily comprehensive enough or ideal for graduate studies.

[http://wordnet.princeton.edu/](http://wordnet.princeton.edu/)

Alternatively, are there any other relatively inexpensive licenses for this type of data? I can probably pay up to $10,000 for a developers license.

Thanks in advance for any help you might be able to offer.

~Libre

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**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-development-anyone-know-where-i-can-get-dictionary-data/518506/2 "2009-11-22T06:46:04Z")

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You could download a [XML data dump](http://download.wikipedia.org/enwiktionary/latest/) from the Wiktionary project. No idea how comprehensive it is, but it’s probably a good starting point.

ETA: I believe the [latest-pages-articles](http://download.wikipedia.org/enwiktionary/latest/enwiktionary-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2) file ( **128MB ZIPPED XML!** ) is the one you would want.

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**Author:** ![Libre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85e7bf/32.png) [@Libre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Libre)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-development-anyone-know-where-i-can-get-dictionary-data/518506/3 "2009-11-22T21:49:10Z")

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> [@friedo](#):
>
> You could download a [XML data dump](http://download.wikipedia.org/enwiktionary/latest/) from the Wiktionary project. No idea how comprehensive it is, but it’s probably a good starting point.
> 
> ETA: I believe the [latest-pages-articles](http://download.wikipedia.org/enwiktionary/latest/enwiktionary-latest-pages-articles.xml.bz2) file ( **128MB ZIPPED XML!** ) is the one you would want.

Thanks, Friedo, this looks something worthwhile checking into. Very much appreciated. Massive file is part of the territory 🙂

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**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-development-anyone-know-where-i-can-get-dictionary-data/518506/4 "2009-11-23T13:27:58Z")

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Have a look at [some dictd databases](http://www.dict.org/announce.html).

ETA: [more of them, with licensing info](http://www.dict.org/bin/Dict?Form=Dict1&Query=00-database-info&Strategy=*&Database=*)

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**Author:** ![Libre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85e7bf/32.png) [@Libre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Libre)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2009, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/software-development-anyone-know-where-i-can-get-dictionary-data/518506/5 "2009-11-23T23:11:15Z")

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Thanks, Superfluous Parentheses. I notice that they incorporate the Webster’s 1913 plus WordWeb in one large file. This could be useful… still looking for something more up to date, though.