Nordict

An Android app with a learner-friendly interface to Swedish and Danish dictionaries. Major dictionaries of both these languages have official, free-of-cost apps, but Nordict has unique features which may be helpful for non-native speakers.

Nordict also has varying degrees of support for various French, Portuguese and Spanish dictionaries.

It builds upon ideas previously implemented in Bildkortsappen and Ordboken.

Supported dictionaries

• Svensk ordbok utgiven av Svenska Akademien (SO). Official app. Note that the official app works offline but Nordict requires an Internet connection.

• Den Danske Ordbog (DDO). Official app.

• Svensk-Dansk Ordbog (SDO). Official app.

• Wiktionnaire (WFR).

• Dico en ligne Le Robert (ROB).

• Collins French-English dictionary (COLFREN).

• Linguee (Portuguese<->English) (LINGPT).

• Infopédia (INFOPEDIA).

• Diccionario de la lengua española (DLE).

• Collins Spanish-English dictionary (COLSPAN).

Features

• All words are hyperlinks (all). Any word in the definition can be clicked to either jump directly to its definition (if there is a unique, perfect match) or to put it in the search box to save some typing.

• AnkiDroid integration (DDO, SO, WFR). AnkiDroid flashcards can be created directly from the app:

  • The different meanings for the headword are split so that each flashcard only contains one meaning.
  • The example sentences from the dictionary entry are automatically parsed and added to the card.
  • Images from Google Image Search (or from the dictionary entry itself if present there) can also be added to the card.
  • Javascript is used in the card to display a random subset of the examples and images on the front.
  • The pronunciation audio is also included and works offline and plays automatically in the back of the flashcard.

• Phonetic transcription (DDO). The official DDO website includes a phonetic transcription for each word in a simplified version of the IPA, but this is omitted in the official Android app. Nordict displays these.

• Gender highlighting (DDO, SO). The vast majority of nouns in both Swedish and Danish are of the common gender, so Nordict highlights the entries for neuter nouns in an attempt to make them more memorable.

• Proper navigation (DDO, SDO, SO). The official SO app already gets this right, but in the DDO app it is not possible to return to a word with the back button after navigating to another word via a hyperlink. This is fixed in Nordict.

• Better order of information (WFR). The mobile Wiktionnaire site has several flaws which make it hard to use: for example, in words with more than one meaning, there is no overview so one is forced to scroll throw a large amount of content (such as translations to dozens of languages) to jump between meanings. Also, the (sometimes quite large) Etymology section is placed at the top, even before the definitions, which is unhelpful. These problems are fixed in Nordict.

• Smooth inter-dictionary navigation (SDO). The official SDO app shows a dialog whenever a link from SDO to DDO is clicked, but this is not present in Nordict.

• Inflected forms expansion (DDO, SO). The swung dashes/tildes in the inflected forms are replaced with the word which they represent. The idea is that seeing the forms fully spelled out will help in remembering them.

• Gender memorization aids (SO). The headword in neuter nouns is prefixed with the indefinite article, and different declined forms are highlighted in neuter and common gender nouns, in order to aid in applying the techniques described by Olle Kjellin.

• Pronunciation auto-play (DDO, ROB, SO, WFR). The recorded pronunciations can be configured to automatically play when the entry is opened.

License

See LICENSE.

The flags are from FlagKit, by way of Shusshu/android-flags. The other icons are Material Design icons.