Question

I am working on a app in android where I need to select a word and display its definition from Google. Do I have to use some search API provided by Google, or another API?

An example will do. Thanks!

Answer 1

It seems Google Dictionary is no longer available, but even when it was, the API was unavailable to 3rd parties. Instead, I found several alternative options.

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XML Dictionary Exchange Format

You could use XDXF to download a flat-file dictionary in your desired language, and use a hash table to index the file appropriately.

This has two distinct advantages:

• Network access is not required to support dictionary look-ups

• It’s ultimately more flexible because the data can be easily manipulated (sorted, filtered, specially formatted) to better support application design & requirements.

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Abbreviations.com API

If you prefer not to home-brew your own hash-table, abbreviations.com has a public dictionary API that uses REST to obtain definition information in XML format for a given word.

Sample Request URL:

http://www.abbreviations.com/services/v1/defs.aspx?tokenid=tk324324&word=consistent 

Sample Response:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<results>
  <result>
    <term>consistent, uniform</term>
    <definition>the same throughout in structure or composition</definition>
    <partofspeech>adj</partofspeech>
    <example>
       bituminous coal is often treated as a consistent and homogeneous product
    </example>
  </result>
</results>