Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Open source English dictionary?

Author:Chuck Shotton
Posted:1/31/1999; 6:53:49 AM
Topic:Open source English dictionary?
Msg #:2607 (In response to 2605)
Prev/Next:2606 / 2608

There are lots of sources that people have mentioned. The password dictionary/word list in Linux is one such source. There are lots of others that have been floating around the net since the late 70's at least. The point is that as a dictionary, they are useless because they have no dictionary-like information like definitions, word history, or pronounciation. That's generally why they are free.

My point was that you can leverage the power of the net through a simple interface to get a small percentage of the 100 million people on the net to finish off a true, freely available English dictionary. Just take that word list (whichever one you select) and serve up a word without a definition whenever asked. Accept the definition back and stash it away in the database. Eventually, you should get a complete dictionary out of the deal. Of course, the editorial effort is left as an exercise to the reader. ;)

There are responses to this message:

This page was archived on 6/13/2001; 4:47:41 PM.

© Copyright 1998-2001 UserLand Software, Inc.