Dictionary
A word in the text is split in two (for example Vietnamese “giáo viên” shows as “giáo” and “viên”). How do I look up the whole word?
Section titled “A word in the text is split in two (for example Vietnamese “giáo viên” shows as “giáo” and “viên”). How do I look up the whole word?”Click the first part. In the Dictionary tab, a bar appears under the search box with ‹ and › buttons: ‹ adds the word before it and › adds the word after it. The search box shows the whole phrase. Nothing is looked up until you press Enter or the arrow button, so you can add several words first. The − buttons at each end remove the outermost word again, and the word you clicked always stays. Phrases stop at punctuation and line breaks. This works in every language, for compounds like Vietnamese “giáo viên” and for phrases like English “ice cream”. You can also type a phrase in the search box.
What does “via English” mean in the dictionary?
Section titled “What does “via English” mean in the dictionary?”There is no direct dictionary for some language pairs, for example Japanese to Vietnamese. In that case the word is looked up in English first and the meanings are then translated into your language. The meanings are usually right but can be less precise than a direct dictionary; the Explain button can help with the nuance.
How do I look up a word?
Section titled “How do I look up a word?”There are three ways:
- Open the Dictionary tab, type the word and press Enter.
- After translating, tap any word in the Source box; it opens in the dictionary. This works in every language, including Japanese and Chinese.
- Select a single word or a short phrase (up to 4 words) in your document and click Translate selection; the add-on also opens its dictionary entry. The entry shows meanings grouped by part of speech, related words you can tap, a speaker button for pronunciation and a star to save the word.
It says “No dictionary entry”
Section titled “It says “No dictionary entry””The dictionary covers words and short expressions, not whole sentences or names. Check the spelling and the From language (or set From to Auto-detect). For a sentence or phrase, use Translate selection or the Explain button instead.
How do I see example sentences?
Section titled “How do I see example sentences?”In a dictionary entry, click a meaning that is underlined (the small number shows how many examples the dictionary has). Each example shows the sentence, its reading if the language is not written in Latin letters, and its translation. Click a sentence to translate it and tap its words, or click the speaker to hear it.
Why do some example sentences start or end with “…”?
Section titled “Why do some example sentences start or end with “…”?”Some examples come from Microsoft’s dictionary as short snippets of longer sentences. They are marked with “…” where text is missing, shown in grey and listed last. Complete sentences (many of them from the Tatoeba project, translated by people) are listed first, and listening practice uses complete sentences only.
How does listening practice work?
Section titled “How does listening practice work?”Click the headphones icon next to a meaning in the dictionary. Press the big play button to hear a sentence, try to understand it, then click Reveal to see the sentence and its translation. Use Previous and Next to move through the sentences; the counter shows how many you have played.