Internet is now part of our everyday life. We are always connected to the Internet through computers or smartphones. So when the internet connection goes down for some reason, our daily activities seem to come to a standstill. At present most applications, including most of the dictionaries, rely on the internet connection. You will find many dictionaries online that require either an internet connection or a fee. You will find some free offline dictionaries for your PC that lack full features or most words. In this post, I have compiled a list of free offline dictionaries that you can use without an internet connection and easily search words. Let’s go through the post.
Best Free Offline Dictionary for PC
While looking for an offline dictionary, you should consider a database of source words and a comprehensive thesaurus including synonyms, hypernyms, holonyms, antonyms, hyponyms. Some dictionaries offer to choose different languages. Another essential feature of a dictionary is its search friendliness.
So when you are going to choose an offline dictionary, you have considered the above features. This post will present the 5 best free offline dictionaries that will meet your needs. So go through the entire post in an instant without delay.
1. Wordweb Free Dictionary
Wordweb is the finest dictionary containing a huge database of words and lets you download for free. This dictionary also provides synonyms, sources of words, and audio pronunciations. Besides, it gives you a translation service to translate words even with no internet connection. However, Wordweb has both pro and free versions, but it is good enough for regular usage.
Key Features:
- Wordweb offers over 160000 source words and synonyms. The number of source words increases day by day.
- This dictionary offers you to search web references of words.
- You learn hundreds of thousands of definitions and usage of the word with real examples.
- Wordweb free dictionary covers 5000 audio pronunciations, which also enrich your accent.
- The program is embedded with MS Word. When you open the MS Word program, Wordweb dictionary is also run automatically. So you can quickly find related words from Wordweb.
Pros: WordWeb is connected with Wikipedia to find the word’s web reference.
Cons: The pronunciation of the words are not accurate.
2. Ultimate Dictionary
If you are looking for an easy-to-use and fast searching dictionary, Ultimate Dictionary is the best pick for you. It is an extensive database collection, including definitions, synonyms, and translators. It offers many different languages translations such as English, French, Polish, Spanish, Japanese, and Chinese.
Besides, its minimalist interface is user-friendly and has two main areas. The left panel lets you search the word, and the right panel provides the word’s definition and translation. Overall, Ultimate Dictionary is a simple but powerful dictionary for quick words.
Key Features:
- Ultimate Dictionary offers almost 61 dictionaries collections along with glossaries and thesauruses.
- Ultimate Dictionary’s scan mode allows a pop-up window by following the mouse and defining the word beside the cursor.
- This dictionary offers word definitions of a plethora of different languages.
- Besides, you can find synonyms for each word.
- Moreover, you can customize the appearance position of the dictionary.
Pros: Ultimate Dictionary offers fast searching of word’s definition in different languages.
Cons: The installation file size of the dictionary is large. It will take up a lot of space for your computer driver.
3. TheSage English Dictionary and Thesaurus
TheSage is a professional dictionary consisting of huge collections of words available offline for PC users. This dictionary has a comprehensive thesaurus encompassing synonyms, antonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, meronyms, holonyms. The tabbed interface allows you to find numerous words simultaneously by using quick cross-referencing and advanced wildcard search functionality.
The best part of this dictionary is that it embodies the Windows system. So you can access the dictionary from any source on your computer and quickly search the definition of any word.
Key Features:
- TheSage has a collection of over 210,000-word meanings and comprises more than 145,000 references.
- Besides, it offers more than 1,200,000 relationships between definitions.
- This dictionary has over 70,000 phonetic notations.
- You can quickly search words by using special search tools such as wildcard.
- TheSage lets you copy the clipboard of all information and allow you to change the color fonts of the word.
- The advanced user wants to know the word’s etymology, which can be possible by using TheSage.
Pros: TheSage speller assistant provides you with a selection of suggestions based on a standard misspelling error, so you can quickly find the right word from the suggestion list.
Cons: This dictionary encompasses many options, so it becomes difficult to use without knowing the dictionary’s functionality.
4. Artha Dictionary
Artha Dictionary is a handy and lightweight synonyms dictionary that lets you find any reference quickly. This free open source app is built on WordNet, developed by the Cognitive Science Laboratory University of Princeton. It has an extensive lingual database of English and encompasses synonyms, antonyms, derivatives, attributes, similar words, domain words, causes.
When you start typing, it shows the probability of matching words. Also, if you order a spelling error word, it suggests you are the best-matched word. The exciting feature of this app is that you can set a hotkey to launch the application when you need it quickly.
Key Features:
- The hotkey lookup feature of the Artha Dictionary makes it quickly available in the Windows system tray.
- Notification is another excellent tool of Artha Dictionary that lets you know the prime definition of the query despite the app’s pop-up and keep continuing the tasks of your Windows.
- As you start typing letters, it tries to possibly match the word and thesaurus so that you get quick output.
- Some advanced search tools like wildcard, joker, range help you search the word that you vaguely know its spelling.
- Artha Dictionary provides similar terms of the word’s definition so that you can easily remember the meaning.
Pros: Artha Dictionary keeps a record of your search history so that you can see the previous search result conveniently.
5. Goldendict
Goldendict is an open source dictionary project that offers the full features. The project introduces a feature-rich dictionary that supports several popular dictionary file formats. Moreover, this dictionary provides translation services for Russian, Greek, German, Belarusian, and Japanese. In addition, it allows you to translate from other programs or clipboards.
While you select a word of any program and hold CTRL and double press C, a pop-up of Goldendict comes with the definition of the word chosen. So Goldendict is a complete package for finding the translated result of the words.
Key Features:
- This program can represent articles more accurately with correct formatting similar to a web page by using WebKit layout.
- With Goldendict, you get search results to reference through Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and similar sites.
- The templated URL pattern lets you run websites or programs to play audio for pronunciation.
- It makes corrections to your misspelled word and provides you with the correct search result.
- Besides, you can listen to pronunciation from Forvo or Lingua Libre. However, Forvo online service is available for premium users, but Lingua Libre is open source and accessible for all.
Pros: Goldendict allows you to search the full-text inside of an article.
Cons: The translation service is limited to words and phrases. It can not translate the complete sentence.
What’s the Best Offline Dictionary for PC
So if you are looking for a dictionary program for Windows PC to use offline, I think it is time to end the searching. I have compiled the most practical offline dictionary, the best option for you.
Though I have shortlisted 5 offline dictionaries in this post, WordWeb would be the best pick for you. WordWeb is a complete package for a free offline dictionary.
However, you can choose another option from my list or apart from the list. Artha Dictionary is a lightweight but extensive collection of words. Ultimate Dictionary and Goldendict are both nice options for a translation of different languages.
Wrapping Up
English is the most commonly used language in the world. So in this post, I only cover offline English dictionaries. However, the people of the world speak different languages. So if you want to understand the minds of people speaking other languages, you need to learn the dictionary of that language.
Some dictionaries may provide translation of different language services, but it does not enough to meet all language meanings. So finding a complete dictionary covering all languages is challenging.
I try to shortlist the best free offline dictionary for PC to help you find word queries. You may like this shortlist; apart from the list, please put down the name of your favorite dictionary in the comment box if you have any recommendations.
