Most people are misinformed on the subject of how dictionaries work on Kindle ebook readers, so I wanted to put together this guide explaining how to change, add, and create custom dictionaries for Kindle devices.
Last week someone left a comment complaining about how Kindles sucked compared to Kobos because Kindles don’t allow you to use your own dictionaries. I knew that wasn’t correct because it’s easy to sideload dictionaries on Kindles as long they are in the proper format.
Kindle Apps: Dictionary search via keyboard input is supported on the Kindle for iPad, Kindle for iPhone, Kindle for Android, Kindle for Mac, and Kindle for PC. To search in one of these apps, open the dictionary from your Library, and then click on the magnifying glass icon to bring up the search interface. Just tap to learn about words, people, places, and events within your book as you read. With features like X-Ray, search within the book, Wikipedia and dictionary lookup, Instant Translations, and more, Kindle makes it easy to read smoothly without getting hung up on a word you don't know.
Plus the Kindle comes with a couple of English dictionaries pre-installed, along with a bunch of free foreign-language dictionaries that you can download from the cloud.
There are also a number of free Kindle dictionaries in MOBI format that you can download online.
If you can’t find the dictionary you’re looking for online or in the Kindle Store, you can even create your own custom Kindle dictionaries from dictionary databases if you want to.
How to Change Default Kindle Dictionary
The Kindle Paperwhite, Kindle Voyage, and $79 Kindle all have the same software features, so changing the dictionary is the same process for all of them.
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Go to Settings > Device Options > Language and Dictionaries > Dictionaries to select from your downloaded dictionaries (you can add more to show up here; see sections below).
You can also quickly switch between dictionaries while reading by selecting a word, then tapping the name of the dictionary in the lower right corner of the window.
Included Foreign Language Dictionaries
A lot of people don’t realize that their Kindle comes with a bunch of foreign language dictionaries, at least one for each language it supports.
Since most people only read one language, the dictionaries aren’t downloaded by default. They are located in the “Cloud” section of your Kindle on the homescreen in a folder called “Dictionaries”.
Additionally, you can find all the dictionaries on the Manage Your Content and Devices page at Amazon. Select to show Dictionaries and User Guides.
The current lineup of Kindles come with the following free foreign language dictionaries:
Spanish
Chinese
Russian
Dutch
Japanese
German
Italian
French
Portuguese
There are more that you can get in the Kindle store. Plus there are options to download free online, like these WordNet 3 Easy & Infused Kindle dictionaries.
How to Sideload a Kindle Dictionary
If you downloaded a Kindle dictionary online in MOBI format, or create your own, there are different ways to sideload it on your Kindle:
Option 1 – The Old School Method
1. Plug your Kindle into your computer via USB.
2. Open the Kindle’s documents folder.
3. Place your new dictionaries in the dictionaries folder.
4. Safely eject your Kindle from your computer.
If properly formatted, the dictionary will show up on the dictionary list even if it’s just put in the documents folder instead of the dictionaries folder.
Option 2 – The Super Easy Method
Use one of the Send to Kindle apps or email to send the dictionary to your Kindle wirelessly.
How to Create Custom Kindle Dictionaries
There are ways to create custom Kindle dictionaries for those who aren’t afraid of a little technical work. You can create dictionaries for any language.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to create your own Kindle dictionaries for free. The process works with any language.
Fictionary Dictionaries
Some have taken creating custom Kindle dictionaries to a whole new level. Fictionaries take advantage of the Kindle’s built-in dictionary feature to include additional information about details for specific books. They include terms and content specific to the book you are reading. It’s kind of like a more advanced version of the Kindle’s X-Ray feature.
There are Fictionaries for popular fantasy and science fiction epics like George Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series and Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. There are Fictionaries for classics written by Mark Twain and Jane Austen as well.
Checkout the Fictionary website for more information and free downloads.
As a language instructor and author of language learning textbooks, I’ve always found the Kindle’s built-in dictionary a great tool to make reading foreign language texts more fluid and frictionless. Whether it’s on your Kindle ereader, on your iPhone or iPad Kindle app, or Kindle Android app (see links for detailed instructions), custom dictionaries can be easily integrated, so that all you need to do is tap on unknown words to get an immediate translation.
What has been missing from this list so far is an option to get the same feature on desktop computers, i.e. when reading Kindle books on your PC or Mac.
Cloud Reader: Not Enough Dictionaries, No Copy & Paste
While trying to get Kindle PC to accept custom dictionaries ultimately proved futile, I started looking into another way to accomplish this with Kindle Cloud Reader. In case you’re not familiar with it, Cloud Reader is a web-app that allows you to read Kindle books directly from your browser. Also Cloud Reader offers a handful of pre-installed dictionaries, but unfortunately there is no discernible way to install more dictionaries. Even purchased dictionaries from the Kindle store don’t show up here.
Furthermore, Kindle Cloud Reader doesn’t allow copying of text, which is probably to prevent piracy, but also it prevents readers from looking up and translating words or using third-party browser extensions for further study, such as flashcards, etc.
The Kindle Cloud Reader Bookmarklet
So is Kindle Cloud Reader also a dead-end street if you’re trying to “click & translate” words from your Kindle books? Turns out, binarycrafts from Romania have found a way to circumvent Kindle Cloud reader’s blocking of text copying by use of a simple bookmarklet.
I’ve adapted their code for language learning purposes (specifically German learning), so that after activating the bookmarklet you get two different options for sending selected text to either dict.cc or Google Translate.
How does it work?
UPDATE: Thanks to motiko, there’s also now a Chrome Extension based on this code.
- Drag this bookmarklet to you bookmark bar (or copy this code and paste it into a new bookmark URL)
- Go to read.amazon.com
- Click on the bookmarklet. You’ll get a popup confirmation upon successful launch.
- Click on words to translate either via dict.cc or Google Translate
Obviously this is just a hack until Amazon will (hopefully) add the use of custom dictionaries to their PC, Mac or Cloud reader application. But until then it’s certainly a way to get quick translations. Let me know in the comments what you think.
How To Add Support For More Languages
In the above example, the bookmarklet only works for German-English, but what if you want to translate other languages? No problem. Here’s how you can modify the code to match your personal needs. First of all, open the code in a text editor and look for the following section:
if (r) {
var newW = window.open('http://pocket.dict.cc/?s=' + r, 'dict.cc' , 'height=400,width=448,location=0,menubar=0,scrollbars=1,toolbar=0');
}
});
$('#ACRExtensions_copyC', kDoc).click(function (evt) {
if (r) {
var newW = window.open('https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#auto/en/' + r, 'Google Translate' , 'height=400,width=776,location=0,menubar=0,scrollbars=1,toolbar=0');
}
});
The parts I highlighted in red are where the magic happens. As you can see, the code uses two URLs to do the dictionary queries: http://pocket.dict.cc/?s= and https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#auto/en/.
Now, let’s say I don’t want the German-English dictionary from dict.cc, but Spanish-German. First of all, let’s go to dict.cc or the mobile-friendly pocket.dict.cc. After selecting the correct dictionary, in our case “Deutsch Spanisch”, enter a word and take a close look at your browser’s address bar. For example, after typing in the word “esperanza”, you’ll see the following in the address bar: http://esde.pocket.dict.cc/?s=esperanza
Now we simply have to copy this URL, remove the example word, and we’re left with the following http://esde.pocket.dict.cc/?s=, which you can simply paste over the part of the above code where it says http://pocket.dict.cc/?s=.
The same we can do with the Google Translate URL. Go to Google Translate, type in something, select your language pair and click translate. For example, when I type in “bonjour”, select French on the left side and Hebrew on the right, my address bar says: https://translate.google.com/#fr/iw/bonjour
Kindle Mac App Dictionary Free
Again, all you have to do now is delete the example word and paste the string https://translate.google.com/#fr/iw/ over the part in the code where it says https://translate.google.com/?hl=en#auto/en/.
By the way, you could this with almost any dictionary you find online, not just Google Translate or dict.cc. For example, an example query URL for Spanish-Spanish from oxforddictionaries.com would look like this: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/spanish/esperanza, the German Duden dictionary builds its queries like this: http://www.duden.de/suchen/dudenonline/Selbstversuch and so on and so forth. Just remove the example word and replace the highlighted parts in the above code with these new strings.
When you’re done, copy all of your code, edit the existing bookmarklet and paste it in the URL field, or just create a new bookmark and paste it in the URL field there.
Kindle Mac App Dictionary Online
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