Preferences and usage tips

Save preferences

Search in	De↔En Dictionary De→En Dictionary En→De Dictionary De↔En Examples Definitions En Synonyms De Sayings En Sayings De De↔Es Dictionary De→Es Dictionary Es→De Dictionary De↔Es Examples Sayings Es De↔Pt Dictionary De→Pt Dictionary Pt→De Dictionary De↔Pt Examples
Show suggestions while typing?	Don't show word suggestions Show word suggestions
Ignore case or search case sensitive?	ignore case exact case
Try error correction for spelling	tolerant exact 1 error approximate
With a click in the result	Show menu for further lookup, translate on double click Translate on click, show menu on double click No action
With phonetic spelling in the result (if available)	w/o phonetic transcr. engl. phonetic transcr.
Display of the results	Detailed: Show all results including examples Compact: Show main results, click to see all Don't separate results by color Separate results by color Show extra scrollbar for results Use the usual scrollbar for results Results w/o hints for frequency Results with hints for frequency Hide vulgar and slang words Show also vulgar and slang words
Design	Standard Summer Simple

Search in

Search for a word

• in our German - English/Spanish/Portuguese Dictionary
  • De<>En De<>Es De<>Pt Dict = search your input in both languages
  • De>>En De>>Es De>>Pt Dict = translate your input from German to English/Spanisch/Portuguese
  • En>>De Es>>De Pt>>De Dict = translate your input from English/SpanishPortuguese to German
• in English explanations, synonyms and examples
• in German synonyms to find alternative words
• in sayings, aphorisms and quotations in German or English
• in example sentences (De-En)

Spelling correction

• exact: search exactly for your word(s) without spelling corrections
• 1 error: One spelling mistake will be tolerated.
• tolerant: We try to find your exact word. If there is no result we search for a similar word.
• approximate: Here you'll get always a result. Sometimes this may show strange results ...

Pronunciation - Phonetic transcription

Whenever you find the speaker icon in the results you may listen to the pronunciation of the corresponding word (Macromedia Flash required).

If you're interested in the phonetic transcription of the (North American) pronunciation to the English words select the w/ phonetic transcr, option, or add a hash sign # to the search word. The phonetic transcription for the US-American pronunciation of the words will be given in square brackets if available.

See also: Help for phonetic transscription

The pronunciation rules are based on the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary.

Sorting of the results

We try to sort the results to show you the "best" translations on top. We use some heuristics as well as frequency lists containing the mosts used German and English words in written language. If you enable the option "results with hints for frequency" you'll get a "frequency value" in square brackets with the words in the result. This is a value from 1 to 10 with 10 as the highest frequency in the appropriate written language.

Of course, this sorting will not always be optimal, as we don't know the context of the searched word. You can affect the sorting by choosing the right search direction "search in:".

Search further within the results

In the translation result you may click on many words. You can justify what will be happening then:

• Translation: The word you've click will be translated using our BEOLINGUS dictionary (default).
• Monolingual dictionary: Definitions and synonym will be shown.
• Wikipedia: The word will be looked up in the Free Encyclopedia (external)
• Monolingual: The word will be looked up in the German Thesaurus (Uni Leipzig) or in the Merriam Webster (external).
• You may search the word in sayings, proverbs, quotations ...
• Or you may switch off all links in the result.

Umlauts

To search for words containing umlauts use the "Umlaut buttons", or use the mappings according to the table below. Of course, if your keyboard has umlaut keys you could use them as well.

ä -> ae

Ä -> Ae

ö -> oe

Ö -> Oe

ü -> ue

Ü -> ue

ß -> ss

Wildcard Search

A simple wildcard search is supported by inserting or appending an asterisk *.

Example: Search for star*t finds: start, starlet, starlight ...

Search for multiple words

• One of many words (boolean OR): start, begin
• All words (boolean AND): start +up
• Word phrase: start up or "start up"
  

Spell check and suggestions

If you are uncertain about the spelling of a word you may request a spell check by adding a question mark ? after the search word. Alternate words will be suggested if available.

The spell check is made by ispell.

Example: Search for immidiate? finds: immediate, imitate, immoderate, ...