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Dictionary Formats

Popular dictionary formats are all supported.

Local Dictionaries Sources

  • MDict dictionaries (.mdx/.mdd)
  • StarDict dictionaries (.ifo/.dict./.idx/.syn)
  • DSL dictionaries (ABBYY Lingvo source files .dsl(.dz))
  • XDXF dictionaries (.xdxf(.dz))
  • Zim dictionaries (.zim)
  • Slob (Aard 2) dictionaries (.slob)
  • DictD dictionaries (.index/.dict(.dz))
  • Epwing dictionaries
  • Aard Dictionary dictionaries, outdated predecessor of Slob (.aar)
  • SDictionary dictionaries (.dct)
  • Babylon glossary builder source files (.gls(.dz))
  • Babylon dictionaries, complete support with images and resources (.BGL)

  • ABBYY Lingvo sound archives (.lsa/.dat)

  • Sound files in separate folders. File names are used as word

  • Zipped sound pack. Sound files zipped, but with extension changed from .zip to (.zips)

Network Sources

  • Wikipedia and Wiktionary
  • DICT protocol
  • LinguaLibre/Forvo pronunciations
  • Any sites which allow set target word in address line

Other Sources

Various special "dictionaries" can be added, such as Programs, TTS, Morphology, Transliteration, etc... Their doc located at Sources Management

Additional info

Converting between formats

GoldenDict-ng does not provide any dictionary modification functionality.

To convert between formats, try tools like pyglossary.

Custom Dictionary Icon

Every local dictionary can have a custom icon. Supported formats are PNG, JPEG, GIF, SVG, WebP, ICO and BMP.

For most dictionary formats, a dictionary's icon file should have the same basename as the main dictionary file and be placed beside the main dictionary file. For example:

.
├── My_best_dictionary.mdx <- the main dictionary file
└── My_best_dictionary.svg <- the icon

For XDXF, GD will prioritize to use icon16.png, icon32.png or dict.bmp in the dictionary folder as icon.

For Epwing, the icon file should be placed beside the catalogs file and have the same name as the parent folder that contains catalogs file.

Stardict

Main file of Stardict dictionary (.dict) can be compressed by Dictzip program to reduce its size.

Resource storage folder (images, style sheets, etc.) should be named as res beside other dictionary files.

The res folder can be compressed into res.zip or my_name.res.zip (for main dict filename my_name.ifo/dict). This zip file shuold also be placed beside other dictionary files. The internal structure of the zip file should not have a top level folder.

ABBYY Lingvo (.dsl)

Main file of ABBYY Lingvo dictionary (.dsl) can be compressed by Dictzip program to reduce its size.

Additional dictionary resources (images, sound files, etc.) also can be compressed into zip archive. This archive must be named on main dictionary file name (include extension) with adding ".files.zip" and placed beside other dictionary files. If main file of your dictionary, for example, named "My_best_dictionary.dsl" therefore archive with resources must be named "My_best_dictionary.dsl.files.zip".

GoldenDict supports the "#SOUND_DICTIONARY" directive. Sounds missing in the resources of the dictionary will be searched first in the dictionary specified in this directive.

DictD and XDXF compression

Main file of DictD dictionary (.dict) or XDXF dictionary (.xdxf) can be compressed into *.dict.dz or *.xdxf.dz by Dictzip program to reduce its size.

Slob

GoldenDict can render TeX formulas when a slob dictionary bundles MathJax.

GLS

Main file of Babylon source dictionary must be in UTF-8 (or UTF-16 with BOM) encoding. It can be compressed by Dictzip program to reduce its size. Golden Dict read from dictionary header "### Glossary title:", "### Author:", "### Description:", "### Source language:" and "### Target language:" fields only. Dictionary header must be concluded with "### Glossary section:" mark.

ABBYY Lingvo sound archives

ABBYY Lingvo sound archives are set of sound files packed into one file of some specific format. These files can be called directly from matches list or from dictionary articles.

Sound files in separate folders

The separate folder with sound files can be added into GoldenDict dictionaries list. GoldenDict will handle this folders like ABBYY Lingvo sound archives (inapplicable in portable mode).

Zips sound packs

Zips sound pack is zip archive with extension ".zips" contains set of sound files. To create suck pack it needs to compress sound files into zip archive and change extension of this archive to ".zips". GoldenDict will handle such sound packs like ABBYY Lingvo sound archives.

General notes

At every launch GoldenDict scan folders with dictionaries to create dictionaries list. The more files in these folder is the more time for scanning. Therefore it is recommended to compress dictionary resources into zip archives and to use Zips sound packs instead of sound files in separate folders.