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LATdict: A Free Online Latin <=> English Dictionary

Well, Look Who Got His Dictionary Back!

Update (12/20): The dictionary is now functional!

To make a long story short, I had been hosting this site on my previous employer's web server. When I moved on, I forgot to download backups of my websites (this one included). Within a few days all of my sites had been expunged, forever lost.

I don't blame my former employer, as company policy mandates the removal all files and accounts; however, I was left without a site. That was in March. Now, fast forward to 12/20/2010. After digging around in an old portable hard drive of mine, I found an old database backup as well as an old version of the LatDict site (I had since given it a facelift and added a great grammar resource section). Figuring that having an old site up is better than having no site up at all, I went ahead and uploaded everything, and I've just needed to take a few days to sort through the kinks to get everything in working order again.

With this new rediscovery I've taken a keen interest in redesigning the website, and making it more accessible to the community at large. I know a lot of people really loved LatDict, and I really enjoyed getting e-mails from everyone ranging from avid binomial nomenclature plant enthusiasts to folks looking to get tattoos. All very cool stuff, indeed. So, I want to hopefully bring the site up to another level that allows people to comment on words, and possibly even contribute translations to the dictionay in the future as well.

So, hopefully as time permits I can start implementing things. The first big announcement is that I'm renaming the dictionary to Quaero--a word that rolls off the tongue better, and seems a fitting title for a site. So, if you see a crazy template and name change, don't freak out. I haven't sold the site to some crazy company. ;)

Meanwhile, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to e-mail me: kabojnk [at] gmail.com. Happy holidays!

-Kevin

Information

LATdict is a powerful dictionary tool to aid those wishing to lookup Latin words or their English equivalents. LATdict currently boasts 39,225 Latin word entries, and 229,345 searchable English words.

What's So Special about LATdict?

Several Latin dictionaries currently exist on the web, but most of them provide raw, cryptic or otherwise unwanted results. I created LATdict because I was tired of dealing with irrelevant search results and digging through cryptic codes that described a word's function and history. When I finished creating LATdict, the dictionary exhibited the following features:

  • LATdict uses an effective and efficient search algorithm, based on experience working with other websites that provide a query-based service.
  • LATdict also ranks entries based on how often they appear in Latin literature; Latin can have several different words for the same term, but some words are more popular than others. LATdict utilizes the information to provide more common words at the top of dictionary search results.
  • LATdict spells everything out in plain English (or Latin). One thing that constantly pains me about Latin dictionaries is that they often omit information about their entries, such as omitting declension, conjugation, and other auxiliary information. Other dictionaries might list this information, but provide it in a raw or otherwise cryptic format. LATdict goes out of its way to specify information about each entry. In fact, LATdict also provides other information as well, including the age of the entry, its area of use, its geographical influence, its frequency, and the source of the entry.



Random Entry

culmen, culminis, n
1. "keystone"
2. head, chief
3. height/peak/top/summit/zenith
4. roof, gable, ridge-pole
Age: In use throughout the ages/unknown
Area: All or none
Geography: All or none
Frequency: frequent
Source: Oxford Latin Dictionary, 1982 (OLD)


The Future

I am currently working on providing a Latin resource section to the website, which will provide grammatical information about the Latin language, including declensions, conjugations, sentence construction, and other information to help one to fully utilize LATdict.

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