Free Dictionary API

Look up English words in the Free Dictionary API: definitions, parts of speech, usage examples, synonyms and antonyms, phonetic spellings and recordings of how a word is said. It can also answer whether a word exists at all, one word or a list at a time, which is what a spell check or a word game needs. Free, open source and drawn from Wiktionary. No account or API key is required.

Actions

Action	What it does
Check whether a word exists	Check whether the dictionary has an entry for a word.
Get a word's antonyms	List a word's opposites as one deduplicated list, and grouped by part of speech beside it.
Get a word's definitions	List a word's definitions as flat rows, one per definition, each with its part of speech and its usage example.
Get a word's parts of speech	Find out which parts of speech a word has, and how much sits under each: how many definitions, how many synonyms and antonyms, and the first definition as a sample.
Get a word's pronunciations	Get how a word is said: its phonetic spellings, and links to recordings of it in the British, American and Australian accents where they exist.
Get a word's synonyms	List a word's synonyms as one deduplicated list, and grouped by part of speech beside it.
Get a word's usage examples	List the sentences the dictionary gives to show a word in use, each beside the definition it illustrates.
Look up a word	Look a word up and get everything the dictionary holds for it: its pronunciation and audio, every part of speech, every definition with its usage example, and its synonyms and antonyms.
Look up a word (legacy v1 format)	Look a word up through the original v1 route, which the service keeps running for anything already built against it.
Look up several words	Look up a list of words in one step and get each one's first definition, pronunciation and parts of speech, plus the words that turned out not to be in the dictionary.

Check whether a word exists

Check whether the dictionary has an entry for a word. A word that is not in it answers 'no' rather than failing the step, which is what a spell check, a word game or a form validation needs. A word that is in it also comes back with its pronunciation, its parts of speech and its first definition, so a single step can both check and report.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.

Outputs

definition_countnumber
entry_countnumber
existstrue/false
first_definitiontext
parts_of_speechlist
phonetictext
wordtext

Example output

{
  "definition_count": 2,
  "entry_count": 1,
  "exists": true,
  "first_definition": "A combination of events which have come together by chance to make a surprisingly good or wonderful outcome.",
  "parts_of_speech": [
    "noun"
  ],
  "phonetic": "/\u02ccs\u025b.\u0279\u0259n.\u02c8d\u026a.p\u026a.ti/",
  "word": "serendipity"
}

Get a word's antonyms

List a word's opposites as one deduplicated list, and grouped by part of speech beside it. Like synonyms, antonyms sit both on the part of speech and on individual definitions, and both levels are merged here.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.
Parts of speechparts_of_speechlist: Narrow the answer to particular parts of speech. Leave this empty to get every part of speech the word has.One or more of: noun (Noun: a person, place or thing), proper noun (Proper noun: a name), verb (Verb: an action or a state), adjective (Adjective: describes a noun), adverb (Adverb: describes a verb or an adjective), pronoun (Pronoun: stands in for a noun), preposition (Preposition: for example in, on, under), conjunction (Conjunction: for example and, but, because), interjection (Interjection: for example hello, ouch, wow), numeral (Numeral: a number word).
Most rows to returnmax_resultsnumber: The most rows to return. Leave this empty to get all of them. The answer always reports the total, so you can see when there were more.From 1 to 500.

Outputs

antonymslist
countnumber
foundtrue/false
groupslist
totalnumber
wordtext

Example output

{
  "antonyms": [
    "bad",
    "evil",
    "poor"
  ],
  "count": 3,
  "found": true,
  "groups": [
    {
      "count": 3,
      "part_of_speech": "adjective",
      "words": [
        "bad",
        "evil",
        "poor"
      ]
    },
    {
      "count": 2,
      "part_of_speech": "noun",
      "words": [
        "bad",
        "evil"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "total": 3,
  "word": "good"
}

Get a word's definitions

List a word's definitions as flat rows, one per definition, each with its part of speech and its usage example. Narrow it to particular parts of speech to answer 'what does this mean as a verb?'. Every entry is read, so a word with more than one origin has all of its senses listed.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.
Parts of speechparts_of_speechlist: Narrow the answer to particular parts of speech. Leave this empty to get every part of speech the word has.One or more of: noun (Noun: a person, place or thing), proper noun (Proper noun: a name), verb (Verb: an action or a state), adjective (Adjective: describes a noun), adverb (Adverb: describes a verb or an adjective), pronoun (Pronoun: stands in for a noun), preposition (Preposition: for example in, on, under), conjunction (Conjunction: for example and, but, because), interjection (Interjection: for example hello, ouch, wow), numeral (Numeral: a number word).
Most rows to returnmax_resultsnumber: The most rows to return. Leave this empty to get all of them. The answer always reports the total, so you can see when there were more.From 1 to 500.

Outputs

countnumber
definitionslist
foundtrue/false
parts_of_speechlist
totalnumber
wordtext

Example output

{
  "count": 2,
  "definitions": [
    {
      "antonyms": [],
      "definition": "A low spectrum of sound tones.",
      "entry_number": 1,
      "example": "Peter adjusted the equalizer on his audio equipment to emphasize the bass.",
      "part_of_speech": "noun",
      "synonyms": []
    },
    {
      "antonyms": [],
      "definition": "The perch; any of various marine and freshwater fish resembling the perch, all within the order Perciformes.",
      "entry_number": 2,
      "example": "",
      "part_of_speech": "noun",
      "synonyms": []
    }
  ],
  "found": true,
  "parts_of_speech": [
    "noun",
    "verb",
    "adjective"
  ],
  "total": 9,
  "word": "bass"
}

Get a word's parts of speech

Find out which parts of speech a word has, and how much sits under each: how many definitions, how many synonyms and antonyms, and the first definition as a sample. This answers 'is run a noun as well as a verb?' without reading a whole entry.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.

Outputs

countnumber
detailslist
foundtrue/false
parts_of_speechlist
wordtext

Example output

{
  "count": 3,
  "details": [
    {
      "antonym_count": 0,
      "definition_count": 1,
      "entry_number": 1,
      "first_definition": "\"Hello!\" or an equivalent greeting.",
      "part_of_speech": "noun",
      "synonym_count": 1
    },
    {
      "antonym_count": 2,
      "definition_count": 5,
      "entry_number": 1,
      "first_definition": "A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone's arrival or presence.",
      "part_of_speech": "interjection",
      "synonym_count": 0
    }
  ],
  "found": true,
  "parts_of_speech": [
    "noun",
    "verb",
    "interjection"
  ],
  "word": "hello"
}

Get a word's pronunciations

Get how a word is said: its phonetic spellings, and links to recordings of it in the British, American and Australian accents where they exist. Each row carries the licence and the source page behind it, which is what has to be credited if a recording is played or republished.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.
Only ones with audioonly_with_audiotrue/false: Leave out the phonetic spellings that have no recording, so every row returned has a playable link.Default: false.

Outputs

audio_urltext
countnumber
foundtrue/false
phonetictext
pronunciationslist
wordtext

Example output

{
  "audio_url": "https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/hello-au.mp3",
  "count": 2,
  "found": true,
  "phonetic": "/h\u0259\u02c8l\u0259\u028a/",
  "pronunciations": [
    {
      "audio": "https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/hello-au.mp3",
      "license_name": "BY-SA 4.0",
      "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0",
      "source_url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=75797336",
      "text": ""
    },
    {
      "audio": "https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/hello-uk.mp3",
      "license_name": "BY 3.0 US",
      "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us",
      "source_url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9021983",
      "text": "/h\u0259\u02c8l\u0259\u028a/"
    }
  ],
  "word": "hello"
}

Get a word's synonyms

List a word's synonyms as one deduplicated list, and grouped by part of speech beside it. The dictionary keeps synonyms in two places, on the part of speech and on the individual definition, and both are read, so nothing is missed.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.
Parts of speechparts_of_speechlist: Narrow the answer to particular parts of speech. Leave this empty to get every part of speech the word has.One or more of: noun (Noun: a person, place or thing), proper noun (Proper noun: a name), verb (Verb: an action or a state), adjective (Adjective: describes a noun), adverb (Adverb: describes a verb or an adjective), pronoun (Pronoun: stands in for a noun), preposition (Preposition: for example in, on, under), conjunction (Conjunction: for example and, but, because), interjection (Interjection: for example hello, ouch, wow), numeral (Numeral: a number word).
Most rows to returnmax_resultsnumber: The most rows to return. Leave this empty to get all of them. The answer always reports the total, so you can see when there were more.From 1 to 500.

Outputs

countnumber
foundtrue/false
groupslist
synonymslist
totalnumber
wordtext

Example output

{
  "count": 4,
  "found": true,
  "groups": [
    {
      "count": 4,
      "part_of_speech": "adjective",
      "words": [
        "cheerful",
        "content",
        "delighted",
        "elated"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    "cheerful",
    "content",
    "delighted",
    "elated"
  ],
  "total": 13,
  "word": "happy"
}

Get a word's usage examples

List the sentences the dictionary gives to show a word in use, each beside the definition it illustrates. Only some definitions carry one, so this is the subset that does, which is what a vocabulary exercise or a writing prompt needs.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.
Parts of speechparts_of_speechlist: Narrow the answer to particular parts of speech. Leave this empty to get every part of speech the word has.One or more of: noun (Noun: a person, place or thing), proper noun (Proper noun: a name), verb (Verb: an action or a state), adjective (Adjective: describes a noun), adverb (Adverb: describes a verb or an adjective), pronoun (Pronoun: stands in for a noun), preposition (Preposition: for example in, on, under), conjunction (Conjunction: for example and, but, because), interjection (Interjection: for example hello, ouch, wow), numeral (Numeral: a number word).
Most rows to returnmax_resultsnumber: The most rows to return. Leave this empty to get all of them. The answer always reports the total, so you can see when there were more.From 1 to 500.

Outputs

countnumber
exampleslist
foundtrue/false
totalnumber
wordtext

Example output

{
  "count": 2,
  "examples": [
    {
      "definition": "A greeting (salutation) said when meeting someone or acknowledging someone's arrival or presence.",
      "example": "Hello, everyone.",
      "part_of_speech": "interjection"
    },
    {
      "definition": "A greeting used when answering the telephone.",
      "example": "Hello? How may I help you?",
      "part_of_speech": "interjection"
    }
  ],
  "found": true,
  "total": 5,
  "word": "hello"
}

Look up a word

Look a word up and get everything the dictionary holds for it: its pronunciation and audio, every part of speech, every definition with its usage example, and its synonyms and antonyms. A word with more than one origin, such as 'bass', comes back as several separate entries and all of them are returned. The fields at the top are the ones a message usually wants, so the common case needs no digging.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.

Outputs

audio_urltext
definition_countnumber
entrieslist
entry_countnumber
first_definitiontext
foundtrue/false
parts_of_speechlist
phonetictext
source_urlslist
wordtext

Example output

{
  "audio_url": "https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/hello-uk.mp3",
  "definition_count": 7,
  "entries": [
    {
      "entry_number": 1,
      "license_name": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
      "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0",
      "meanings": [
        {
          "antonyms": [],
          "definitions": [
            {
              "antonyms": [],
              "definition": "\"Hello!\" or an equivalent greeting.",
              "example": "",
              "synonyms": []
            }
          ],
          "part_of_speech": "noun",
          "synonyms": [
            "greeting"
          ]
        },
        {
          "antonyms": [
            "bye",
            "goodbye"
          ],
          "definitions": [
            {
              "antonyms": [],
              "definition": "A greeting used when answering the telephone.",
              "example": "Hello? How may I help you?",
              "synonyms": []
            }
          ],
          "part_of_speech": "interjection",
          "synonyms": []
        }
      ],
      "origin": "",
      "phonetic": "",
      "phonetics": [
        {
          "audio": "https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/hello-uk.mp3",
          "license_name": "BY 3.0 US",
          "license_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/us",
          "source_url": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9021983",
          "text": "/h\u0259\u02c8l\u0259\u028a/"
        }
      ],
      "source_urls": [
        "https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hello"
      ],
      "word": "hello"
    }
  ],
  "entry_count": 1,
  "first_definition": "\"Hello!\" or an equivalent greeting.",
  "found": true,
  "parts_of_speech": [
    "noun",
    "verb",
    "interjection"
  ],
  "phonetic": "/h\u0259\u02c8l\u0259\u028a/",
  "source_urls": [
    "https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hello"
  ],
  "word": "hello"
}

Look up a word (legacy v1 format)

Look a word up through the original v1 route, which the service keeps running for anything already built against it. v1 groups an entry's definitions under each part of speech, carries no part-of-speech-level synonym lists, and collapses two blocks of the same part of speech into one, so it can return fewer definitions than 'Look up a word' does. Use this only to match something that already expects that shape. 'Look up a word' is the one to use otherwise.

Inputs

WordwordtextRequired: The English word to look up. One word at a time, spelled however you like: the dictionary matches without regard to capitals.

Outputs

audio_urltext
definition_countnumber
entry_countnumber
foundtrue/false
groupslist
parts_of_speechlist
phonetictext
source_urlslist
wordtext

Example output

{
  "audio_url": "https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/hello-au.mp3",
  "definition_count": 7,
  "entry_count": 1,
  "found": true,
  "groups": [
    {
      "definition_count": 1,
      "definitions": [
        {
          "antonyms": [],
          "definition": "\"Hello!\" or an equivalent greeting.",
          "example": "",
          "synonyms": []
        }
      ],
      "entry_number": 1,
      "part_of_speech": "noun"
    },
    {
      "definition_count": 1,
      "definitions": [
        {
          "antonyms": [],
          "definition": "To greet with \"hello\".",
          "example": "",
          "synonyms": []
        }
      ],
      "entry_number": 1,
      "part_of_speech": "verb"
    }
  ],
  "parts_of_speech": [
    "noun",
    "verb",
    "interjection"
  ],
  "phonetic": "/h\u0259\u02c8l\u0259\u028a/",
  "source_urls": [
    "https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/hello"
  ],
  "word": "hello"
}

Look up several words

Look up a list of words in one step and get each one's first definition, pronunciation and parts of speech, plus the words that turned out not to be in the dictionary. This is the step for checking a vocabulary list or a spelling list without a loop. Each word costs one request to a free service, so up to 25 words at a time.

Inputs

WordswordslistRequired: The English words to look up, one per row. At most 25 in one step, and a word repeated is only looked up once.

Outputs

countnumber
foundlist
found_countnumber
not_foundlist
not_found_countnumber
requests_madenumber
resultslist

Example output

{
  "count": 2,
  "found": [
    "dog"
  ],
  "found_count": 1,
  "not_found": [
    "definately"
  ],
  "not_found_count": 1,
  "requests_made": 2,
  "results": [
    {
      "audio_url": "https://api.dictionaryapi.dev/media/pronunciations/en/dog-uk.mp3",
      "definition": "A mammal, Canis familiaris or Canis lupus familiaris, that has been domesticated for thousands of years.",
      "definition_count": 28,
      "found": true,
      "parts_of_speech": [
        "noun",
        "verb"
      ],
      "phonetic": "/d\u0251\u0261/",
      "word": "dog"
    },
    {
      "audio_url": "",
      "definition": "",
      "definition_count": 0,
      "found": false,
      "parts_of_speech": [],
      "phonetic": "",
      "word": "definately"
    }
  ]
}

ActionsCopy Anchor Link

Check whether a word existsCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Get a word's antonymsCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Get a word's definitionsCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Get a word's parts of speechCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Get a word's pronunciationsCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Get a word's synonymsCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Get a word's usage examplesCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Look up a wordCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Look up a word (legacy v1 format)Copy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

Look up several wordsCopy Anchor Link

Inputs

Outputs

On this page

Actions

Check whether a word exists

Get a word's antonyms

Get a word's definitions

Get a word's parts of speech

Get a word's pronunciations

Get a word's synonyms

Get a word's usage examples

Look up a word

Look up a word (legacy v1 format)

Look up several words