Oxford Dictionaries API Documentation

The Oxford Dictionaries API allows easy access to our world-renowned dictionary content. Use the documentation below to explore a number of code samples to help you get started.

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Take a look at the FAQ page for lots of tips on how to get things done.

Entries
Lemmas
Search
Translations
Thesaurus
Sentences
Utility
Words
Inflections

Implementation notes

/api/v2/entries/{source_lang}/{word_id}:

Use this to retrieve definitions, pronunciations

The way in which a word is pronounced.

We generally give pronunciations both as sound files and in a phonetic spelling.

E.g. through “Pronunciation: /θruː/”

, example sentences, grammatical information

A grammatical feature provides extra information about a lexicalCategory (see below). E.g. a grammaticalFeature may say that a noun is plural, or that a verb is intransitive.

and word origins

An account of the origin and historical development of the word.

E.g. ‘grammar’ has the etymology “Late Middle English: from Old French gramaire, via Latin from Greek grammatikē (tekhnē) '(art) of letters', from gramma, grammat- 'letter of the alphabet, thing written'.”

. TIP: Entries ONLY works for dictionary headwords. You may need to use the Lemmas endpoint first to link an inflected form back to its headword (e.g., pixels --> pixel). Use filters to limit the entry

A complete account of a particular word. This can include a word’s senses, definitions, translations, origin, and any phrases featuring the word.

information that is returned. For example, you may only require definitions and not everything else, or just pronunciations

The way in which a word is pronounced.

We generally give pronunciations both as sound files and in a phonetic spelling.

E.g. through “Pronunciation: /θruː/”

. The full list of filters can be retrieved from the filters Utility endpoint. You can also specify values within the filter using '='. For example 'grammaticalFeatures=singular'. Filters can also be combined. Combining different filters will build a query using 'AND' operators, while if a filter contains more than one value it will build a query using 'OR' operators. For example, a combination of filters like '?grammaticalFeatures=singular&lexicalCategory=noun,verb' will return entries which match the query ('noun' OR 'verb') AND 'singular'.

/api/v2/lemmas/{source_lang}/{word_id}:

Use this to check if a word exists in the dictionary, or what 'root' form it links to (e.g., swimming > swim). The response tells you the possible lemmas

Lemma is a general term for any headword, phrase, or other form that can be looked up.

E.g. ‘act’, ‘acting’, ‘act up’, ‘get one’s act together’ are all lemmas.

for a given inflected

An inflection is a change in the form of a word to express a grammatical function such as tense, mood, person, number, case, or gender.

Example: ‘foxes’ is an inflected form of ‘fox’.

word. This can then be combined with other endpoints to retrieve more information. The results can be filtered by lexicalCategories and/or grammaticalFeatures. Filters can be combined. Combining different filters will build a query using 'AND' operators, while if a filter contains more than one value it will build a query using 'OR' operators. For example, a combination of filters like '?grammaticalFeatures=singular&lexicalCategory=noun,verb' will return entries which match the query ('noun' OR 'verb') AND 'singular'.

/api/v2/search/translations/{source_lang_search}/{target_lang_search}:

Use this to find possible translations for a given word.

/api/v2/search/{source_lang}:

Use this to retrieve possible headword

The headword is the word being defined or translated.

matches for a given string of text. The results are calculated using headword matching, fuzzy matching, and lemmatization

Lemma is a general term for any headword, phrase, or other form that can be looked up.

E.g. ‘act’, ‘acting’, ‘act up’, ‘get one’s act together’ are all lemmas.

/api/v2/search/thesaurus/{source_lang}

Use this to retrieve possible headword

The headword is the word being defined or translated.

matches for a given string of text. The results are calculated using headword matching, fuzzy matching, and lemmatization

Lemma is a general term for any headword, phrase, or other form that can be looked up.

E.g. ‘act’, ‘acting’, ‘act up’, ‘get one’s act together’ are all lemmas.

/api/v2/translations/{source_lang_translate}/{target_lang_translate}/{word_id}:

Use this to return translations for a given word. In the event that a word in the dataset does not have a direct translation, the response will be a definition

A complete account of a particular word. This can include a word’s senses, definitions, translations, origin, and any phrases featuring the word.

in the target language.

/api/v2/thesaurus/{lang}/{word_id}:

Use this to retrieve words that are similar/opposite in meaning to the input word (synonym

A word which is similar in meaning to another word, e.g. ‘enthusiastic’ is a synonym of ‘keen’.

/antonym

A word which is opposite in meaning to another word, e.g. ‘apathetic’ is an antonym of ‘enthusiastic’.

). Tip: Some Entries responses contain sense-level links to a Thesaurus entry by the property "thesaurusLink". For instance:

                                            
                                                {
                                                    "thesaurusLinks": [
                                                        {
                                                            "entry_id": "abide_by",
                                                            "sense_id": "t_en_gb0000029.003"
                                                        }
                                                    ]
                                                }

/api/v2/sentences/{source_lang}/{word_id}:

Use this to retrieve sentences extracted from a corpus of real-world language, including news and blog content. This is available for English and Spanish. For English, the sentences are linked to the correct sense

A sense is a particular meaning of a word.

Example: the word ‘mouse’ has the following senses:

1) A small rodent that typically has a pointed snout, relatively large ears and eyes, and a long tail.

2) A small handheld device which is moved across a mat or flat surface to move the cursor on a computer screen.

of the word in the dictionary. In Spanish, they are linked at the headword

The headword is the word being defined or translated.

level.

/api/v2/domains/{source_lang}:

Returns a list of the available domains

Domain labels give the subject area of a word or sense (e.g. Music, Computing, Politics).

E.g. ‘cardiogram’ has the domain class “Medicine”.

for a given monolingual language dataset.

/api/v2/domains/{source_lang_domains}/{target_lang_domains}:

Returns a list of the available domains

Domain labels give the subject area of a word or sense (e.g. Music, Computing, Politics).

E.g. ‘cardiogram’ has the domain class “Medicine”.

for a given bilingual language dataset.

/api/v2/fields:

Returns a list of the available fields to construct API requests.

/api/v2/fields/{endpoint}:

Returns the lists of fields available to construct API requests for a given endpoint.

/api/v2/filters:

Returns a list of all the valid filters to construct API requests.

/api/v2/filters/{endpoint}:

Returns a list of all the valid filters by endpoint to construct API requests.

/api/v2/grammaticalFeatures/{source_lang}:

Returns a list of the available grammatical features

A grammatical feature provides extra information about a lexicalCategory (see below). E.g. a grammaticalFeature may say that a noun is plural, or that a verb is intransitive.

for a given monolingual dataset.

/api/v2/grammaticalFeatures/{source_lang_grammatical}/{target_lang_grammatical}:

Returns a list of the available grammatical features

A grammatical feature provides extra information about a lexicalCategory (see below). E.g. a grammaticalFeature may say that a noun is plural, or that a verb is intransitive.

for a given bilingual dataset.

/api/v2/languages:

Returns the names of monolingual and bilingual language datasets available in the API

/api/v2/lexicalCategories/{source_lang}:

Returns a list of available lexical categories

The linguistic category of a word, e.g. the part of speech (‘noun’, ‘verb’, ‘adjective’ etc.), or other category (‘abbreviation’, ‘symbol’ etc.).

for a given language dataset.

/api/v2/lexicalCategories/{source_lang_lexical}/{target_lang_lexical}:

Returns a list of available lexical categories

The linguistic category of a word, e.g. the part of speech (‘noun’, ‘verb’, ‘adjective’ etc.), or other category (‘abbreviation’, ‘symbol’ etc.).

for a given bilingual dataset.

/api/v2/registers/{source_lang}:

Returns a list of the available registers

Register labels tell us the linguistic level of a word of sense. This includes the formality of a word or sense (e.g. formal, informal), its typical context (e.g. technical, literary), and whether it is taboo in some contexts (e.g. vulgar slang, offensive).

Example: ‘prithee’ has the register “archaic”.

for a given monolingual language dataset.

/api/v2/registers/{source_lang_registers}/{target_lang_registers}:

Returns a list of the available registers

Example: ‘prithee’ has the register “archaic”.

for a given bilingual language dataset.

/api/v2/words/{source_lang}:

Use this endpoint to retrieve definitions, examples and other information for a given dictionary word or an inflection (e.g., running > run). The response contains information about the lemmas to which the given word/inflected form is linked.

The results can be filtered by lexicalCategories, domains, registers or grammaticalFeatures. Filters can be combined.

In addition, users can use fields to project some of the properties.

Combining different filters will build a query using 'AND' operators, while if a filter contains more than one value it will build a query using 'OR' operators. For example, a combination of filters like '?grammaticalFeatures=singular&lexicalCategory=noun,verb' will return entries which match the query ('noun' OR 'verb') AND 'singular'.

/inflections/{source_lang}/{word_id}:

Retrieve all the inflections

An inflection is a change in the form of a word to express a grammatical function such as tense, mood, person, number, case, or gender. Example: 'foxes' is an inflected form of 'fox'

of a given word_id. The inflections are given for a lexicalEntry with a specific lexicalCategory.