Google Dictionary

Google Dictionary is an online dictionary service of Google that is accessible in Google Translate, as a Google Chrome extension, and formerly with the "define" operator and other similar phrases in Google Search. The dictionary content is licensed from Oxford University Press's Oxford Languages. It is available in different languages, such as English, Spanish and French. The service on Google Search also contained pronunciation audio, Google Translate, a word origin chart, Ngram Viewer, and word games, among other features for the English-language version. Originally available as a standalone service, it was integrated into Google Search, with the standalone service discontinued in August 2011. As of , the Google Dictionary is no longer available on Google Search as it has been replaced with AI Overviews.

Microsoft's Bing provides a similar dictionary service that also licenses dictionary data from Oxford Languages. Apple also licenses dictionary data from Oxford for its iOS and macOS products.

History The service originated in Google Translate, and was launched as a standalone service (google.com/dictionary) in December 2009. Google displayed definitions from Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary for English until August 2010, when it switched to the Oxford American College Dictionary.

After being integrated into Google Search, the dictionary was discontinued as a separate service on August 5, 2011, and was accessible with the "define" operator or by simply searching for a word. The dictionary service is also still available in Google Translate and can be accessed by selecting a single word. Google has also released the service as an extension for Chrome.

, Google licenses dictionary data from Oxford Languages for multiple languages, including British/American English, Spanish, and German.

On Arabic Language Day (December 18) in 2015, Google added an Arabic-language dictionary, available globally, to the service that showed definitions, translations, and example usages of the word in a sentence.

In February 2017, online news website Daily Caller accused Google of changing the definition of the word "fascism" in Google Dictionary, which resulted in the definition being removed entirely. It was later found that the definition was exactly from an external source and was not written by Google. Definitions for other contentious terms like "rape" were also removed by 2018.

Google added a Hindi dictionary from Rajpal & Sons licensed via Oxford Dictionaries which also supported transliteration and translation to the service in April 2017.

In July 2017, the dictionary was made directly available by typing "dictionary" in Google Search and additional features such as a search box, autocomplete and search history were also added.

In January 2018, a "Similar-sounding words" feature was added to the English dictionary which highlights words that sound similar such as "aesthetic" and "ascetic", "pray" and "prey", "conscientious" and "conscious" etc. "Google Word Coach" vocabulary game was made available along with dictionary searches and as a separate game on mobile devices in February 2018. In August 2018, Google Search added an English and Hindi dictionary for mobile users in India with an option to switch to the English only dictionary.

A "learn to pronounce" option was added to the English dictionary in December 2018 which shows how a word is pronounced with its non-phonemic pronunciation respelling and audio in different accents (such as British and American) along with an option to slow the audio down, visemes for pronunciations were also added in April 2019.

In November 2025, Google began testing replacing the dictionary feature with AI Overviews on Google Search for certain users. In March 2026, Google started replacing the dictionary with AI Overviews for mobile users while the dictionary remained for desktop users. By June 2026, the dictionary feature was fully removed from Google Search and is no longer available.

Languages Google displays dictionaries for the following languages licensed from Oxford Dictionaries which provides data from its own and other published dictionaries. LanguageDictionaryPublisherNotesExample searchArabicAvailable worldwide Search operator: "ما معنى"ما معنى أيانChinese (Simplified)现代汉语规范词典 [Xiandai Hanyu Guifan Cidian]

(The Standard Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese)Oxford University Press Foreign Language Teaching and Research PressAvailable worldwidedefine 船English (UK)Oxford Dictionary of English Oxford Thesaurus of EnglishOxford University PressShown worldwide (except North America)define appleEnglish (US)New Oxford American Dictionary Oxford Thesaurus of English

Oxford American Writer's ThesaurusOxford University Press, Inc.Shown in North Americadefine appleEnglish-Indic(Hindi/Marathi/Tamil)Oxford Wordpower DictionaryOxford University PressShown in India (only on mobile devices)define appleFrenchLe Petit Robert Google Translate:

Multidictionnaire de la langue françaiseDictionnaires Le Robert Google Translate:

Les Éditions Québec Amérique Inc.Available worldwidedefine légendeGermanDudenBibliographisches Institut GmbHAvailable worldwidedefine KrausHindiराजपाल हिन्दी शब्दकोश [Rajpal Hindi Shabdkosh]

(Rajpal Hindi Dictionary)Rajpal & SonsAvailable worldwide Supports transliteration

Search operator: "का अर्थ"शब्द का अर्थItalianIl Devoto–OliMondadori Education S.p.A.Available worldwidedefine attrezzoJapaneseAvailable worldwidedefine こんにちはKorean뉴에이스 국어사전 [Nyueiseu Gug-eosajeon] New Ace Korean Language DictionaryDIOTEKAvailable worldwidedefine 한국어Portuguese (Brazil)Houaiss Dictionary of the Portuguese LanguageEditora ObjetivaAvailable worldwidedefine alhoRussianDictionary of the Russian Language (Ozhegov)"Universe and Education" Publishing House Ltd.Available worldwidedefine ресторанSpanishDiccionario General de la Lengua Española VoxLarousse Editorial SLAvailable worldwidedefine trastiendaThaiพจนานุกรมไทย ฉบับทันสมัยและสมบูรณ์ [Phcnanukrm Thiy Chbab Thansmay

Laea Smburn] (Complete Thai Dictionary)SE-Education Public Company LimitedAvailable worldwidedefine ดTurkishArkadaş Türkçe SözlükArkadaş Publishing LtdAvailable worldwidedefine iltifat

See details for Oxford Dictionaries datasets licensing for other languages here.

Google Dictionary

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