This tutorial explains how to install StarDict dictionary program on Ubuntu 18.04 and to add language dictionary files to it. For example, you can have your own English-to-Indonesia and Indonesia-to-English, with Stardict. You can add many more language dictionaries from the internet and I mention in the end the links to download them. Happy learning, enjoy StarDict!
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Read also Ubuntu 18.04 Review, how to install it, and recommendations after installing.
1. Install StarDict
Fortunately, StarDict is still available on 18.04's repo. So install it:
$ sudo apt-get install stardict
When you run it, it looks like this:
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| Stardict on Kubuntu 18.04 |
2. Download Dictionary Files
I give you examples of English-Indonesia and Indonesia-English dictionaries. You download the files, then put them in special folder of Stardict, and finally Stardict reads you those dictionaries. Same goes for another language dictionaries. Download both here: http://download.huzheng.org/Quick (great thanks to Huzheng!).
- Indonesia-English: http://download.huzheng.org/Quick/stardict-quick_ind-eng-2.4.2.tar.bz2
- English-Indonesia: http://download.huzheng.org/Quick/stardict-quick_eng-ind-2.4.2.tar.bz2
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| After extracting the dictionary packages |
3. Install Dictionary Files
To make Stardict working with certain dictionary, the folder of the dictionary should be placed to /usr/share/stardict/dic/. Here is how to do it:
1) Go to where extracted dictionaries stored:
$ cd ~/Downloads/
2) Move the dictionaries to the right place:
sudo mv -v stardict-quick_ind-eng-2.4.2/ /usr/share/stardict/dic/
sudo mv -v stardict-quick_eng-ind-2.4.2/ /usr/share/stardict/dic/
That's all.
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| How to type the commands on Terminal |
Run Stardict
Then run Stardict and try to query an English or Indonesia word in it. Then, try to select with your cursor any word on your browser and let Stardict shows the meaning to you. Pretty cool, right?
This GIF demonstrates the former:
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| Stardict searching word meaning |
And this GIF does the latter:
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| Stardict scanning |
Finally, you can install any other language you wish if you have the dictionary files. See below to download them.
List of Stardict Dictionary Files Providers
This list contains websites where you can download many language dictionaries and other dictionaries at no cost (gratis). Great thanks to the authors of these sites like Huzheng again, tuxor1337, and all.
StarDict websites:
- http://www.huzheng.org/stardict
- http://stardict.sourceforge.net
- http://stardict-4.sourceforge.net
- https://code.google.com/archive/p/stardict-3
Dictionary files:
- http://download.huzheng.org
- https://sites.google.com/site/gtonguedict/home/stardict-dictionaries
- https://tuxor1337.github.io/firedict/dictionaries.html
- http://download.huzheng.org/dict.org
- http://download.huzheng.org/freedict.de
- http://download.huzheng.org/mova.org
- http://download.huzheng.org/Quick
- https://archive.org/details/stardict_collections
Other important sources:
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Public_domain_sources
- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Other_dictionaries_on_the_Web
- https://freedict.org
If you have server space, please help mirror these important sites.
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.