Epub dictionaries

[dordale]

Dictionary support is the only thing I miss about reading on my Palm. I would love to have it on my Sony. I'll agree that it's not a "need", but it sure would be nice to have!

dordale

[kazbates]

Originally Posted by mjh215

I would like dictionary lookup. When I saw the 700 I assumed that it would have it, I'm still dumbfounded that it doesn't have it. I hope future generations of readers have it for epub. It was the thing I liked most about my son's EBW1150...

-MJ

Ditto!!

[Talldog]

One of the coolest things about my Kindle is being able to look up unfamiliar words in the text of my books. After 2 months of owning it, I can't imagine being without that feature.

[Daithi]

I voted no because I've only used it twice and that was just to see how it worked. Either I have a decent vocabulary or more likely the majority of books I read don't use very difficult words. However, I do like having the option available.

[AMacD]

I am using a Kindle and also a computer. I really, really like the ability to quickly look up a word meaning. I was under the impression that it is the reader that has the dictionary, not the format. Am I wrong in this. Do TXT and PRC/Mobi/AZW use different dictionaries when I look up something on my Kindle? I was not aware until this thread that the Sony Reader didn't have a dictionary but then I don't have a Sony because they don't want Apple users as customers.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by AMacD

I was under the impression that it is the reader that has the dictionary, not the format.

It can be either or both. The MobiPocket Reader supports dictionaries, and it can even act as the dictionary function for other formats. The Kindle has a variant of the MOBI Reader, but it does not seem to include a complete implementation of the MOBI dictionary capability (e.g. only one dictionary at a time, probably no support for the dictionary in PDFs on the KDX). The big advantage of the MOBI Reader is that there are many DRMed MOBI dictionaries available.

The problem for Adobe is that there is no ePub dictionary format, so no DRMed ePub dictionaries. It would be possible for Adobe to add dictionary support without using the ePub format for the dictionary, but they have not done so. This seems to be the approach that Stanza is using - taking advantage of an Internet dictionary.

If MobiPocket was an independent company, it would likely be pushing hard to remain on EInk Reading devices by providing integrated dictionary support. This would at least keep them in the game in Europe. However, Amazon seems to have given up on the MOBI format.

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by tompe

What do you meen by need? The book I am reading now use a lot of archaic words. I had for example to look up "picaroon" today.

I also seems to need the dictionary to tell me when I have guessed wrong what a word mean. I just happened to look up "moribund" today and realized I had guessed a bit wrong about the meaning.

Tommy hits on one of the reasons I find a dictionary essential. I have similarly looked up a word to find it doesn't precisely mean what I think it means. For me this is often a delight, because of the unexpected shade it can add to the text. It's particularly important for me, for instance, when reading poetry, where word-choice is perhaps at its tightest, though for general reading of literature I still find it of very high importance. My vocabulary is pretty good, but sometimes working on meaning from context is insufficiently edifying for me. I have a "need" for precision in understanding a lot of my preferred reading material, and word meaning and etymology is part of that desired precision.

As another advantage, I find the English texts I read sometimes sprinkled with, for instance, French phrases, so language dictionaries are also helpful.

I would not buy a device that didn't have dictionary lookup (and commercial dictionaries of my choice) from within the text I was reading. It's one of the reasons why my shortlist back-when was the Iliad and the Cybook. It's also why I use Answers on all my workstations.

Cheers,
Marc

[rowjimmy]

nay, never, nix, not, by no means, negative, no way, not at all, not by any means, uh uh, nope . . .

No, not a dictionary - a thesaurus maybe.

I also stay away from dictionaries when reading in a foreign language. Guessing at the word through context and studying the endings to determine the word's place in a sentence seem to work best for me. The word can be jotted down to check it's meaning later so that the story isn't interrupted (barge in, interject, disturb, intrude, interpose, intersect, interfere, cut in on).

[Bannson]

while it wasn't a deal breaker for me when i bought my kindle 2 i found that it is a very useful thing to have a dictionary built into it.

look at it this way, with flash memory so abundant is it really an issue if a ebook has a dictionary and you just don't use it? i mean even with a dictionary built into my kindle i can still hold over a thousand books, so isn't it just better to have one and just not use it compared to not having one at all?

[HistoryWes]

Though I can usually figure words out from context, I sometimes like to look up word origins and alternate usages....but then I am a word geek.

[Format C:]

With my iLiad I can lookup a word on multiple dictionaries while in Mobipocket Reader.
Still, I miss Encyclopedia lookup (actually, I did not find a free/PD encyclopedia in mobipocket dictionary format when I looked for it).

Dictionary support is the only reason that prevents me to switch to epub or custom-formatted PDF for the iLiad.

So, I voted Yes.

[kurochka]

Have you ever wondered why there is a huge market for electronic dictionaries in Asia? It is a dedicated device there, and it seems as though they come out with new models every couple of months. I think this market is untapped in the West. Even if you believe that the electronic dictionaries in Asia only serve to provide people with access to English-language resources, think about the melting pot in the States or several dozen official languages in the EU. There are millions of people whose daily life is immersed in a language that is not native to them (I am an example of that).

As a result, there is a huge need for both mono-, and bi- lingual dictionaries that are always on hand. With e-reader's long battery life, in some cases, physical keyboards (Sony hear that?), almost instant-on, e-readers could find a totally new audience. Well, they have to include more complete Unicode fonts first.

[Jellby]

I'm missing a Spanish dictionary in my Cybook while reading "Don Quixote", and Spanish is my mother language. And of course, when I read in English, French, Italian, Portuguese... I feel a stronger need for a dictionary. In the meantime, paper dictionaries and www.wordreference.com are useful

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I'm missing a Spanish dictionary in my Cybook while reading "Don Quixote", and Spanish is my mother language. And of course, when I read in English, French, Italian, Portuguese... I feel a stronger need for a dictionary. In the meantime, paper dictionaries and www.wordreference.com are useful

Of course free (or low price) Internet Browsing can be an alternative to an actual dictionary installed locally in the device.
But that, along with the lack of in text search is still the biggest missing feature in the ebook dedicated devices world.

[mtravellerh]

Just FYI: Stanza on iPhone/iPod has dictionary support. Working without problems and really fast, I should add!