# meetDeveloper/freeDictionaryAPI

There was no free Dictionary API on the web when I wanted one for my friend, so I created one.

Repository: https://github.com/meetDeveloper/freeDictionaryAPI
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/freedictionaryapi
Homepage: https://dictionaryapi.dev/
Language: JavaScript
License: GPL-3.0
License Family: copyleft
Topics: dictonary, google, api, scraper, google-dictionary, dictionary-api, free-api
Last push: 2023-11-27T12:16:11+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3035, "days_push": 1010, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3590, forks 342 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:11.191376+00:00)

## What it is
A free REST API that returns dictionary data for English words, including definitions, phonetics, audio pronunciations, origins, synonyms, and antonyms. It works by scraping Google Dictionary and serving the results as JSON via api.dictionaryapi.dev.

## Use cases
- get word definitions via a free api
- look up phonetic transcriptions and audio pronunciations for words
- build a vocabulary learning app
- find synonyms and antonyms for a word
- add a dictionary feature to a game or chatbot
- fetch word origins and etymology

## When to choose
- you need a no-cost, no-key dictionary API for English words
- you want structured JSON with definitions, phonetics, and audio in one request
- you're building educational apps, word games, or language tools

## When to avoid
- you need languages other than English
- you require guaranteed uptime or SLA-backed service, since it runs on donation-funded infrastructure
- you need a self-hosted dictionary without relying on scraping Google Dictionary

## Facets
- artifact type: service
- maturity: maintenance
- function: http-server, web-scraping, search-engine
- domain: apis, education, developer-tools
- platform: self-hosted
- tags: dictionary-api, free-api, word-definitions, phonetics, rest-api, english-language, natural-language-processing, nodejs, web-server

## Member repositories
- meetDeveloper/freeDictionaryAPI (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:11.191376+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:33:52.101128+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/meetDeveloper/freeDictionaryAPI (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:11.191376+00:00, sha 9af016c99d36)
  - homepage: https://dictionaryapi.dev/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:27:31.431974+00:00, sha 664fa00abf4f)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.