# thunlp/WantWords

An open-source online reverse dictionary.

Repository: https://github.com/thunlp/WantWords
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/wantwords
Homepage: https://wantwords.net/
Language: JavaScript
License Family: other
Topics: reverse-dictionary, word, nlp, natural-language-processing
Last push: 2022-02-23T11:52:43+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": 2158, "days_push": 1652, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7097, forks 611 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:55.889033+00:00)

## What it is
WantWords is an open-source online reverse dictionary developed by Tsinghua University's THUNLP lab, returning words that semantically match a user's description instead of definitions. It supports Chinese, English, and Chinese-English bidirectional lookup, powered by a multi-channel reverse dictionary model.

## Use cases
- find a word when I only know its meaning (tip-of-the-tongue)
- look up a Chinese word from an English description
- find English words matching a Chinese description
- help language learners find vocabulary by concept
- self-host a reverse dictionary service
- find idioms or phrases matching a description

## When to choose
- you need word retrieval from descriptions in Chinese or English
- you want a self-hostable reverse dictionary with pre-trained models
- you're researching reverse dictionary / semantic word retrieval models

## When to avoid
- you need a standard forward dictionary with definitions
- you need languages other than Chinese and English
- you need an actively developed product with a license and recent updates

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: maintenance
- function: nlp, search-engine, web-framework
- domain: education, web-development
- platform: python
- tags: reverse-dictionary, chinese, english, word-retrieval, tip-of-the-tongue, django, self-hosted, natural-language-processing, web-server, javascript

## Member repositories
- thunlp/WantWords (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:55.889033+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 2026-08-29T17:40:09.396459+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/thunlp/WantWords (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:55.889033+00:00, sha f91cc49471ca)
  - homepage: https://wantwords.net/ (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:10.461679+00:00, sha 71527f187a0a)
  - site_page: https://wantwords.net/about.html (fetched 2026-08-29T08:36:10.470861+00:00, sha 80bc963d5668)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.