Kindle Dictionary

One of the great features of Amazon Kindle is instant dictionary lookup. If while reading you encounter a word that you don’t know (like agio), you can just select it with 5-way controller (or scroll-wheel on first generation Kindle) and short definition will popup at the top or bottom of the page.  For a longer explanation you can press the “Enter” key. You can then press “Back” to return to the book you were reading.

By default Kindle comes with only Oxford dictionary of English but you can download more dictionaries and use them for look up too. These can be dictionaries with definitions or translation dictionaries. Only one dictionary can be active at any given time though. So you will need to change you dictionary following these simple steps:

How to change Kindle Dictionary
How to change Kindle Dictionary
  1. From Kindle Home screen press “Menu” and select “Settings”
  2. In the settings screen press “Menu” button again and select “Change Primary Dictionary”
  3. In the screen that lists all available dictionaries select the one you wan to use with 5-way controller.

You can always go back to the original dictionary using the same steps. It is not deleted.

Below is the list of different translation dictionaries for Amazon Kindle:

Kindle English-German Translation Dictionary
Kindle English-German Translation Dictionary

Kindle English-German Translation Dictionary

English-German dictionary that contains translations for 49,549 words + derived words (like arrived or cornering)


Kindle English-Spanish Dictionary
Kindle English-Spanish Dictionary

Kindle English-Spanish Translation Dictionary

English-Spanish dictionary that contains translations for 53,925 words + derived words (like liked or enjoying)


Kindle English-French Dictionary
Kindle English-French Dictionary

Kindle English-French Translation Dictionary

English-French dictionary that contains translations for 51,270 words + derived words (like tested or downloading)


Kindle English-Russian Dictionary
Kindle English-Russian Dictionary

Kindle English-Russian Translation Dictionary

English-Russian dictionary that contains translations for 45,964 words + derived words (like selected or commenting)


Kindle English-Italian Dictionary
Kindle English-Italian Dictionary

Kindle English-Italian Translation Dictionary

English-Italian dictionary that contains translations for 47,031 words + derived words (like selected or commenting)


Kindle English-Portuguese Dictionary
Kindle English-Portuguese Dictionary

Kindle English-Portuguese Translation Dictionary

English-Portuguese dictionary that contains translations for 50,820 words + derived words (like selected or commenting)


Kindle English-Croatian Dictionary
Kindle English-Croatian Dictionary

Kindle English-Croatian Translation Dictionary

English-Croatian dictionary that contains translations for 49,412 words + derived words (like selected or commenting)


Kindle German-English Translation Dictionary
Kindle German-English Translation Dictionary

Kindle German-English Translation Dictionary

German-English dictionary that contains translations for 336,620 words and derived words


Kindle English-Spanish Dictionary
Kindle Spanish-English Dictionary

Kindle Spanish-English Translation Dictionary

Spanish-English dictionary that contains translations for 568,977 words and word forms


Kindle English-French Dictionary
Kindle French-English Dictionary

Kindle French-English Translation Dictionary

French-English dictionary that contains translations for 225,078 words and word forms


Kindle English-Italian Dictionary
Kindle Italian-English Dictionary

Kindle Italian-English Translation Dictionary

Italian-English dictionary that contains translations for 260,699 words and word forms


We’re working on publishing more dictionaries. So if you don’t find a dictionary you are looking for – drop us a comment and check back later – it very well may be here.

145 thoughts on “Kindle Dictionary”

  1. I am also having problems with the German-English dictionary not working. I would like to know if this will be fixed, or how I go about getting a refund. Thanks

  2. Hello! I’ve yesterday bought the German-English dictionary and installed it as a default. However it doesn’t work on any of my german books, hence I want a refund. How can I get it? Thank You in advance.

  3. Asel,

    We still working on fixing this compatibility issue with some books. It seems that the dictionary works with some books and doesn’t work with others.

    You can certainly get a refund by contacting Amazon Customer service since Amazon is handling all payments and transactions

  4. Is there a portuguese-english or ortuguese-spanish dictionary?? it would be great to have one of those, i’ve been looking for one that actually works before buying it, and it seems that there is none out there.
    Anyways, cheers, and thanks in advances.

  5. Does not work at all with the kindle app for iPad other than as a standalone dictionary and then not one with an easy scrolling ability

  6. Why is there no germa-english dictionary on uk amazon? I’d pay any price on that. especially that having seen your en-de version I was so excited. I don’t see why there’s one on us amazon but not on uk. I’m ready to buy it but I can’t. I’d buy one now. write t my email if I can buy it outside amazon

  7. Just bought italian to english dictionary and find it will not download ..keeps defaulting back to English dictionary. Any advice or should i go for refund

  8. I downloaded the sample of the Portuguese dictionary, but it wont appear to be selectable as primary dictionary. Does only the full version works?

  9. Israel,

    Kindle book samples weren’t created by amazon with dictionaries in mind. You will need a full version to set as default dictionary. If you don’t like it, you can still return the book and get a refund via Amazon customer service

  10. Any update on when the primary dictionary functionality is going to work – do you have an estimated date for the completion of the correction?

  11. I just bought the Italian english dictionary to use with Dante. I followed the instructions to install it as the default dictionary, but when I get into Dante, and the cursor is on ‘tanto’ I get a definition from the standard english dictionary, a Japanese short sword.
    what’s wrong?

  12. With the Kindle 3 the “primary dictionary” does not work for texts in languages other than english.

    If a document or book has the internal “language tag” for english then the english dictionary is used.

    If the document or book has another language tag then the dictionary with this tag is used.

    When converting own documents then (I know it with Calibre) the language tag is taken from the language of your computer (in my case german), so ALL self converted documents or documents without a language tag are using the german Duden.

    I worked this out with a service person of Amazon Germany. I think most of the problems describes here are based on the same feature of the kindle 3.

  13. As I keep on asking, can you please let us know when the problems with the primary dictionary facility are going to be fixed. It’s been over 2 months since i bought the dictionary and up till now that has been money wasted. I gave you the benefit of the doubt initially that you were going to fix the problem – I’m beginning to think that was a mistake. Surely the primary dictionary functionality is the main selling point of these dictionaries and therefore the resolution of the problem as quickly as possible should be your prime focus.

  14. Hi,
    Just wonder if there is an English-Vietnamese translation dictionary that work with Kindle 3?

  15. I just today (July 10, 2011) bought the Italian English dictionary to help me with reading books that have Italian words mingled in. I set it as the primary dictionary but it will not change from the New Oxford English dictionary within the current book I’m reading. It does however work with a different book I’ve already read. Is there some reason it works with some books and not with others?

  16. I have just bought the French-English dictionary and it dies not work for the books I did not buy with through Amazon. However, it works for a book I bought through Amazon.

  17. Andrei,
    I refunded your Italian-English dictionary because did’nt work well at the book
    Converted from PDF. Amazon informed me ” it works only for amazon’s book.”.
    If it works well for PDF document and a book converted from PDF,
    I’m willing to order it again.

  18. My use of my Kindle will JUMP up if good reliable, non glitchy dictionaries for all major languages are made readily available. This is one of the greatest potential uses of a Kindle. I am really excited by the prospect of reading books in foreign languages without having to riffle through a dictionary, just move the cursor, and presto.

    So, Amazon, get with it and get out good dictionaries!! both dual language and single language (eg. both Portuguese-English and Portuguese-Portuguese.) I’m not the type to go through all kinds of conversion downloads etc. Just go ahead and make them available. I will pay!!

    Thank you!

  19. I have the Italian-English Dictionary on a Kindle 3 and it worked only on 1 of the Italian books I have (also PDF format).
    No results on something downloaded from an Italian newspaper.

  20. What are the prospects for a good quality Russian to English dictionary in Cyrillic alphabet with pop up (via cursor) word translations? Your Spanish-english (Harper Collins)for sale on kindle is superb and works well.

  21. Graham,

    Thank you for the compliment.

    At the moment chances of Cyrillic dictionary are slim since Amazon doesn’t allow books with Cyrillic letters on the Kindle marketplace.

  22. Hi Andre, thanks for the reply. But I hasten to point out–Amazon does indeed have books in Russian in Cyrillic, I bought and downloaded from the Kindle bookstore a volume of late stories of Chekhov, and Crime and Punishment, and War and Peace — and all in Cyrillic! Just for those books alone I’d be delighted to pay full price for a good on-line cursor activated Russian-English dictionary! Can it be that hard? I know in the past I once inadvertently found a pop-up cursor dictionary functioning in Russian when I was browsing some Wikipedia articles in Russian. So these tools are out there for sure.

    Appreciate all your efforts in promoting this amazing device for language learning.

    best wishes,
    Graham

  23. Love the kindle, but I would adore you guys if you provide a English-Swedish dictionary for it….

    Kind regards
    Daniel

  24. Hello,

    How about a duch dictionary?
    There must be more ducth Kindle users than Croatian ones I guess?

  25. What are the prospects for a good quality English to Russian dictionary in CYRILLIC alphabet with pop up (via cursor) word translations for Kindle3 ?

  26. Andrei,
    I am delighted with your cursor-responsive Harper Collins Spanish-English dictionary.

    However I just bought your Harper Collins German-English and even when I make it my default dictionary it does not respond to the cursor at all, only as stand alone dictionary which is of limited value compared to a normal book-dictionary. What is the problem?

    I note others have complained about this. Any progress on fixing it? This is way too important a language tool not to be given priority attention.

    thanks for your attention,
    Graham

  27. Daria,

    Can’t promise anything on Farsi dictionary right now but we are definitely working on Greek-English one.

  28. Referring back to Graham’s earlier inquiry, will we be able to use a Russian-English dictionary in Cyrillic alphabet with pop up word translations on Kindle Touch? It says in the product discription:
    “Kindle Touch displays Cyrillic (such as Russian), Japanese, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), and Korean characters, in addition to Latin and Greek scripts.”
    Does this include pop-up word translation?

  29. It is difficult to make any prediction as we do not use Kindle Touch yet. But I hope all the functionality will be the same and work smoothly.

  30. Another request for a Dutch->English dictionary. Could you give us an indication of if/when you might be able to make this available?
    Thanks.

  31. +1 for a Greek-English dictionary. I’m using a Kindle Keyboard (=Kindle 3 if I’ve understood correctly).

  32. Hi, please here is a request for Traditional Chinese to English dictionary, Kindle Keyboard user. Thanks

  33. “Andrei Pushkin
    May 7th, 2011 at 10:51 am
    Asel,

    We still working on fixing this compatibility issue with some books. It seems that the dictionary works with some books and doesn’t work with others.

    You can certainly get a refund by contacting Amazon Customer service since Amazon is handling all payments and transactions

    Read more: http://blogkindle.com/dictionary/#ixzz1gvJD4wL5

    Hi, Mr. Pushkin.
    It appears that the Italian-English Dictionary is still not working with some texts, specifically Short Stories in Italian – New Penguin Parallel Texts (in the Italian text portion). I’ve followed your directions to select it as my primary dictionary on Kindle (version 3.3). What can be done to make the dictionary work, to translate the Italian words into English?

    Thank you,
    Michael Zucaro

  34. Hi! I just purchased the Italian-English dictionary. When I attempt to change my primary dictionary, the Italian-English dictionary shows up as in the list of dictionaries, but I am unable to select it! ( I have a new kindle touch). Do you know what may be causing this problem?

  35. Hello,

    Does anyone know how to change the default dictionary to the Italian-English on a Kindle touch? I see my new dictionary in the list, but there is no option to switch to it.

    Thanks

  36. I just bought the spanish-english dictionary tru Amazon. However, with my kindle touch, when I try to select the dictionary (following the steps to the letter) the dictionary is displayed as an option but there is no way to select it!
    Is this a bug on the touch?

  37. I just bought the Italian-English dictionary and made it my primary dictionary, following the instructions. Then I went to an Italian book that I bought from Kindle, highlighted a word and clicked. The Kingle froze up. I have more than 1,000 books in my Kindle; could that be the problem?

  38. On the Kindle fire — how do you just look up a word? Not one you are reading in a book and wantto look up, but one you just want to look up. I ws tryingto spell a word aI didn’t know and ended up with pages and pages of words that contained the few letters I put in.

    Is there a better dictionary for that — for scrabble or other word games?

  39. I have purchased a Kindle Touch for the main purpose of translating Italian newspapers and books. I purchased one Italian-English dictionary (An Electronic Italian Dictionary – Lucas Niccolato) because user comments on Amazon said it could be set as the default dictionary. However, I am unable to do so — My 3 dictionaries are listed when I click on dictionaries in the Settings menu, and I can set either Oxford English dictionary as the default, but I am unable to choose the Italian-English dictionary. I note 2 other unanswered comments in this blog describing inability to set the Pushkin Italian-English dictionary as the default, and am reluctant to purchase that one to test whether it can be set as the default. Thanks Robert at [email protected]

  40. Would love-love-love a functioning Chinese dictionary, and god how I wish they’d create one with a shouxie, or handwritten function to look up characters.

  41. Just downloaded Italian, French and Spanish, and although I haven’t had much time to use them, I’m already confident that they’ll work well enough to be useful; I had no need to set them as default dictionaries – the kindle seemed to recognize what language I was reading in automatically.

    What happened though to the German-to-English dictionary? I can’t find it via kindle, this website (the link here is broken), or on amazon.

  42. I have an Asus android tablet (eee pad) with kindle installed on it. Does anyone know how to change the dictionary setting on the kindle app.? I haven’t downloaded the dictionary yet, but I would like to make sure before I buy it that it can work.

    Thanks

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