> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://itsfoss.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# freeDictionaryApp: Open Source Android App That Helps You Get Information on a Word
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/freedictionaryapp/
- Published: 2024-12-20T17:25:27.000Z
- Updated: 2024-12-20T17:25:27.000Z
- Description: An easy way to get additional information about a word!
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: Open Source Android Apps 🤖, News, #Import 2025-11-08 21:15

Every so often, while [reading a book](https://itsfoss.com/openreads/), I come across unfamiliar words that I need to look up online to understand. Occasionally, I even forget the meanings of words I once knew.

I usually do a Google search for understanding a word, and more often than not, I end up on [Merriam-Webster](https://www.merriam-webster.com/?ref=itsfoss.com), as Google's [Knowledge Graph](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google%5FKnowledge%5FGraph?ref=itsfoss.com) results have become worse over the past few months.

However, the need for an offline, ad-free, and tracker-free solution has been constantly on my mind. As it happens, my search has led me to freeDictionaryApp, **a FOSS dictionary app for Android**.

Let’s jump right in and see what we find! 📖 📱

## freeDictionaryApp: Words Unpacked

![three horizontally arranged screenshots of freedictionaryapp that show an empty page, a page with the search term stitch, and another page with the search term kind, both of those pages show relevant definitions and examples for the searched words](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/12/freeDictionaryApp_a.png)

Written using Kotlin, freeDictionaryApp is the work of [Yamin Siahmargooei](https://github.com/yamin8000?ref=itsfoss.com), who describes this app as a reincarnation of [Owl2](https://github.com/yamin8000/Owl2?ref=itsfoss.com), but with a [Free Dictionary API](https://dictionaryapi.dev/?ref=itsfoss.com) implementation.

Even though **the development of the API seems to have stopped two years ago**, freeDictionaryApp seems to be functioning just fine. I tested it on my Android 12 smartphone, and the experience was seamless.

There is a search bar at the bottom of the app to search for words, and on successful word searches, the page fills up with the word type and multiple definitions and examples. I could also use **the text-to-speech feature** by clicking on the pronunciation mentioned below the word.

![three horizontally arranged screenshots of freedictionaryapp that shows the favourite words page, the share word functionality in action, and the settings page for the app](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/12/freeDictionaryApp_b.png)

There is also a neat **favorite words feature** that lets me save any important words for later use so that I wouldn't have to search for those manually again. If you want to save a word, just click on the heart icon beside a word.

To access your saved words, you can go to the header menu and tap on the heart icon. The same region also has other useful options like **search history**, **a die roll for showing random words**, **the settings menu**, and an **information page** with the license details ([*GPL 3.0*](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html?ref=itsfoss.com)).

I could also **easily share any searched words** by using the share button on the app, which opened up Android's sharing menu with all the relevant communication apps. When sharing a word, freeDictionaryApp attaches a detailed excerpt with links to it and the API at the end.

As I used it more, **I noticed that freeDictionaryApp could only handle single words**, not multi-word queries like “*open source*”. This is most likely a limitation of the API underneath and not the app itself, but it is fine for now. I hope the developer considers adding support for multi-word queries in future updates by using a more powerful API to power the app.

## Install freeDictionaryApp

You can install this on your Android smartphone by downloading the latest release from [F-Droid](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.github.yamin8000.owl/index.html?ref=itsfoss.com). You can also visit the project's [GitHub](https://github.com/yamin8000/freeDictionaryApp?ref=itsfoss.com) repo for alternative downloads or the source code.

[freeDictionaryApp](https://f-droid.org/en/packages/io.github.yamin8000.owl/index.html?ref=itsfoss.com)

**Suggested Read** 📖

[Openreads: An Open Source Mobile App To Keep Track of Your BooksYou can keep track of your book progresses using the Openreads app. Here’s how.![](https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/08/android-chrome-192x192.png)It's FOSS NewsSourav Rudra![](https://news.itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/11/openreads-foss.png)](https://itsfoss.com/openreads/)