English Dictionary

About this tool

This is an English-to-English dictionary: type an English word and get phonetic spellings, an audio pronunciation when the source provides one, and definitions grouped by part of speech. Nothing here is written or curated by InKhmer — every lookup is relayed to the Free Dictionary API at dictionaryapi.dev, an open-source service whose entries are derived from Wiktionary, the community-edited dictionary project. For the many Cambodian students and professionals who work in English as a second language, it answers the everyday questions: what does this word mean, which of its senses applies, how is it pronounced. Be clear about what it is not. It is not a learner's dictionary — answers are in English, for English readers, so a beginner can meet definitions harder than the word itself. It has no Khmer translations. And it does not work offline: every lookup needs a connection. What your device does keep is the list of words you searched — the twenty most recent — so a word is one tap away when you are back online.

How it works

Submitting a word sends it to the InKhmer API's /v1/dictionary endpoint, which relays it to api.dictionaryapi.dev (dictionary-service.ts: getEnglishDefinition) and returns the upstream JSON as-is — no server-side cache, no editorial filtering. The response gives the headword, phonetic spellings, a pronunciation MP3 where one exists, and meanings grouped by part of speech; this page shows up to five definitions per meaning, with their example sentences. Each upstream entry also carries license and sourceUrls fields naming the Wiktionary pages it derives from — the API passes them through untouched. The search box is shared with the Khmer dictionary: any input containing a Khmer Unicode character routes to the Chuon Nath lookup instead, so an English query with stray Khmer text never reaches the English dictionary. A 404 from upstream shows "word not found"; any other failure shows a generic error. There is no retry and no local fallback, because definitions are never stored anywhere. Words must be 1–200 characters.

Use cases

• A student reading English coursework gets a definition and an example sentence for an unfamiliar word without leaving the page.
• A professional drafting an English email checks a word’s part of speech and a usage example before pressing send.
• A learner who has only ever seen a word written listens to its pronunciation clip before using it aloud.
• A translator compares the senses of a many-meaning word, picking the one that fits before choosing a Khmer rendering.
• A reader checks whether a word they met online works as a noun, a verb, or both — each part of speech listed separately.
• A reader returns to yesterday’s lookup from the recent-searches list and re-runs it once the connection is back.

Frequently asked questions

• Where do the definitions come from?

  From dictionaryapi.dev — the Free Dictionary API, an open-source project (GPL-3.0) maintained under the name meetDeveloper. According to its maintainer the hosted API now derives entries from Wiktionary, and each entry carries license and sourceUrls fields naming its source pages. InKhmer relays your word to that API and shows what it returns; no definition on this page was written or reviewed by our editors.

• Does it work offline — are results cached?

  No, and it is worth saying plainly because this page once claimed "offline caching". Reading the code, the only thing stored on your device is the recent-searches list: the last twenty words you looked up, kept in local storage. Definitions, phonetics and audio are fetched live every time — no connection means no lookup, only the word list remains. An offline reader gets their history, not their answers.

• Why did my word return "not found"?

  The upstream keys headwords, not word forms — plurals, past tenses and comparatives can miss even when the base word exists, so try the dictionary form. Proper nouns, brand names, fresh slang and Khmer words often have no entry at all. If the word exists in another language, remember this is an English-English dictionary; a Khmer word typed here is routed to the Chuon Nath lookup instead.

• Why did my English search show a Khmer answer?

  The search box is shared between two dictionaries. Before fetching, the page tests your input for Khmer Unicode characters (the Khmer block U+1780–U+17FF): if any is present, the word goes to the Chuon Nath dictionary, not the English one. A stray Khmer character pasted with an English word sends the whole query that way — clear the box and type only Latin letters.

• Can I look up a Khmer word here?

  Yes, indirectly — typing Khmer text into this same box routes the lookup to the Chuon Nath Khmer–Khmer dictionary, and the answer comes back in Khmer. What you cannot get here is an English–Khmer or Khmer–English translation: the two dictionaries on this site answer in their own language. For translation between the two, use the translate tools instead.

• Is this the same as Oxford or Merriam-Webster?

  No. Those are edited dictionaries with lexicographers, usage panels and per-entry review. This API’s entries come from Wiktionary, which anyone can edit — broad, fast-moving coverage, but community-made rather than scholarly-edited. For everyday reading and writing it answers well; for a citation, a legal meaning or disputed usage, check an edited dictionary as well.

• Can I look up a phrase or a whole sentence?

  No — the lookup is a single headword per request, and multi-word input generally returns "not found". The search accepts up to 200 characters, but the upstream dictionary is word-indexed, not phrase-indexed. If you need a phrase, look up its key word; if you need a whole passage explained, that is a translation or comprehension task, not a dictionary lookup.

• Why does the pronunciation button not appear for some words?

  Audio exists only where the upstream entry supplies an audio URL — many words carry text phonetics only, and the page shows the player only when a clip is present. Coverage depends on the word: common words usually have a recording; rarer or technical words often do not. The phonetic spelling is still shown either way.

Data and accuracy

Content last reviewed 19 October 2026