See switchback in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
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"2": "switch",
"3": "back",
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"pos2": "adverb",
"t1": "to turn (a train) from one railway track to another using a switch",
"t2": "so as to reverse direction and return"
},
"expansion": "switch (“to turn (a train) from one railway track to another using a switch”, verb) + back (“so as to reverse direction and return”, adverb)",
"name": "compound"
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"switch‧back"
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"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
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"word": "dogleg"
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{
"ref": "1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Charles Dudley Warner, chapter XLIX, in The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 445:",
"text": "\"Of course,\" said Harry, \"there will have to be a branch track built, and a ‘switch-back’ up the hill.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1934, Graham Greene, chapter 4, in It’s a Battlefield, library edition, London: William Heinemann, published 1959, →OCLC, page 171:",
"text": "Marriage was the switchback, the giant racer, the lobster teas, the guarantee that one would never be alone.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation, in which a train travels in a reverse direction at each switch."
],
"id": "en-switchback-en-noun-xpCc-XY-",
"links": [
[
"rail transport",
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[
"railway track",
"railway track"
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[
"steep",
"steep#Adjective"
],
[
"slope",
"slope#Noun"
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[
"zigzag",
"zigzag#Adjective"
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[
"formation",
"formation"
],
[
"train",
"train#Noun"
],
[
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"travel#Verb"
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[
"reverse",
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[
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[
"switch",
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],
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"(rail transport)",
"A railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation, in which a train travels in a reverse direction at each switch."
],
"tags": [
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"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "53 26 8 6 6",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation",
"word": "serpentiinirata"
},
{
"_dis1": "53 26 8 6 6",
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation",
"tags": [
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],
"word": "lacet"
},
{
"_dis1": "53 26 8 6 6",
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"roman": "serpantýn",
"sense": "railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation",
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"masculine"
],
"word": "серпанти́н"
}
]
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{
"ref": "1964 March, “News and comment: Which way to the west?”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, page 147:",
"text": "The WR faction claims that the Westbury route is better adapted to high speed, to which advocates of the SR route are apt to retort that the effect of modern diesel traction on schedules over the Salisbury–Exeter switchback has yet to be measured (the speed potential between Waterloo and Salisbury is scarcely disputable) […]",
"type": "quote"
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],
"glosses": [
"A railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents, a train moving partially or fully by the force of gravity using the momentum generated when descending to travel up an ascending part of the track; especially (British, dated), such a track built for fun rides at an amusement park; a type of rollercoaster."
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[
"ascent",
"ascent"
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[
"descent",
"descent"
],
[
"moving",
"move#Verb"
],
[
"partially",
"partially"
],
[
"fully",
"fully"
],
[
"force",
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],
[
"gravity",
"gravity"
],
[
"using",
"use#Verb"
],
[
"momentum",
"momentum"
],
[
"generate",
"generate"
],
[
"descend",
"descend"
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[
"ascending",
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],
[
"part",
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[
"track",
"track#Noun"
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[
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],
[
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[
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"amusement park"
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"A railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents, a train moving partially or fully by the force of gravity using the momentum generated when descending to travel up an ascending part of the track; especially (British, dated), such a track built for fun rides at an amusement park; a type of rollercoaster."
],
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"railways",
"transport"
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{
"_dis1": "23 47 15 11 4",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents",
"word": "mäkinen rata"
},
{
"_dis1": "23 47 15 11 4",
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents",
"word": "vuoristorata"
}
]
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"A flight path consisting of a series of steep ascents and descents, generally flown as a stunt."
],
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[
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[
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"(by extension)",
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"_dis1": "6 14 54 16 11",
"code": "fi",
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"word": "jyrkästi ylös ja alas kulkeva lentorata"
}
]
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{
"ref": "1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 151:",
"text": "The switchback road to Diabaig - pronounced 'Jer-vague' - passes through some of the most exhilarating scenery in Scotland. […] With a final swoop, the road plummets down into Diabaig, where cottages are dotted across the slopes of a rocky semi-circle.",
"type": "quote"
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],
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"(by extension)",
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"_dis1": "4 10 17 56 12",
"code": "fi",
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"word": "serpentiinitie"
}
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"text": "Coordinate term: horseshoe curve"
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"ref": "2019 April 25, Samanth Subramanian, “Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-21:",
"text": "Already, we enter some airport bathrooms through a brief switchback of walls, so that we don’t ever grasp a door handle.",
"type": "quote"
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],
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"(chiefly Canada, US, road transport) A sharp bend in a path or road which causes a traveller to almost reverse their direction of travel, especially one of a series of such bends on an incline; a hairpin bend; also a path or road having such a series of bends."
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"ref": "2015 June 25, John Henderson, “A secret range of stunning mountains? Hikers, meet Slovakia’s High Tatras”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-08-06:",
"text": "I climbed 6,683-foot Velka Svistovka, not the highest mountain in the Tatras but arguably the one with the best view. I started from Zelene pleso chata (pleso means \"lake\" and chata means \"hut\" in Slovak), and right after turning the first corner I started switchbacking.",
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{
"args": {},
"expansion": "switchback (plural switchbacks)",
"name": "en-noun"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "often",
"3": "attributively",
"4": "or",
"5": "figuratively"
},
"expansion": "(often attributively or figuratively)",
"name": "term-label"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"switch‧back"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "dogleg"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Rail transportation"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1873, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], Charles Dudley Warner, chapter XLIX, in The Gilded Age: A Tale of To-day, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company, published 1874, →OCLC, page 445:",
"text": "\"Of course,\" said Harry, \"there will have to be a branch track built, and a ‘switch-back’ up the hill.\"",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1934, Graham Greene, chapter 4, in It’s a Battlefield, library edition, London: William Heinemann, published 1959, →OCLC, page 171:",
"text": "Marriage was the switchback, the giant racer, the lobster teas, the guarantee that one would never be alone.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation, in which a train travels in a reverse direction at each switch."
],
"links": [
[
"rail transport",
"rail transport"
],
[
"railway track",
"railway track"
],
[
"steep",
"steep#Adjective"
],
[
"slope",
"slope#Noun"
],
[
"zigzag",
"zigzag#Adjective"
],
[
"formation",
"formation"
],
[
"train",
"train#Noun"
],
[
"travels",
"travel#Verb"
],
[
"reverse",
"reverse#Adjective"
],
[
"direction",
"direction"
],
[
"switch",
"switch#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(rail transport)",
"A railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation, in which a train travels in a reverse direction at each switch."
],
"tags": [
"attributive",
"figuratively",
"often"
],
"topics": [
"rail-transport",
"railways",
"transport"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"British English",
"English dated terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Rail transportation"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1964 March, “News and comment: Which way to the west?”, in Modern Railways, Shepperton, Surrey: Ian Allan Publishing, page 147:",
"text": "The WR faction claims that the Westbury route is better adapted to high speed, to which advocates of the SR route are apt to retort that the effect of modern diesel traction on schedules over the Salisbury–Exeter switchback has yet to be measured (the speed potential between Waterloo and Salisbury is scarcely disputable) […]",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents, a train moving partially or fully by the force of gravity using the momentum generated when descending to travel up an ascending part of the track; especially (British, dated), such a track built for fun rides at an amusement park; a type of rollercoaster."
],
"links": [
[
"rail transport",
"rail transport"
],
[
"ascent",
"ascent"
],
[
"descent",
"descent"
],
[
"moving",
"move#Verb"
],
[
"partially",
"partially"
],
[
"fully",
"fully"
],
[
"force",
"force#Noun"
],
[
"gravity",
"gravity"
],
[
"using",
"use#Verb"
],
[
"momentum",
"momentum"
],
[
"generate",
"generate"
],
[
"descend",
"descend"
],
[
"ascending",
"ascending#Adjective"
],
[
"part",
"part#Noun"
],
[
"track",
"track#Noun"
],
[
"built",
"build#Verb"
],
[
"fun",
"fun#Adjective"
],
[
"rides",
"ride#Noun"
],
[
"amusement park",
"amusement park"
],
[
"type",
"type#Noun"
],
[
"rollercoaster",
"rollercoaster"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(rail transport)",
"A railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents, a train moving partially or fully by the force of gravity using the momentum generated when descending to travel up an ascending part of the track; especially (British, dated), such a track built for fun rides at an amusement park; a type of rollercoaster."
],
"tags": [
"attributive",
"figuratively",
"often"
],
"topics": [
"rail-transport",
"railways",
"transport"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"en:Aviation"
],
"glosses": [
"A flight path consisting of a series of steep ascents and descents, generally flown as a stunt."
],
"links": [
[
"aviation",
"aviation"
],
[
"flight path",
"flight path"
],
[
"consist",
"consist"
],
[
"series",
"series"
],
[
"flown",
"fly#Verb"
],
[
"stunt",
"stunt#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension)",
"(aviation) A flight path consisting of a series of steep ascents and descents, generally flown as a stunt."
],
"tags": [
"attributive",
"broadly",
"figuratively",
"often"
],
"topics": [
"aeronautics",
"aerospace",
"aviation",
"business",
"engineering",
"natural-sciences",
"physical-sciences"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"British English",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 151:",
"text": "The switchback road to Diabaig - pronounced 'Jer-vague' - passes through some of the most exhilarating scenery in Scotland. […] With a final swoop, the road plummets down into Diabaig, where cottages are dotted across the slopes of a rocky semi-circle.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A path or road having a series of steep ascents and descents."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension)",
"(chiefly British) A path or road having a series of steep ascents and descents."
],
"tags": [
"British",
"attributive",
"broadly",
"figuratively",
"often"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"American English",
"Canadian English",
"English terms with quotations",
"en:Road transport"
],
"examples": [
{
"text": "Coordinate term: horseshoe curve"
},
{
"ref": "2019 April 25, Samanth Subramanian, “Hand dryers v paper towels: the surprisingly dirty fight for the right to dry your hands”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-12-21:",
"text": "Already, we enter some airport bathrooms through a brief switchback of walls, so that we don’t ever grasp a door handle.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A sharp bend in a path or road which causes a traveller to almost reverse their direction of travel, especially one of a series of such bends on an incline; a hairpin bend; also a path or road having such a series of bends."
],
"links": [
[
"sharp",
"sharp#Adjective"
],
[
"bend",
"bend#Noun"
],
[
"path",
"path#Noun"
],
[
"road",
"road#Noun"
],
[
"causes",
"cause#Verb"
],
[
"traveller",
"traveller"
],
[
"reverse",
"reverse#Verb"
],
[
"direction",
"direction"
],
[
"travel",
"travel#Noun"
],
[
"incline",
"incline#Noun"
],
[
"hairpin bend",
"hairpin bend"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(by extension)",
"(chiefly Canada, US, road transport) A sharp bend in a path or road which causes a traveller to almost reverse their direction of travel, especially one of a series of such bends on an incline; a hairpin bend; also a path or road having such a series of bends."
],
"tags": [
"Canada",
"US",
"attributive",
"broadly",
"figuratively",
"often"
],
"topics": [
"road",
"transport"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈswɪt͡ʃbæk/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-switchback.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-switchback.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-switchback.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-switchback.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-switchback.wav.ogg"
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈswɪt͡ʃˌbæk/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation",
"word": "serpentiinirata"
},
{
"code": "fr",
"lang": "French",
"sense": "railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "lacet"
},
{
"code": "uk",
"lang": "Ukrainian",
"roman": "serpantýn",
"sense": "railway track on a steep slope in a zigzag formation",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "серпанти́н"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents",
"word": "mäkinen rata"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "railway track on which there are steep ascents and descents",
"word": "vuoristorata"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "flight path consisting of a series of steep ascents and descents",
"word": "jyrkästi ylös ja alas kulkeva lentorata"
},
{
"code": "fi",
"lang": "Finnish",
"sense": "path or road having a series of steep ascents and descents",
"word": "serpentiinitie"
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Col de Braus",
"Zig Zag Railway"
],
"word": "switchback"
}
{
"categories": [
"English compound terms",
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"English verbs",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Terms with Finnish translations",
"Terms with French translations",
"Terms with Ukrainian translations",
"en:Roads"
],
"derived": [
{
"tags": [
"adjective"
],
"word": "switchbacked"
},
{
"tags": [
"adjective",
"noun"
],
"word": "switchbacking"
}
],
"etymology_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "1900",
"short": "1"
},
"expansion": "c. 1900",
"name": "circa2"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "noun"
},
"expansion": "noun",
"name": "glossary"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "en",
"2": "switch",
"3": "back",
"pos1": "verb",
"pos2": "adverb",
"t1": "to turn (a train) from one railway track to another using a switch",
"t2": "so as to reverse direction and return"
},
"expansion": "switch (“to turn (a train) from one railway track to another using a switch”, verb) + back (“so as to reverse direction and return”, adverb)",
"name": "compound"
},
{
"args": {
"1": "verb"
},
"expansion": "verb",
"name": "glossary"
}
],
"etymology_text": "The noun is derived from switch (“to turn (a train) from one railway track to another using a switch”, verb) + back (“so as to reverse direction and return”, adverb).\nThe verb is derived from the noun.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "switchbacks",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "switchbacking",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "switchbacked",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "switchbacked",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "switchback (third-person singular simple present switchbacks, present participle switchbacking, simple past and past participle switchbacked)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"hyphenation": [
"switch‧back"
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English intransitive verbs",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "2015 June 25, John Henderson, “A secret range of stunning mountains? Hikers, meet Slovakia’s High Tatras”, in Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles Times Communications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2021-08-06:",
"text": "I climbed 6,683-foot Velka Svistovka, not the highest mountain in the Tatras but arguably the one with the best view. I started from Zelene pleso chata (pleso means \"lake\" and chata means \"hut\" in Slovak), and right after turning the first corner I started switchbacking.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To take a zigzag course or path."
],
"links": [
[
"take",
"take#Verb"
],
[
"zigzag",
"zigzag#Adjective"
],
[
"course",
"course#Noun"
],
[
"path",
"path#Noun"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(intransitive) To take a zigzag course or path."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "zigzag"
}
],
"tags": [
"attributive",
"figuratively",
"intransitive",
"often"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/ˈswɪt͡ʃbæk/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-switchback.wav",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-switchback.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-switchback.wav.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/1/1f/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-switchback.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-switchback.wav.ogg"
},
{
"ipa": "/ˈswɪt͡ʃˌbæk/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
}
],
"wikipedia": [
"Col de Braus",
"Zig Zag Railway"
],
"word": "switchback"
}
Download raw JSONL data for switchback meaning in English (12.9kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-21 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (d8cb2f3 and 4e554ae). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.