In stevecondylios/dictionary: Retrieve the Dictionary Definitions of English Words

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output: github_document

knitr::opts_chunk$set(echo = TRUE)

dictionaRy

Retrieve the dictionary definition of English words in tidy format, along with their phonetics, audio pronunciation, parts of speech, origins, examples, synonyms, and antonyms.

Installation

Installation via GitHub devtools::install_github("stevecondylios/dictionaRy")

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("stevecondylios/dictionaRy")

Future: Installation via CRAN install.packages("dictionaRy")

install.packages("dictionaRy")

Usage

Load library

library(dictionaRy)
library(tidyverse)

Get information for the word "hello":

word <- "hello"
(word_info <- define(word))

Definitions and parts of speech

word_info %>% 
  select(part_of_speech, definition)

Word origins

word_info %>% 
  select(origin)

Example word usage

word_info %>% 
  select(example)

Phonetics

View the word's phonetics as expressed in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

word_info %>% 
  select(phonetic)

Audio pronunciation

Visit the urls to hear the word spoken.

word_info %>% 
  select(audio)

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Technical details on the relationship between word meanings, parts of speech, and definitions

• A word that is found in the English dictionary may have one or more meanings
• each meaning can have one or more parts of speech.

• each combination of meaning and part of speech will have one or more definitions.

• Example: the word bark has 4 meanings. Take the first meaning: a dog's bark. This meaning has 2 parts of speech (noun and verb). The noun has 1 definition the sharp explosive cry of a dog, fox, or seal.
  The verb has 2 definitions (of a dog, fox, or seal) give a bark and utter (a command or question) abruptly or aggressively. So we have a total of 3 definitions just for the first of four meanings of 'bark' (and more for the second, third, and fourth).

• If a word cannot be found in the English dictionary a 0-row tibble will be returned, and message to that effect printed to the console (e.g. define("sdlkfjsldkjf")).

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More examples

"hello"

define("hello")

"bark"

define("bark")

"set" (..is said to have more meanings than any other English word!)

define("set")

"lead" is an example of a heteronym (a word that has a different pronunciation and meaning from another word but the same spelling)

define("lead") %>% 
  group_by(meaning_number) %>% 
  slice(1)

Visit the audio links for the first and second meanings of "lead":

1. https://ssl.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/20200429/lead--_gb_1.mp3
2. https://ssl.gstatic.com/dictionary/static/sounds/20200429/lead--_gb_2.mp3

Advanced usage

Iterate over many words

words <- c("hello", "bark", "set", "lead")

purrr::map_df(words, ~ define(.x))

Note that words which aren't found in the English dictionary will return 0 row tibbles, and hence will have no affect on the resulting tibble

words <- c("paint", "sldkfjlsdjkf")

purrr::map_df(words, ~ define(.x))

Bug reports, suggestions, pull requests

• Please reports bugs on the issues page.
• Please make suggestions on the issues page.
• Please open an issue before making a pull request, unless it's for a typo.
• Thank you!

stevecondylios/dictionary documentation built on Feb. 18, 2022, 10:08 a.m.