Offline dictionary for Ulauncher. Type d word and get instant definitions, no internet needed.
Uses sdcv (StarDict console dictionary) for lookups.
- Instant offline lookups from any StarDict dictionary
- Prefix search and autocomplete as you type
- Typo correction via edit-distance matching
- Switch between installed dictionaries from within Ulauncher
- Case-insensitive matching
- Numbered definitions shown as separate items
- Etymology/origin displayed where available
- Copy definition to clipboard on Enter
- Link to Wiktionary for the full entry
Fedora/RHEL:
sudo dnf install sdcvUbuntu/Debian:
sudo apt install sdcvArch:
sudo pacman -S sdcvDicky works with any dictionary in StarDict format. You need at least one.
The easiest way to get started. dictinfo.com provides regularly updated Wiktionary exports in StarDict format, ready to use. The English-only version (40 MB download) covers 1.3 million headwords. There are also all-languages (8 million headwords) and Western-languages versions if you want broader coverage.
Download a .7z file from the site, then extract and install it:
# Install 7z if you don't have it
# Fedora: sudo dnf install p7zip-plugins
# Ubuntu: sudo apt install p7zip-full
# Arch: sudo pacman -S p7zip
# Extract the archive
7z x wikt-en-en-2025-10-05.7z
# The extracted files might land in the current directory rather than a subfolder.
# You need a subfolder in the dictionary directory. Create it and move the files:
mkdir -p ~/.stardict/dic/wikt-en-en
mv wikt-en-en-2025-10-05.ifo wikt-en-en-2025-10-05.idx wikt-en-en-2025-10-05.dict.dz ~/.stardict/dic/wikt-en-en/The GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English. Based on Webster's 1913, comprehensive and well-formatted. Available in StarDict format from the stardict.uber.space archive. Download the .tar.bz2 file and extract:
tar -xjf stardict-dictd_www.dict.org_gcide-2.4.2.tar.bz2 -C ~/.stardict/dic/FreeDict - open-source bilingual dictionaries for many language pairs at freedict.org.
CC-CEDICT - the standard free Chinese-English dictionary, widely available in StarDict format.
JMDict/EDICT - the standard free Japanese-English dictionary.
The stardict.uber.space archive has a large collection of StarDict dictionaries across many languages, preserved from the original StarDict download site after it went offline in 2023.
sdcv looks for dictionaries in two places:
~/.stardict/dic/(per-user, recommended)/usr/share/stardict/dic/(system-wide)
Either works. Each dictionary needs its own subfolder containing .ifo, .idx and .dict (or .dict.dz) files:
~/.stardict/dic/
wikt-en-en/
wikt-en-en-2025-10-05.ifo
wikt-en-en-2025-10-05.idx
wikt-en-en-2025-10-05.dict.dz
If ~/.stardict/dic/ doesn't exist, create it:
mkdir -p ~/.stardict/dicSome archives extract into a subfolder automatically (.tar.bz2 files usually do). Others (.7z files from dictinfo.com) extract the files flat into the current directory, so you need to create the subfolder yourself and move the files in. Check what you got after extracting.
If you have several dictionaries installed, you can switch between them from within Ulauncher.
Type d with no word to see a list of all installed dictionaries. Select one to make it active.
Your choice is saved to ~/.config/dicky/active_dict and persists across restarts.
sdcv "hello"If this shows a definition, you're good.
Open Ulauncher preferences, go to Extensions, click "Add extension" and paste:
https://github.com/no-faff/ulauncher-dicky
Open Ulauncher and type:
d- see installed dictionaries, switch between themd colour- look up a wordd flocc- autocomplete/browse words starting with "flocc"d colur- typo? suggestions appear automatically
Press Enter on a definition to copy it to clipboard. Select "Open on Wiktionary" to view the full entry online.
The default keyword is d. Change it in Ulauncher preferences under Extensions.
StarDict dictionaries vary wildly in how they store definitions. Dicky includes parsing tweaks for several formats to make them display cleanly:
- GCIDE: decodes accent markup (
Zoöl.instead ofZo["o]l.), joins multi-line definitions, strips source markers and duplicate entries
Long definitions overflow onto a second line in smaller text. This is a workaround for Ulauncher's fixed-width items - there's no way to wrap text within a single result, so Dicky splits the definition across the title and description fields.
If your dictionary looks messy or definitions are cut off in odd places, open an issue with a screenshot and the dictionary name. These formatting problems are usually fixable, sometimes in ways you wouldn't expect.
MIT