Cambridge

cambridge is a terminal version of Cambridge Dictionary, with its data from https://dictionary.cambridge.org

By default, it is English to English translation. For English to Chinese, add '-c' or '--chinese' option.

Supports looking up the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, with -w or --webster option. Webster has no foreign language translation in itself.

Screenshots

Look up Cambridge Dictionary

Look up Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Why This

I'm a terminal person tired of pulling out a GUI app or browser, inputting words in the search bar, hitting the search button and then waiting for the result to render with a bunch of unnecessary static files coming along. Not only is the time taken long, but also switching apps back and forth can be annoying. So I wrote this console application with features to my satisfaction.

Highlights

1. camb <word/phrase> to look it up in Cambridge Dictionary by default
2. -w flag to fetch Merriam-Webster Dictionary
3. less than 2s taken to do all the work for the word, including fetching, parsing, printing, and writing cache
4. less than 0.1s for the same word's later search
5. only the first dictionary from Cambridge (assuming the optimal) to avoid being confused by multiple dictionaries
6. a list of suggestions will be given, if not found
7. camb l to list words and phrases you've found before
8. colorscheme well customized to dark, light, blueish, grayish, gruvbox terminal backgrounds
9. support displaying spellcheck suggestion list, word of the day list, cache list by fzf if installed
10. if fzf not installed, the aforementioned lists's printing has also been beautified with only the terminal

Install & Uninstall

pip install cambridge # install
pip uninstall cambridge && rm -rf $HOME/.cache/cambridge # uninstall and remove cache

Usages

Command s (hidden)

For looking up a dictionary. Flags can be put before or after <word/phrase>.

camb <word/phrase>      # look up a word/phrase in Cambridge Dictionary
camb <word/phrase> -w   # look up a word/phrase in Merriam-Webster Dictionary
camb <word/phrase> -c   # look up a word/phrase in Cambridge with Chinese translation

camb <phrase with "'" > # camb "a stone's throw" | camb a stone\'s throw
camb <phrase with "/" > # camb "have your/its moments" | camb have your\/its moments

camb <word/phrase> -d   # look up a word/phrase in debug mode
camb <word/phrase> -f   # look up a word/phrase afresh without using cache
camb <word/phrase> -n   # look up a word/phrase without showing suggestions if not found

Command l

For listing and deleting items in the cache.

camb l                  # list alphabetically ordered words/phrases you've found before
camb l -t               # list words/phrases in reverse chronological order
camb l -r               # list 20 words/phrases from the word list randomly
camb l -d               # delete one or more words/phrases(separated by ", ") from the list

Command wod

For displaying 'Word of the Day' in the Merriam Webster Dictionary

camb wod                # list today's Word of the Day from Merriam-Webster Dictionary
camb wod -l             # list all words of the day

General options

camb -h, --help         # show this help message and exit
camb -v, --version      # print the current version of the program

TO-DOS

• [x] input a new word/phrase when spelling suggestions are not satisfactory without restarting a new command line
• [ ] check a particular expression against all cached sentence examples, if found, we can confidently use it like that in our speaking or writing
• [ ] split and accumulate all sentences from a whole bulk of cache as independent Corpus, then we can use this Corpus outside this program
• [ ] strengthen 'Word of the Day' functionality from Webster