2026-04-04

Free Software Is Cool

I just set up command-line multi-language dictionary lookup. It amazes me that there are people in the world who have put so much work into making software functional and free to use. We truly stand on the shoulders of giants.

Installation and Usage:

sudo apt-get install dictd
sudo vim /etc/default/dictd (change the locale from en-US to en-GB)
sudo apt-get install dict-freedict-eng-pol dict-freedict-pol-eng
dict -d fd-eng-pol cool

Output:

1 definition found

From English - Polish Piotrowski+Saloni/FreeDict dictionary ver. 0.2 [fd-eng-pol]:

  cool /ku:l/
  I.  <Adj> 1.  chłodny
   2.  [ubranie]  cienki, przewiewny
  II.  <V> 1.  chłodzić się, chłodzić
   2.  studzić się, studzić
  III.  <N> 1.  chłód
   2.  [ktoś]  zimny, zimnokrwisty
   3.  [nieform]  play it cool (play V: :it :cool)
   - zachowywać się jak gdyby nigdy nic
   4.  [nieform]  keep cool (:keep :cool)
   - utrzymywać spokój, utrzymywać opanowanie
   5.  [nieform]  lose cool (:lose :cool)
   - tracić spokój, tracić opanowanie
  IV.  <V Phras>cool down  1.  stygnąć
   2.  chłodzić, studzić
   3.  uspokajać
  V.  <V Phras>cool off   ochładzać się

You can find a list of available dictionaries in the Ubuntu Package Registry (other package tools are available).

And so I can still make flashcards while offline. Also cool alias you may want to setup, I’ve used two-letter codes for each language, the d stands for dictionary:

alias denpl='dict -d fd-eng-pol'
alias dplen='dict -d fd-pol-eng'