GoldenDict : Free Dictionary Program for Windows

GoldenDict is a small portable dictionary program for Windows. It supports all kinds of offline and online dictionaries. The program is very useful for students who want to lookup the definitions of various words and phrases while studying their books both offline or online. It is always an advantage to have one or other dictionary software installed on a computer as it can be used for quick references whenever needed.

GoldenDict does not come with any dictionary files but supports almost all of them. In order to use offline dictionaries through GoldenDict, you have to source the dictionary files from somewhere and place them inside the content sub-folder where GoldenDict is installed. In the case of a portable version of GoldenDict, it is even easier. In the following screenshot, we have copied an old edition of Merriam Webster dictionary’s files in the content folder.

GoldenDict

Just copying the files is not enough for you to start using those dictionaries. You also have to tell GoldenDict that you have copied new content. There are two ways to do this and both are extremely easy. First method is very simple – you have to quit GoldenDict by using the hotkey Ctrl+Q and then relaunch it again. When GoldenDict restarts, it will detect the newly added dictionaries and enable them.

The second method is even easier that restarting GoldenDict. In the second method, you can make GoldenDict re-scan the content folder. For this, you can select Rescan Files from the File menu or choose the hotkey Ctrl+F5. You can also open the “Dictionaries” window by pressing F3 key and then click on the Rescan Now button.

GoldenDict

Unfortunately, GoldenDict has not been updated for some time and does not seem to work correctly with Wikipedia. But for the offline dictionaries it works just like before. We tested GoldenDict on Windows 10 x64 using a freely available dictionary’s files and it worked flawlessly.

You can download GoldenDict from http://goldendict.org/.