Retrieve definitions (meanings) and synonyms for German words with Emacs.
Retrieve definitions (meanings) or synonyms for a German word and
- display in an new Org-mode buffer,
- insert into the current Org-mode buffer, or
- add to the kill ring as Org-mode syntax.
The word used for retrieval can be read from the minibuffer or taken from point.
Definitions are retrieved from https://www.dwds.de/ and synonyms from https://www.openthesaurus.de/. Optionally synonyms from https://de.wiktionary.org can be retrieved as well.
If anyone knows a better way to get definitions or synonyms than parsing DWDS and Wiktionary, please open an issue. Open German WordNet looks promising but needs time to mature.
This package is hosted on Github. Use your favourite way to install like Elpaca, Straight, Quelpa. Starting with Emacs 29 package-vc-install may be used.
If a word is not in its base form, the base form is determined and definitions or synonyms for that base form are retrieved. For example, the base form of “Fahrzeuge” is “Fahrzeug”.
- woerterbuch-definitions-show-in-org-buffer
- Show the definitions for a word in an Org buffer. Reads the word from the minibuffer.
- woerterbuch-definitions-show-in-org-buffer-for-word-at-point
- Show the definitions for a word at point in an Org buffer.
- woerterbuch-definitions-insert-into-org-buffer
- Read a word from the minibuffer and insert the definitions as a list into the current Org buffer. If called with a prefix arg (C-u), it adds a heading with the word as the title before the list.
- woerterbuch-definitions-kill-as-org-mode-syntax
- Add the definitions for word read from the minibuffer to the kill ring as Org syntax. If called with a prefix arg (C-u), it adds a heading with the word as title before the list.
Example output for word “Wörterbuch”:
* Wörterbuch (Bedeutungen)
- *(gedruckt, auf einem elektronischen Medium oder im Internet publiziertes) Nachschlagewerk mit nach bestimmten Gesichtspunkten ausgewählten und erläuterten Stichwörtern, meist mit Informationen zu ihrer Form, ihrer Bedeutung und ihrem Gebrauch*
- Beispiele
- […] Dort [in Südanatolien] […] lernte [sie] mithilfe eines Wörterbuchs Türkisch.
- woerterbuch-synonyms-show-in-org-buffer
- Show the synonyms for a word in an Org buffer. Reads the word from the minibuffer.
- woerterbuch-synonyms-show-in-org-buffer-for-word-at-point
- Show the synonyms for a word at point in an Org buffer.
- woerterbuch-synonyms-insert-into-org-buffer
- Read a word from the minibuffer and insert the synonyms as a list into the current Org buffer. If called with a prefix arg (C-u), it adds a heading with the word as the title before the list.
- woerterbuch-synonyms-kill-as-org-mode-syntax
- Add the synonyms for word read from the minibuffer to the kill ring as Org syntax. If called with a prefix arg (C-u), it adds a heading with the word as title before the list.
- woerterbuch-synonyms-insert
- Lookup synonyms for word read from minibuffer and insert selected word at point. If called with a prefix arg (C-u) the selected word is added to the kill ring instead.
- woerterbuch-synonyms-lookup-word-at-point
- Lookup synonyms for word at point and add to kill ring.
- woerterbuch-synonyms-replace-word-at-point
- Lookup synonyms for wort at point or selection and replace it. This is only of use if the word at point is in its baseform.
Example output for the word “Wörterbuch”, with synonyms from Wiktionary enabled:
* Wörterbuch (Synonyme)
- Wörterbuch, Lexikon, Vokabular, Vokabularium, Wörterverzeichnis, Diktionär
Wiktionary:
- manchmal (veraltend) auch: Diktionär, Dictionnaire, Enzyklopädie, Lexikon, Thesaurus
Set the following variables to change the behavior of the package:
- woerterbuch-org-buffer-display-function
#'pop-to-bufferFunction used to the display the org buffer with the definitions or synonyms. The function takes buffer as argument. There is also a function provided to show it in a dedicated side window:;; Set the variable: (setq woerterbuch-org-buffer-display-function (apply-partially #'woerterbuch-display-in-side-window 'right 80))
- woerterbuch-list-bullet-point
"-"String to use as list bullet point when converting synonyms or definitions to a list.- woerterbuch-insert-org-heading-format
"%s %s\n\n%s"Format used when inserting an Org heading before content.- woerterbuch-definitions-heading-text-format
"[[https://www.dwds.de/wb/%1$s][%1$s]] - Bedeutungen"Format used for the heading text when inserting an Org heading before content.- woerterbuch-definitions-no-matches-text-format
"Keine Bedeutungen für [[https://www.dwds.de/wb/%1$s][%1$s]] gefunden.\n"Format used for the text when no definitions are found.- woerterbuch-definitions-examples-add
nilIf non-nil examples for definitions are added.- woerterbuch-definitions-examples-max
2The maximum number of examples to add for each definition.- woerterbuch-synonyms-heading-text-format
"[[https://www.openthesaurus.de/synonyme/%1$s][%1$s]] - Synonyme"Format used for the heading text when inserting an Org heading before content.- woerterbuch-synonyms-no-matches-text-format
"Keine Synonyme für [[https://www.openthesaurus.de/synonyme/%1$s][%1$s]] gefunden.\n"Format used for the text when no synonyms are found.- woerterbuch-synonyms-add-synonyms-from-wiktionary
nilIf non-nil synoyms taken from Wiktionary are added.- woerterbuch-synonyms-wiktionary-format
"\nWiktionary:\n\n%3$s"Format used for the synonyms added from wiktionary.- woerterbuch-quit-window-key-binding
C-c C-kKey binding to use for `quit-window’ in the woerterbuch buffer. If set to nil no key binding is set.
- C-c C-q is bound to
quit-windowin the Org buffer showing the definitions or synonyms, unless you change the default value of the variablewoerterbuch-quit-window-key-binding.
See the changelog.
Use the issue tracker to reports bugs, suggest improvements or propose new features. If you want to contribute please open a pull request after having opened a new issue.
In any case please check out the contributing guidelines beforehand.
The text returned can contains additional information in parentheses.
Examples:
- aufsetzen (Schreiben, Kaufvertrag, ...) - errichten (Testament, Patientenverfügung, ...) - (die) Probe aufs Exempel
This information is removed, when reading from the minibuffer. Else it is not removed and inserted into the buffer.
It appears that when composing synonyms on Wiktionary, users have the a lot of freedom to formulate the text. Therefore, I avoid parsing the synonyms into a list which is used when reading from the minibuffer. Similar to Openthesaurus, the synonyms are inserted into an Org buffer exactly as they are formulated.
Examples of texts used (word ‘geben’):
- abtreten, reichen, übertragen, vermachen - aushändigen, hinreichen, in die Hand drücken, übergeben, überlassen, überreichen gehoben: darbieten, darreichen, zukommen/zuteilwerden lassen oft gehoben: reichen bildungssprachlich: präsentieren umgangssprachlich: langen, rüberwachsen lassen Papierdeutsch: verabreichen; Papierdeutsch veraltend: verabfolgen - schenken, gewähren, zum Geschenk machen, zustecken schweizerisch: vergaben gehoben: bedenken, beglücken, stiften, zukommen/zuteilwerden lassen umgangssprachlich: spendieren gehoben oder ironisch angedeihen lassen leicht scherzhaft: verehren veraltet: zueignen