DreamDict

A self-contained HTTP dictionary service providing word validation, random word generation, definitions, synonyms, antonyms, translations, pronunciation, etymology, and cross-language semantic backing for English (en), French (fr), European Portuguese (pt-PT), and Mandarin Chinese (zh).

Runs as a plain Go binary managed by systemd. Binds to localhost only — no external network exposure. Designed as a dictionary backend for GogoBee, replacing Wordnik.

Requirements

• Go 1.25+
• No CGO required (uses modernc.org/sqlite)

Quick Start

# Download all dictionary source data (~2-3 GB)
./scripts/download-dict-data.sh

# Build the database (~310 MB)
go run ./cmd/dictimport --data ./data --db ./dict.db

# Start the server
go run ./cmd/server --db ./dict.db

The server listens on 127.0.0.1:7777 by default.

API

All endpoints are read-only GET requests returning JSON.

GET /valid?word=...&lang=...

Check if a word exists in a language's word list. Includes inflected forms via affix expansion.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/valid?word=running&lang=en'
{"valid":true}

GET /random?lang=...

Return a random word. Optional filters: pos (noun, verb, adjective, adverb), min/max (word length), min_freq (frequency score), min_difficulty/max_difficulty (0.0–1.0).

$ curl 'localhost:7777/random?lang=en&pos=noun&min=5&max=8'
{"word":"lantern","difficulty":0.42}

GET /define?word=...&lang=...

Return all definitions, ordered by source priority.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/define?word=ephemeral&lang=en'
{"word":"ephemeral","lang":"en","definitions":[
  {"pos":"adjective","gloss":"lasting for a very short time","source":"wordnet","priority":10},
  {"pos":"adjective","gloss":"lasting only for a day","source":"wiktionary","priority":20}
]}

GET /synonyms?word=...&lang=...

Return deduplicated synonyms.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/synonyms?word=happy&lang=en'
{"word":"happy","lang":"en","synonyms":["content","glad","joyful","pleased"]}

GET /antonyms?word=...&lang=...

Return antonyms sourced from WordNet and Wiktionary.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/antonyms?word=happy&lang=en'
{"word":"happy","lang":"en","antonyms":["sad","unhappy"]}

GET /translate?word=...&from=...&to=...

Return known translations between supported languages.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/translate?word=cat&from=en&to=fr'
{"word":"cat","from":"en","to":"fr","translations":["chat","minet"]}

GET /backing?word=...&lang=...

Return English semantic equivalents for a non-English word via shared WordNet synset IDs. Falls back to the translations table when no synset mapping exists.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/backing?word=éphémère&lang=fr'
{"word":"éphémère","lang":"fr","equivalents":[
  {"word":"ephemeral","definition":"lasting a very short time","synset":"00914031-a"}
]}

GET /pronunciation?word=...&lang=...

Return pronunciation data (CMU phonemes for English, IPA from Wiktionary for all languages).

$ curl 'localhost:7777/pronunciation?word=ephemeral&lang=en'
{"word":"ephemeral","lang":"en","pronunciations":[
  {"format":"cmu","value":"IH0 F EH1 M ER0 AH0 L","source":"cmudict"},
  {"format":"ipa","value":"ɪˈfɛm.ər.əl","source":"wiktionary"}
]}

GET /etymology?word=...&lang=...

Return the etymology of a word from Wiktionary.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/etymology?word=ephemeral&lang=en'
{"word":"ephemeral","lang":"en","etymology":"From Medieval Latin ephemerus, from Ancient Greek ἐφήμερος (ephḗmeros, \"lasting only a day\")..."}

GET /frequency?word=...&lang=...

Return the frequency score for a word. Higher values = more common.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/frequency?word=house&lang=en'
{"word":"house","lang":"en","frequency":800}

GET /frequency/batch?words=...&lang=...

Batch frequency lookup. Comma-separated words, max 100.

$ curl 'localhost:7777/frequency/batch?words=house,cat,ephemeral&lang=en'
{"lang":"en","frequencies":{"cat":800,"ephemeral":50,"house":800}}

GET /health

Health check with database stats.

$ curl localhost:7777/health
{"status":"ok","db_path":"./dict.db","word_counts":{"en":214832,"fr":82104,"pt-PT":71088},...}

Error Responses

{"error": "bad_request", "message": "word and lang are required"}
{"error": "no_match", "message": "no words match the given filters"}

Server Configuration

Flag	Env Var	Default	Description
--port	DREAMDICT_PORT	7777	Listen port
--host	DREAMDICT_HOST	127.0.0.1	Listen host
--db	DREAMDICT_DB	./dict.db	Path to SQLite database
--log-level		info	debug, info, warn, error

Flags take precedence over environment variables.

Import CLI

go run ./cmd/dictimport [flags]

Flag	Default	Description
--db	./dict.db	Output database path
--data	./data	Source data directory
--langs	en,fr,pt-PT,zh	Languages to import
--clean	false	Drop and recreate all tables first
--skip		Comma-separated loader names to skip

Loader Names

Loader	Language	What it does
scowl	en	English word list with frequency tiers
affix-en	en	English inflected form expansion
wordnet	en	Definitions, synonyms, antonyms, synset mappings
subtlex	en	SUBTLEX-US frequency enrichment
cmudict	en	CMU pronunciation data
wiktionary-en	en	Supplemental definitions, synonyms, antonyms, translations, IPA, etymology
hunspell-fr	fr	French word list
affix-fr	fr	French inflected form expansion
lexique	fr	French POS + frequency enrichment
wolf	fr	French definitions, synonyms, synset mappings
wiktionary-fr	fr	Supplemental definitions, synonyms, antonyms, translations, IPA, etymology
hunspell-pt	pt-PT	Portuguese word list
affix-pt-PT	pt-PT	Portuguese inflected form expansion
dicionario	pt-PT	Portuguese definitions
cetempublico	pt-PT	Portuguese frequency enrichment
omw-pt	pt-PT	Open Multilingual Wordnet synset mappings
wiktionary-pt	pt-PT	Supplemental definitions, synonyms, antonyms, translations, IPA, etymology
cedict	zh	Chinese words, definitions, translations
wiktionary-zh	zh	Supplemental Chinese data
difficulty	all	Composite difficulty scoring (runs last)

Data Sources

Source	Language	What it provides
SCOWL	en	Word list + frequency tiers
WordNet	en	Definitions, synonyms, antonyms, synset IDs
SUBTLEX-US	en	Subtitle-based word frequency
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary	en	Phoneme-based pronunciation
Hunspell/LibreOffice	fr, pt-PT	Word lists + affix rules
Lexique	fr	POS + frequency enrichment
WOLF	fr	Definitions, synonyms, synset IDs
Dicionario Aberto	pt-PT	Definitions
CETEMPúblico	pt-PT	Word frequency
Open Multilingual Wordnet	pt-PT	Synset mappings to Princeton WordNet
CC-CEDICT	zh	Words, definitions, translations
Wiktionary (kaikki.org)	all	Definitions, synonyms, antonyms, translations, IPA pronunciation, etymology

Run ./scripts/download-dict-data.sh to fetch everything. Pass --force to re-download existing files.

Database Schema (v2)

Tables

Table	Purpose
words	Core word inventory (word, lang, pos, frequency, difficulty)
definitions	Word definitions with source priority
synonyms	Synonym relationships
antonyms	Antonym relationships
translations	Cross-language translations
synsets	Princeton WordNet synset IDs
word_synsets	Maps words to synsets (for cross-language semantic backing)
pronunciations	CMU phonemes and IPA data
etymology	Word origin text from Wiktionary
meta	Import metadata (imported_at, schema_version)

Difficulty Scoring

Each word receives a composite difficulty score (0.0 = easiest, 1.0 = hardest) computed at import time:

difficulty = inverse_frequency * 0.5 + word_length * 0.3 + syllable_count * 0.2

Use min_difficulty / max_difficulty on /random to select words by difficulty tier.

Deployment

A systemd unit file is provided at deploy/dreamdict.service.

# Create system user
useradd --system --no-create-home --shell /usr/sbin/nologin dreamdict

# Build and install
go build -o /usr/local/bin/dreamdict ./cmd/server
mkdir -p /opt/dreamdict /etc/dreamdict
go run ./cmd/dictimport --db /opt/dreamdict/dict.db --data ./data
chown -R dreamdict:dreamdict /opt/dreamdict

# Install service
cp deploy/dreamdict.service /etc/systemd/system/
echo 'DREAMDICT_PORT=7777' > /etc/dreamdict/dreamdict.env
echo 'DREAMDICT_DB=/opt/dreamdict/dict.db' >> /etc/dreamdict/dreamdict.env
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable --now dreamdict

Updating the Database

systemctl stop dreamdict
go run ./cmd/dictimport --db /opt/dreamdict/dict.db --clean
chown dreamdict:dreamdict /opt/dreamdict/dict.db
systemctl start dreamdict

Testing

go test ./...

Project Structure

cmd/server/           HTTP server (12 endpoints)
cmd/dictimport/       One-time data import CLI
internal/dictionary/  Core package: DB schema, types, queries
internal/loader/      Data source parsers (one per source)
scripts/              Download script for source data
deploy/               systemd unit file
data/                 Source data files (gitignored)

Expected Database Size

Language	Words	Definitions	Size
en	~220k+	~380k	~180 MB
fr	~90k+	~200k	~80 MB
pt-PT	~75k+	~120k	~50 MB
zh	varies	~80k	~20 MB
Total			~330 MB

Word counts are higher than base forms due to affix expansion of inflected forms.