CLI tool for English word lookup: definition, synonyms, etymology, and optional translation into other languages. No API keys required.

Installation

Requires Go 1.25+.

go install github.com/bk-bf/lexify@latest

The binary lands in $GOPATH/bin (typically ~/go/bin) — ensure that is on your $PATH.

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/bk-bf/lexify.git
cd lexify
go build -o lexify .

Usage

lexify <word>
lexify <word> <lang> [lang ...]

Flag	Description
-i <lang> [lang …]	Install offline pack(s) for the given language(s)
--kaikki	Pack source: kaikki.org JSONL (~200–500 MB, ~2 min) — default
--wiki	Pack source: en.wiktionary.org XML dump (~1.2 GB, ~10 min)
--force	Reinstall even if pack is already up to date
-o	Force live API (skip installed pack)
-d	Show per-fetch debug timing
--force-ety	Use GTX~ as etymology fallback when pack/wiki miss (off by default)

Pass any BCP-47 language code as <lang>: fr ru de es it pt ja zh ko ar nl pl sv tr uk hi …

Unrecognised language codes are dropped with an inline warning; output falls back to English.

Examples

# English only
lexify serendipity

# With translation (definition, synonyms, etymology rendered in French)
lexify serendipity fr

# Multiple target languages
lexify serendipity fr ru

# Non-English source word — auto-detected, resolved via English Wiktionary
lexify Schadenfreude

# Install multiple packs at once
lexify -i en de fr

# Force live API even when a pack is installed
lexify serendipity -o

Offline packs

Packs are installed per-language into ~/.local/share/lexify/ as a binary-search index (<lang>.idx + <lang>.dat).

lexify -i en           # install English pack (~2 min from kaikki.org)
lexify -i en --wiki    # same, from Wiktionary XML dump (~10 min)
lexify -i de           # install German pack
lexify -i de fr es     # install multiple packs at once

By default the tool uses the installed pack automatically when one is present. Pass -o to force live API calls instead.

If the word is not found in the pack the tool falls back to the APIs and marks this in output with ⚠ pack miss → api.

Native-edition packs — for de es fr it ja ko nl pl pt ru tr zh, kaikki.org provides a native-language wiktionary edition. These packs contain definitions and etymologies already in the target language, so no translation round-trip is needed for those sections.

When a target-language pack is installed and is not a native edition, synonym lookups are served from the pack; definitions and etymology are fetched from the target-language Wiktionary API.

Data sources

Section	Source
Definition (EN)	Offline pack — or — dictionaryapi.dev
Synonyms (EN)	Offline pack — or — dictionaryapi.dev (inline)
Etymology (EN)	Offline pack — or — en.wiktionary.org action=query
Definitions + etymology (target lang)	Native-edition pack — or — target-lang Wiktionary API
Synonyms (target lang)	Installed pack — or — target-lang Wiktionary API
Translation (word)	Google Translate gtx endpoint; MyMemory fallback
Translation (definition, etymology text)	Google Translate gtx endpoint

All packs are built from kaikki.org or the Wiktionary XML dump.

Implementation notes

Concurrency — Phase 1 fires goroutines for EN resolution (pack or API) and all word translations simultaneously. Phase 2 fans out immediately on Phase 1 results: per-language pack lookups, Wiktionary fetches, and text translations run without a second barrier. Use -d to see per-task timing split by phase.

Wiktionary parsing — Uses a single action=query API call to fetch full page wikitext, then extracts the relevant section client-side. Wikitext templates ({{m}}, {{der}}, {{bor}}, {{suffix}}, {{w}}, …) are resolved before display.

Multilingual synonyms — Section headings matched with a single regex covering Synonyms, Synonymes, Synonyme, Синонимы, Sinónimos, 同義語, 동의어, مرادف, and others.

Unicode — String widths and substring operations use rune slices throughout, so Cyrillic, CJK, Arabic, and other scripts wrap correctly.

Non-EN source words — If a word returns no definition, the tool translates it to English via GTX and retries the lookup in English (pack or API). The header shows <original> → <translated> when this path is taken.