Dictionary — teacher's guide

The student types a word into the search field and gets a single card back: the word read aloud, a definition tailored to their level, inflections, example sentences with audio, and some related words. If the word is inflected, slightly misspelled, or an idiom, it is interpreted along the way; if it misses completely, suggestions appear under Did you mean:.

How it works

The search field suggests words as the student types, and Search opens the entry. If the word is already in the dictionary, the card appears right away. If it isn't, it displays Looking up "the word"… for a few seconds while the explanation is generated, and the entry is then saved in the dictionary.

The card has fixed sections: Definition, Inflections, Examples, Idioms, Grammar, Common mistakes, Synonyms, Antonyms, Common collocations, and Related words. Norwegian entries also feature Show definitions from ordbøkene.no, and the full inflection table can be found under Show all forms.

Next to the headword is a speaker button and Add to word list, which opens the student's own lists or creates a new one with Create list and add word. If the student already has the word in their practice, a small percentage badge appears here showing how well they know it.

If their native language is different from the target language, Translate to… is available under the headword and translates the entire card into the native language. At the bottom, there is Ask about the word, where the student can ask an open-ended question and get an answer, as well as the link Report an error with this word.

All words within the card are clickable, and clicking one opens the new word in a modal on top of the old one. This is the same modal students encounter when they click a word in Reading, Listening, Books, and Work Norwegian: the small tooltip has a Dictionary button, and the modal contains a link called Open in dictionary.

The levels

Above the search field are five buttons: A0, A1, A2, B1, and B2. They default to the level set on the student's account, or A2 otherwise. If the student changes the level, the same word is retrieved again with a different explanation, a different grammar note, and dedicated example sentences. The word is the same; the surrounding language is not. Some words do not have a meaningful A0 version, in which case the card will indicate that the A1 content is shown instead.

Who it is suitable for

From A1 and up, students can use the dictionary on their own, especially when the level button is set to their own level. At A0, everything is still written text, so it works best together with you or a classmate, using the speaker button.

The dictionary looks up one word or one set expression at a time. Full sentences and paragraphs belong in the Translator, and memorization and repetition take place in Practice — the dictionary explains; it does not test the student.

Suggestions for working with the Dictionary

1. Look up the same word at A1 and B1 on a large screen and have the class compare them. This makes the level button intuitive, and students find their own level faster.
2. Finish a reading text by having each student choose five words, look them up, and add them to a list with Add to word list. The list can be used in Practice that same week.
3. Use Examples as a dictation exercise: play the sentence from the card, have the students write it down, and check against the screen.
4. Have students use Inflections when proofreading their own texts — singular and plural, definite and indefinite forms are listed, and Show all forms provides the rest.
5. Set aside five minutes for Ask about the word using a question you have chosen, for example, "When do I use this word?". This helps students practice asking specific questions instead of simply asking for a translation.
6. Agree as a class that errors in an entry should be reported using Report an error with this word.

Good to know

• Lookups count as learning time. Time spent on the dictionary page is recorded as learning in the Practice category, alongside Practice and Word lists, and is displayed on Progress.
• The dictionary matches the target language. If the student is learning Norwegian, it is a Norwegian dictionary; if the account is set to English or Chinese, it looks up words in those dictionaries. The subtitle indicates which language you are currently using.
• Norwegian entries are based on ordbøkene.no. Part of speech, grammatical gender, inflections, and the official definition come from there; the level-adapted explanation and example sentences are written for Språki.
• Lookups from texts can be opened on their own page. Open in dictionary gives the word its own dedicated URL on Dictionary, at the same level.

See also

• Word lists — collect the words students look up
• Clicking words in texts — the same lookup modal inside Reading, Listening, and Books
• Errors in the dictionary — what happens when an issue is reported