The on-line and free dictionary FREELANG is a bilingual

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies ...

for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. Founded in 1997 by Beaumont. FREELANG is free to download (freeware) but is under copyright of the authors, and it is collaborative.

History

FREELANG Dictionary has it roots in the Dutch Dictionary Project, started in 1996 by Frits van Zanten and his friend Tom van der Meijden. The project initially consisted of electronic wordlists from Dutch to other languages, but with a team of volunteers around the world, they started to build web sites to distribute the program and some word lists based on their language expertise. In August 1997, the French version was hosted under the name of FREELANG, headed by the French Dutch Dictionary Project lead, Beaumont. From 1998 to 2000, Frits and Tom progressively stepped out of the project. By the summer of 1998, the Dutch Dictionary Project team consisted of six members—Dario (Italy), Peter (Sweden), Vladimir (Russia), Tom (Norway), Gustaf (Denmark) and Beaumont (France)—who decided to continue with the venture. Vladimir, the Russian Dutch Dictionary Project lead, wrote new scripts to simplify the creation of new dictionaries. The Translation Help Service was created, offering free translations courtesy of a growing team of volunteer translators. In October 2001, both the English and Dutch versions of the Dutch Dictionary Project were brought under FREELANG. The current FREELANG site is managed by Beaumont, based in

Bangkok, Thailand Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated population ...

since October 2002. In April 2003, the Spanish version was brought under FREELANG. In a major website restructuring in May 2009, English, French, German, Italian, Lithuanian, Russian, Spanish and Thai welcome pages were added, providing a portal to access the English, French and Spanish FREELANG sites.

Language platform

The FREELANG operates four separate language websites:

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

, French and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

. Its fellow Dutch Dictionary Project versions include sites in

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places *Czech, ...

Esperanto Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international communi ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

and

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

. At the height of the Dutch Dictionary Project, sites in

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish a ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, Hungarian,

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...

and

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

also existed.

Services

Dictionary

Various language modules make up the core of the FREELANG dictionary. Language modules may be accessed through either the on-line interface page or off-line FREELANG dictionary program. While the on-line interface page accommodates all platforms, the off-line dictionary program to access the modules is currently available only for Microsoft Windows. The software is available in English (en), French (fr), Dutch (nl) or Spanish (es).

Translations

FREELANG Translation Help Service provides some translation services for free, as long at is not too long and not for a commercial purpose. The service is accessed through a request form and a volunteer translator replies via e-mail.

References

External links

FREELANG Dictionary Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freelang Dictionary Online dictionaries Dictionary software C++ software eo:La Vortaro