DICT is a dictionary network protocol created by the DICT Development Group. It is described by RFC 2229. Its goal is to surpass the Webster protocol and to allow clients to access more dictionaries at the same time. Manual of Specialised Lexicography, Henning Bergenholtz/Sven Tarp (eds. ... In networking, a communications protocol or network protocol is the specification of a set of rules for a particular type of communication. ... Alternate meaning: Wikipedia:Requests for comment A Request for Comments (RFC) document is one of a series of numbered Internet informational documents and standards very widely followed by both commercial software and freeware in the Internet and Unix communities. ...

Several free dictionaries are available in the dict format:

• Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
• [[V.E.R.A.] **WANG**]
• Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary
• WordNet
• Jargon File
• The Devil's Dictionary ((c) 1911)
• Elements database
• U.S. Gazetteer (1990)
• Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
• CIA World Factbook
• Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
• the freedict bilingual dictionaries

Combined, they make up the Free Internet Lexicon and Encyclopedia The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (FOLDOC) is an on-line, searchable encyclopedic dictionary of computing subjects. ... WordNet is a semantic lexicon for the English language. ... The Jargon File is a glossary of hacker slang. ... The Devils Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, was originally a newspaper serialization that offered an interesting reinterpretation of the English language in which cant and political double-talk were neatly lampooned. ... 1888 advertisement for Websters Dictionary Websters Dictionary is a common title given to English language dictionaries in the United States, deriving its name from American lexicographer Noah Webster. ... World Factbook 2004 cover The World Factbook is an annual publication by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States with basic almanac-style information about the various countries of the world. ... Eastons Bible Dictionary generally refers to the Illustrated Bible Dictionary, Third Edition, by Matthew George Easton M.A., D.D. (1823-1894), published three years after Eastons death in 1897 by Thomas Nelson. ... Freedict is a collection of free (GPL-licensed) bilingual dictionaries. ... The Free Internet Lexicon and Encyclopedia is a project of the DICT Development Group. ...

Some DICT protocol clients:

• Kdict, comes with KDE
• gnome-dictionary, comes with GNOME
• dict.org's dict
• OmniDictionary (http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnidictionary/), for Mac OS X

StarDict is a desktop dictionary. It doesn't support the DICT protocol directly. Instead, it provides a converter, which would imply that you need to store data twice if you want to use it both with the DICT protocal and with StarDict. KDE (K Desktop Environment) is a free desktop environment and development platform built with Trolltechs Qt toolkit. ... Lawn Gnome A gnome is a mythical creature characterized by small stature and living underground. ... StarDict is a free desktop dictionary that serves as a frontend to StarDict dictionary files. ...

External links

• www.dict.org
• DICT protocol server list (http://luetzschena-stahmeln.de/dictd/index.php)
• RFC-2229 (http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2229.html), the actual definition of the DICT protocol
• wik2dict (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/wik2dict), a tool to download Wikipedia and Wiktionary database dumps and convert them into the dict format