Software Hebrew Dictionary
This series of web pages provides free lessons about the different types of Hebrew Dictionary.
Home | Learning Hebrew | Hebrew Dictionary | Software Hebrew Dictionary
In the lesson
What Types Of Hebrew Dictionary Are There? we saw that many people prefer a Software
Hebrew Dictionary in preference to other forms of Hebrew Dictionary. A Software Hebrew Dictionary functions in much the same way as an
Electronic Hebrew Dictionary, but consists of software running on a PC or laptop. You can enter words in English or Hebrew and translate in both directions.
Consider some of the advantages that a Software Hebrew Dictionary offers:
- There is nothing to carry! The software is installed on a PC or laptop, and everything is done electronically. There are no batteries to replace.
- New versions, with new or updated vocabulary, can be installed easily. It will always be up-to-date.
- Once you learn how to use it, a Software Hebrew Dictionary is often much quicker and easier to use than a Printed Hardback Hebrew Dictionary that contains hundreds or thousands of pages. Rather than flicking through hundreds of pages, you enter a Hebrew or English word within seconds, and the meaning of the word is displayed instantly.
- Often, a Software Hebrew Dictionary contains proverbs and idioms of the language containing a Hebrew word. This is immensely useful. In a Printed Hardback Hebrew Dictionary, there simply isn't enough space to contain lots of examples of sentences – otherwise the Hebrew Dictionary would start to span multiple volumes.
- A Software Hebrew Dictionary generally contains every possible parsing of every Hebrew word. You can simply enter any word and it will be looked up. By contrast, a Printed Hardback Hebrew Dictionary typically contains only the root form of a Hebrew word – otherwise the Hebrew Dictionary would contain millions of entries and would expand to become a whole set of volumes. If you do not know Hebrew grammar well and don't know how to parse a Hebrew word to obtain the root, it can be very difficult to look up the Hebrew word in a Printed Hardback Hebrew Dictionary because you do not know the root. A Software Hebrew Dictionary does not have this problem – it contains every possible word including all possible prefixes and suffixes.
- Since a Software Hebrew Dictionary is simply software, it can be very flexible. Typically a Software Hebrew Dictionary is integrated into other programs running on the PC in a way that no other form of Hebrew Dictionary is able to. For instance, Babylon allows you to right-click on a Hebrew word which appears in a Microsoft Word document or a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox, and translate it. You don't need to type anything in – just right-click on the word, and up comes the translation. This can truly revolutionize your learning of Hebrew. You could read a Hebrew online newspaper such as Maariv, for instance, by simply right-clicking on any Hebrew words which you don't know. You can even use Babylon to translate entire Hebrew sentences or entire Hebrew Word documents automagically.
However, there are some disadvantages to a Software Hebrew Dictionary:
- They can be more expensive than a traditional Printed Hardback Hebrew Dictionary, although this is not necessarily the case.
- You may need to pay for software upgrades from time to time.