OxfordDictionariesDotNet

An unofficial .NET package that wraps up the Oxford Languages API.

Setup

1. First, obtain your App ID and App Key from https://developer.oxforddictionaries.com/.

Note: On the 1st of April, 2024, all plans except the Business plan were discontinued.

2. Install the package:

Nuget: NuGet\Install-Package OxfordDictionaryApiDotNet

Project: <PackageReference Include="OxfordDictionaryApiDotNet"/>

.NET CLI: dotnet add package OxfordDictionaryApiDotNet

Or simply download this repository from the 'Code' dropdown menu.

Usage

It takes just 3 lines of code to retrieve a definition:

1. Use the Entries client to fetch information about a word:

var entries = new EntriesClient("appId", "appKey");
var entry = await entries.FindEntryAsync("entanglement");

2. There are many things a word can return, but you can always use a helper method for convenience:

var definition = entry.FindFirstDefinition();

The above simplifies the following process:

var result = entry?.Results?.FirstOrDefault();
var lexEntry = result?.LexicalEntries?.FirstOrDefault();
var innerEntry = lexEntry?.Entries?.FirstOrDefault();
var sense = innerEntry?.Senses?.FirstOrDefault();
var definition = sense?.Definitions?.FirstOrDefault();

3. You can also define a main client that houses both the Entries and Lemmas clients:

var config = new OxfordDictionaryClientConfig
  {
    AppId = "yourAppId",
    AppKey = "yourAppKey"
  };

var client = new OxfordDictionaryClient(config);
var entriesClient = client.EntriesClient;
var lemmasClient = client.LemmasClient;

Understanding the Oxford Dictionaries API

Please note that this is not a straightforward, one-size-fits-all dictionary. A single entry can provide lots of details, most of which you won't even need. While I have tried to provide some guidance in my XML comments, for a more in-depth understanding of how the Oxford Dictionaries API works, and their data structure, please visit their official documentation webpage: https://developer.oxforddictionaries.com/documentation.