StarDict screenshot. |
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| Stable release | 3.0.3 / July 9, 2011 |
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| Written in | C++ |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Dictionary |
| License | GPL |
| Website | code.google.com/p/stardict-3 |
StarDict, developed by Hu Zheng (胡正), is a free GUI released under the GPL for accessing StarDict dictionary files (a dictionary shell). It is the successor of the program StarDic, developed by Ma Su'an (馬蘇安). The version number of StarDict follows that of StarDic.
According to StarDict's original homepage on Sourceforge, the project has been removed from SourceForge due to copyright infringement reports.[1]
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StarDict runs under Linux, Microsoft Windows, FreeBSD, Maemo and Solaris. Dictionaries of the user's choice are installed separately. Dictionary files can be created by converting DICT files.[2]
Several StarDict-compatible programs are available for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad in the App Store, including GuruDic, TouchDict, weDict, Dictionary Universal..., also the free iStarDict, which is available for the Cydia Store. As far as mobile devices are concerned, there is also mDictionary, an application for the Maemo and MeeGo platform, which among other dictionary formats, supports StarDict. Android based devices may try ColorDict, Wordmate or AntTek Dict. The NewDictS homebrew Nintendo DS program is also available for StarDict.
One can find here the partial list of FreeDict dictionaries which can be converted to the StarDict format. These include, in particular, some older versions of Websters dictionary and many dictionaries for various languages.
While StarDict is in scan mode, results are displayed in a tooltip, allowing easy dictionary lookup. When combined with Freedict, StarDict will quickly provide rough translations of foreign language websites.
On September 25, 2006, an online version of Stardict began operation. This online version includes access to all the major dictionaries of StarDict, as well as Wikipedia in Chinese.
Previous versions of StarDict were very similar to the PowerWord[3] dictionary program, which is developed by a Chinese company, KingSoft. Since version 2.4.2, however, StarDict has diverged from the design of PowerWord by increasing its search capabilities and adding lexicons in a variety of languages. This was assisted by the collaboration of many developers with the author. A developer named Evgeniy A. Dushistov produced the command line version of StarDict called sdcv.