Category: Translations

StarDict is a free, open-source dictionary program created by Hu Zheng. Its file format (an.ifo,.idx and.dict set) is still one of the most widely supported offline dictionary formats in 2026. Star Dictionary is an independent words and language reference under separate ownership. It is not the StarDict project. The program’s developers maintain it elsewhere: its official site is on SourceForge under the name “stardict-4”, and its source code is on GitCode and GitHub. The most recent release listed on the official site is version 3.0.7, from October 2023. To use StarDict-format dictionaries today, pick openly licensed ones such as the FreeDict collection and open them in StarDict or in a compatible reader like GoldenDict, KOReader or the command-line tool sdcv.

What StarDict is

StarDict is a graphical “dictionary shell”. The program contains no word lists of its own. It loads dictionary files that you add separately, then lets you look up words in all of them at once. It is released under the GNU General Public License.

Some history and facts about the project:

Detail	What the sources show
Developer	Hu Zheng (胡正), listed as project leader on the official site
Predecessor	StarDic, by Ma Su’an (馬蘇安); StarDict continues its version numbers
First release	10 March 2003
Toolkit	Began as a Motif/Lesstif Chinese dictionary, later rewritten in GTK+
Platforms	Linux, Windows, FreeBSD, Solaris and, in the past, Nokia’s Maemo
Latest release	3.0.7, dated 3 October 2023 on the official site (Wikipedia lists 3.0.7.1 from 2 October 2023)
License	GPL; the project’s changelogs record changes between versions, so check the license file that comes with the release you use

Where the project lives now

The official StarDict website is now hosted on SourceForge as “stardict-4”. Source code is published on GitCode under the account huzheng_001 and on GitHub as huzheng001/stardict-3. Linux distributions also package the program. openSUSE Tumbleweed, for example, ships a 3.0.7 build.

Until about 2013, the stardict.org address belonged to the StarDict project. The project’s old changelog named stardict.org as its website and Google Code as its code host. Google Code has since shut down. That address now carries this unrelated site.

The copyright problem with old dictionary files

Many dictionary files shared alongside StarDict in the 2000s were not legal. According to Wikipedia, the project was removed from SourceForge after copyright infringement reports. Gentoo’s bug tracker notes that most of the files were lost when the old project ended. Many of those files were unlicensed conversions of commercial dictionaries, so the format being free did not make the content free.

The safe choice today is a collection with a published license. FreeDict states that most of its dictionaries use the GPL or another free license. It added StarDict as an official output format in October 2024, using the PyGlossary converter.

The StarDict dictionary format

A StarDict dictionary is a set of files that share one base name. The.ifo file describes the dictionary. The.idx file lists the headwords. The.dict file holds the definitions. The official specification is the StarDictFileFormat document, published on the project’s site and in its source tree under dict/doc.

File	Role	Compressed form	Required?
name.ifo	Plain-text metadata: title, word count, index size	name.ifo.gz in some readers	Yes
name.idx	Sorted list of headwords with offsets into the.dict file	name.idx.gz (gzip)	Yes, unless a.tdx tree index is used
name.dict	Definition data, stored back to back	name.dict.dz (dictzip)	Yes
name.syn	Synonyms and alternate spellings that point to index entries	None	No

The.ifo file

The.ifo file is a short UTF-8 text file. It opens with a fixed “magic” line that identifies it as a StarDict dictionary. After that comes a version line, which must be 2.4.2 or 3.0.0, or StarDict refuses to load the dictionary. Then come key=value options, one per line.

The required options are:

1. bookname: the dictionary’s display name.
2. wordcount: the number of entries in the.idx file. It must be exact.
3. idxfilesize: the size of the.idx file in bytes. If the index is gzipped, this is still the uncompressed size.
4. synwordcount: required only when a.syn file exists.

Optional fields include author, email, website, description and date. Two fields affect how the data files are read:

• idxoffsetbits (version 3.0.0 only) can be 32 or 64 and sets the size of the offset field in the.idx file. The spec allows 64-bit offsets for very large dictionaries. The StarDict 3.0.6 loader, however, rejected any value other than 32, so a 64-bit file may fail in some readers.
• sametypesequence tells the reader that every entry uses the same sequence of data types, so the type markers can be left out of the.dict file. The spec recommends using it because it saves disk space.

The.idx file

The index is a sorted list of entries. Each entry holds three things. The first is the headword, as a UTF-8 string ending in a null byte. The second is the position of its definition in the.dict file. The third is the definition’s length. With the default 32-bit setting, the position and length are each 4 bytes, stored in network byte order (big-endian). Because the list is sorted, a reader can find a word quickly without loading the whole dictionary.

The.dict file and data types

The.dict file is plain data with no separators. The.idx file says where each definition starts and how long it is. A large.dict file is usually compressed with dictzip into.dict.dz. Dictzip is gzip-compatible but still allows random access.

Each piece of definition data has a one-letter type. Lowercase letters mean text. Uppercase letters mean binary data. Common types:

Letter	Content
m	Plain text in UTF-8
h	HTML
x	XDXF markup
g	Pango text markup
t	Phonetic transcription
w	MediaWiki markup
r	List of resource files, such as images or sounds
W	WAV sound data
P	Picture data

Here is an example. A simple English word list stored as HTML would set sametypesequence=h. Each definition in the.dict file is then just HTML text, with no type letter in front of it.

The.syn file

The optional.syn file lets a lookup for one form land on another entry. A search for “colour” can open the entry for “color”, for example. Each record holds the synonym as a UTF-8 string ending in a null byte, followed by the number of the target entry in the.idx file. If you include a.syn file, the.ifo file must give synwordcount.

Programs that read StarDict dictionaries

The StarDict format has outlived much of the program’s own popularity, because many other readers support it.

Program	What it is	StarDict support
StarDict	The original GTK+ desktop program	Native
sdcv	Command-line StarDict reader, first written by Evgeniy A. Dushistov	Native
GoldenDict	Desktop dictionary reader that also handles Babylon, Lingvo DSL, DICT, AARD and MDict	Reads.ifo,.idx,.dict and.syn files
KOReader	Open-source e-book reader for Kindle, Kobo, PocketBook and Android	Its built-in dictionary lookup uses StarDict format only
PyGlossary	Converter between dictionary formats	Reads and writes StarDict

Support only works in one direction for many of them. A forum user on MobileRead reported that GoldenDict reads StarDict, but its DSL dictionaries had no easy route back into StarDict. Another reported that a dictionary that worked in GoldenDict failed in KOReader until the.dict.dz file was decompressed. If a dictionary opens in one reader but not another, compression and the idxoffsetbits setting are the first things to check.

Building your own StarDict dictionary

You can build your own StarDict dictionary from content you own or that is openly licensed. The StarDict source tree includes conversion tools, such as dictd2dic for DICT-format sources. PyGlossary converts from many other formats, and the KOReader documentation lists stardicter and wiktionary-to-stardict for specific sources.

A typical sequence:

1. Start with a source you have the right to redistribute, such as your own glossary or a GPL or Creative Commons word list.
2. Convert it to StarDict with a tool like PyGlossary.
3. Check that the.ifo file has the correct wordcount and idxfilesize values.
4. Compress the.dict file with dictzip if your reader supports.dict.dz.
5. Test the result in the reader you plan to use.

FAQ

Is this website the official StarDict site?

No. Star Dictionary is an independent words and language reference with no connection to the StarDict software. The program’s official pages are its “stardict-4” project site on SourceForge, plus its source code on GitCode and GitHub. Questions about the program should go to its developers there.

Is StarDict still maintained?

Yes, though updates are rare. The official site lists version 3.0.7, released in October 2023, and Hu Zheng is still named as project leader. Linux distributions such as openSUSE package that version.

Which files make up a StarDict dictionary?

At least three files with the same base name: an.ifo file with metadata, an.idx index and a.dict file with the definitions. The index can be gzipped (.idx.gz), and the definitions are often dictzipped (.dict.dz). An optional.syn file adds synonyms and alternate spellings.

Are the old StarDict dictionaries legal to use?

Many of them were not. A large share of the files shared in the 2000s were unlicensed copies of commercial dictionaries, and the original project was removed from SourceForge after copyright complaints. Use dictionaries that come with a stated free license, such as those from FreeDict.

Can I use StarDict dictionaries on an e-reader?

Yes, on devices that run KOReader. Its built-in dictionary lookup uses StarDict format, and its documentation lists a dictionary folder for each device. If a dictionary will not load, decompressing the.dict.dz file is a common fix.

What is the difference between StarDict and GoldenDict?

StarDict is the original program, and its file format carries the same name. GoldenDict is a separate program that reads StarDict files and several other formats, including Babylon, Lingvo DSL and MDict. The two are developed by different people.

Sources

• StarDict official website, “stardict-4” project on SourceForge (home page and the StarDictFileFormat specification)
• StarDict source repositories by Hu Zheng on GitCode (huzheng_001) and GitHub (huzheng001/stardict-3), including the project ChangeLog
• Wikipedia: “StarDict” and “sdcv”
• FreeDict: home page and downloads page
• KOReader wiki: dictionary support
• GoldenDict package descriptions from Fedora and Flathub
• PyGlossary documentation: StarDict format
• Gentoo Bugzilla and Linux Mint Community notes on StarDict’s dictionary files
• openSUSE Tumbleweed package listing for StarDict 3.0.7

What “Select and Translate” was

The website version of “Select and Translate” was a free script that StarDict’s developers offered to site owners in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Site owners added a few lines of code to their pages. After that, when a visitor selected a word, a small window showed its translation, taken from the dictionaries on StarDict’s online service.

It was the web version of a feature the desktop program already had. StarDict on Windows and Linux can “scan” text you select in other applications and show the meaning in a floating window. The website script brought the same habit to ordinary web pages without needing the program installed.

How to use “Select and Translate” in other web page? Bookmark the next link, or just drag it to your toolbar: StarDict Notice: You are guest user, you’d better login first, so this link will contain your user info and you can use your custom dictionaries by it. Then open any web page, and click the StarDict link on your toolbar.

How site owners added it (historical)

The steps below record how the feature used to be set up. The script was loaded from StarDict’s old online service domain, which no longer serves it. These instructions no longer work, and they are kept only as a record.

How “Select and Translate” was added to a website (history)
Site owners pasted two short script blocks into their pages. The first loaded a file called stardict.js from StarDict’s old online service. The second ran the function dictInit(); to start the feature. Registered users could add the variables “dict_username” and “dict_md5passwd” to the script so their own custom dictionaries were used.
Translation on/off switch: to give visitors a control for turning translation on or off, owners placed an empty element, , wherever they wanted the switch to appear.
To keep “Select and Translate” switched off by default, owners added dict_enable=false; before dictInit();.

Don’t copy this old snippet into a site today. A script loaded from a domain you don’t control can be changed at any time, and an expired or re-registered domain could serve harmful code to every visitor. The md5 password variable also sat in the page’s source code, where anyone could read it. That was weak protection even at the time.

What StarDict is today

StarDict is a free, open-source dictionary program released under the GNU General Public License. Hu Zheng developed it as the successor to an earlier program, StarDic, by Ma Su’an. Wikipedia lists the latest stable release as 3.0.7.1, dated 2 October 2023. The project’s GitCode repositories also contain source code numbered 4.0.0.

The project’s own site on SourceForge names Hu Zheng as project leader and asks for a “next-generation” leader to take over. Development has moved between hosts over the years: SourceForge, then Google Code, then SourceForge again, and now GitHub and GitCode. Linux users usually get the program from their distribution’s package manager, for example Debian’s stardict-gtk package.

The program is only a shell. It contains no dictionaries of its own, so you add dictionary files to it. That is where people need to be careful. Many StarDict-format files that circulated online in the past were unlicensed copies of commercial dictionaries. The project itself ran into copyright complaints because of this. Stick to dictionaries whose licence you can check, such as open projects or publishers that allow offline use.

The StarDict dictionary format

A StarDict dictionary is a small set of files that share one base name:

1. An.ifo file holds plain-text information: the dictionary’s name, author, word count and version.
2. An.idx file is the index. It lists the headwords and where each entry is stored.
3. A.dict file holds the definitions. It is often compressed with dictzip as.dict.dz.
4. An optional.syn file lists synonyms or alternative spellings that point to existing entries.

The format is documented in the StarDict source code, in a file called StarDictFileFormat. Because the format is open and simple, many other programs can read it. GoldenDict-ng’s documentation lists StarDict (.ifo,.idx,.dict,.syn) next to MDict (.mdx,.mdd) as supported local formats. Conversion tools such as PyGlossary can move dictionaries between formats.

Select-to-translate options today

Three kinds of tools now do what “Select and Translate” did:

Option	How it works	Good for
StarDict desktop program	Scans text you select in other apps and shows a pop-up	Linux and Windows users with licensed StarDict-format dictionaries
GoldenDict-ng	A “scan popup” translates highlighted text in any application; reads StarDict, MDict and other formats	Users who combine several offline dictionaries with online sources
jstardict (Firefox add-on by gholk)	Shows a button when you select text on a web page and looks it up offline in StarDict files you load yourself; built on Thomas Vogt’s stardict.js library	Lookups inside the browser without sending words to a server
Online dictionaries (Merriam-Webster, Oxford, Cambridge)	Look up the word on the publisher’s own site	Checked, licensed definitions, pronunciations and example sentences

For site owners, the modern equivalent is to host any lookup script on your own server and use dictionary data with a clear licence. Embedding third-party code is the risky part. Each desktop program’s Help pages explain how to switch its pop-up on and off and how to choose which dictionaries it searches.

FAQ

Does StarDict “Select and Translate” still work on websites?

No. The website script depended on StarDict’s online service, and that service no longer provides it. Pages that still include the old code get nothing from it. Remove the code, because a script from an outside domain is a security risk.

Is Star Dictionary the official StarDict website?

No. Star Dictionary is an independent reference for word meanings, origins, idioms and translations, under ownership unrelated to the StarDict software. Official information about the program comes from its developers, through the project’s SourceForge site and its GitHub and GitCode repositories.

Can StarDict still translate text selected in other programs?

Yes. The desktop program has a scan feature that shows a pop-up for text you select in other applications. GoldenDict-ng offers a similar “scan popup” and can read the same StarDict dictionary files.

Which programs open StarDict dictionary files?

StarDict itself, GoldenDict-ng and the command-line tool sdcv all read the.ifo,.idx and.dict file set. In the browser, the jstardict add-on for Firefox can load StarDict files for offline lookups.

Are StarDict dictionary files legal to use?

The format is open, but each dictionary has its own licence. Some files shared online in the past were copies of commercial dictionaries made without permission. Use dictionaries released under an open licence or ones the publisher allows for personal offline use.

Where can I find reliable definitions without installing anything?

Established online dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster, Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries and the Cambridge Dictionary give edited definitions, pronunciations and example sentences for free on their own websites. They are the safest choice when accuracy matters.

Sources

• StarDict project site, SourceForge (stardict-4.sourceforge.net)
• StarDict source repositories on GitCode (huzheng_001)
• Wikipedia: StarDict
• GoldenDict-ng documentation: dictionary formats
• Mozilla Add-ons: jstardict by gholk
• Debian manpages: stardict (stardict-gtk)

Abstract works as an adjective, a noun and a verb. As an adjective it describes ideas, qualities or art that aren’t tied to any particular physical thing. As a noun it usually means a short summary of a longer text, and as a verb it means to remove something or to summarize it. The word came into English in the 14th century from Latin abstractus, “drawn away.” This page started as a word lookup on the old StarDict website. Star Dictionary is an independent reference and is not the StarDict project, whose program is still maintained by its own developer, Hu Zheng, on GitHub and SourceForge.

The word abstract at a glance

Abstract has three parts of speech, and the stress moves depending on which one you mean. The adjective and noun are usually stressed on the first syllable. The verb is usually stressed on the second.

Part of speech	Says	Core meaning	First known use (Merriam-Webster)
Adjective	AB-strakt (US also ab-STRAKT)	not tied to a specific instance or physical thing	14th century
Noun	AB-strakt	a summary of the main points of a text	15th century
Verb	ab-STRAKT	to remove or separate; to summarize	15th century

In IPA the common form is /ˈæbstrækt/. The WordReference Random House Learner’s Dictionary of American English also gives /æbˈstrækt/ for the adjective in American English.

What abstract means

The adjective is by far the most common use. It means existing as an idea rather than as a concrete, physical thing. The noun sense of “summary” is everyday vocabulary in academic and legal writing.

Abstract as an adjective

Merriam-Webster’s first sense is “disassociated from any specific instance,” as in an abstract entity. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries puts it in plainer terms: “based on general ideas and not on any particular real person, thing or situation.”

Three uses come up most often:

1. Ideas and thinking. Justice, freedom and time are abstract concepts. You can’t point at them, but you can reason about them.
2. Art. Abstract art doesn’t try to show people or objects realistically. It works through color, shape and line instead. Oxford’s American entry gives the American abstract expressionists, such as Mark Rothko, as an example.
3. Grammar. An abstract noun names a quality, state or idea (happiness, honesty, childhood), as opposed to a concrete noun (table, dog, rain).

Abstract as a noun

Here an abstract is a short summary, which Merriam-Webster defines as “a summary of points (as of a writing) usually presented in skeletal form.” A research paper opens with an abstract of around one paragraph. In law, an abstract of title summarizes the history of ownership of a piece of land.

The noun also appears in the fixed phrase in the abstract, meaning “in general terms, without reference to real cases”: Everyone supports the plan in the abstract; the trouble starts with the budget.

Abstract as a verb

The verb is formal and much rarer. It means to draw something away or separate it out (to abstract a principle from several examples), or to write a summary (the service abstracts thousands of journal articles a year). The related adjective abstracted means absent-minded, as if your attention had been drawn away: She nodded in an abstracted way, still reading.

abstract

Where the word abstract comes from

Abstract comes from Latin abstractus, the past participle of abstrahere, “to draw away.” That verb joins abs- or ab- (“from, away”) with trahere (“to draw, to pull”). Etymonline records that the adjective first appeared in English grammar in the late 14th century, describing nouns that name things with no physical form.

The picture behind the word is literal: an abstract idea has been “pulled away” from the particular things it was noticed in. Take a red apple, a red car and a red flag, pull out what they share, and you get the abstract idea of redness.

Many other English words come from the same Latin root trahere:

• extract: to draw out
• distract: to draw (attention) apart
• attract: to draw toward
• subtract: to draw away from below, to take off
• retract: to draw back
• tractor: a machine that pulls

Merriam-Webster dates abstraction to the 15th century, from Middle French and Late Latin, built on the same stem of abstrahere.

Example sentences

These sentences show each sense in a natural setting:

• Toddlers struggle with abstract ideas like “next week.” (adjective, ideas)
• The gallery’s top floor is given over to abstract painting from the 1950s. (adjective, art)
• Read the abstract first to see whether the full study is worth your time. (noun, summary)
• In the abstract, a four-day week sounds ideal. (idiom)
• The model abstracts away the details of the hardware. (verb, in computing)
• He looked abstracted all through dinner. (related adjective)

In software and mathematics, abstract and abstraction carry a precise sense: hiding details so you can work with a general structure. An abstract class in programming, for example, defines a general shape that more specific classes fill in.

Related words and opposites

The standard opposite of abstract is concrete. Its closest synonyms change with the sense.

Sense	Synonyms	Opposites
Adjective, ideas	theoretical, conceptual, general, intangible	concrete, tangible, practical, specific
Adjective, art	nonrepresentational, nonfigurative	representational, figurative, realistic
Noun, summary	summary, synopsis, digest, précis	full text
Verb, remove	extract, separate, withdraw	insert, add

Abstract in other languages

The adjective and the noun usually translate differently. Many languages use a word built on the same Latin root for the adjective, and a separate word for “summary.”

English	Translation	Note
abstract (adj.)	French abstrait	the noun “summary” is résumé
abstract (adj.)	Spanish abstracto	the noun “summary” is resumen
abstract (adj.)	German abstrakt	academic German also uses Abstract for a paper summary
abstract (adj.)	Italian astratto	the Latin bs became s
abstract (adj.)	Chinese 抽象 (chōuxiàng)	literally “draw out the image”
abstract (noun)	Chinese 摘要 (zhāiyào)	the usual word for a paper’s summary

Words often confused with abstract

Abstract is often confused with abstruse. Abstruse means hard to understand, while abstract only means not concrete. An abstract idea can be simple (kindness), and an abstruse explanation can be entirely about concrete things.

People also mix up an abstract and a synopsis. In academic writing, an abstract summarizes a paper’s purpose, method and findings. A synopsis is the usual term for summarizing the plot of a book or film.

The StarDict program behind the old lookup page

Up to about 2013, this address was the website of StarDict, a free, open-source dictionary program. Pages like this one showed the results of a word lookup. The original page carried the line “©2006 StarDict.” Its menus pointed to the project’s own FAQ and a Help page. One notice on the site asked, “Looking for chinese translators?”, a recruiting call from the project’s volunteer days.

Star Dictionary now runs at this address under new, unrelated ownership and has nothing to do with the StarDict project. StarDict was written by Hu Zheng (胡正) and is released under the GPL-3.0-or-later license. Wikipedia lists 3.0.7.1, dated 2 October 2023, as the latest stable release, and gives github.com/huzheng001/stardict-3 as the repository. The project’s own site, stardict-4.sourceforge.net, names Hu Zheng as project leader and hosts the official documentation. A 4.0.0 source tree on GitCode moves the code to GTK4. Its changelog says the code is “almost the same as StarDict-3.0.7.”

The StarDict dictionary format today

The StarDict file format has outlived the program’s heyday. Other dictionary software still reads it. According to the official format document, each dictionary is a set of files that share one base name:

1. .ifo: a small text file with the dictionary’s name, word count and format version.
2. .idx or .idx.gz: a sorted index of headwords that points into the data file.
3. .dict or .dict.dz: the definitions themselves, usually compressed with dictzip so the program can jump straight to one entry.
4. .syn (optional): extra spellings or forms that point to existing headwords.

Today, GoldenDict-ng reads StarDict files alongside formats such as MDict, Babylon, Lingvo DSL, XDXF and DICT. The KOReader e-book reader uses StarDict as its dictionary format.

Some dictionary files that circulated in the old StarDict community were unlicensed copies of commercial dictionaries. For a reference you can trust and reuse, go to the publishers themselves (Merriam-Webster, Oxford, Cambridge), or to projects like FreeDict that publish openly licensed dictionaries. For anything about the program itself, the developers’ GitHub repository and SourceForge site are the official sources.

©2006 StarDict

FAQ

What is the simplest definition of abstract?

Something abstract exists as an idea, not as a physical thing you can touch or point to. Love, time and fairness are abstract. A chair is concrete. As a noun, an abstract is a short summary of a longer piece of writing.

How do you pronounce abstract?

The adjective and the noun are usually said AB-strakt, /ˈæbstrækt/. The verb usually takes the stress on the second syllable, ab-STRAKT. Some American speakers stress the adjective on the second syllable too.

What is the opposite of abstract?

The usual opposite is concrete, meaning real, physical or specific. In art, the opposite of abstract is representational or figurative, meaning a work that shows recognizable people or objects.

What is an abstract noun?

An abstract noun names something you can’t perceive with your senses, such as a quality, feeling, state or idea. Courage, anger, childhood and democracy are all abstract nouns. Concrete nouns like apple or river name physical things.

Is this website the official StarDict site?

No. Star Dictionary is an independent words and language reference that now runs at the old StarDict address under unrelated ownership. The StarDict program is developed by Hu Zheng, and its official information is on the project’s GitHub repository and its SourceForge site.

Which programs can open StarDict dictionary files?

Besides StarDict itself, GoldenDict-ng and the KOReader e-book reader both read StarDict-format dictionaries. Stick to dictionaries whose license lets them be shared, such as those from the FreeDict project.

Sources

• Merriam-Webster: abstract
• Merriam-Webster: abstraction
• Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries: abstract (adjective)
• Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries: abstract (American English)
• Online Etymology Dictionary: abstract
• StarDict project site
• StarDict file format documentation
• Wikipedia: StarDict
• GoldenDict-ng: supported dictionary formats
• FreeDict

“Rip” is a short English word with a long list of jobs. As a verb (said RIP, /rɪp/) it means to tear something quickly or with force, and it has been in English since about 1400. It also covers slang for stealing (“rip off”), copying a disc to a computer (“rip a CD”) and the online reaction “RIP” for a small letdown. The capital-letter form R.I.P. comes from the Latin requiescat in pace, “may he or she rest in peace.” This page started as a dictionary lookup for “rip” on the old StarDict website. Star Dictionary is a separate words reference and has no connection to the StarDict software project.

The core meaning: to tear

In its plain sense, “rip” means to tear something, or to be torn, quickly and with force. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary gives the pronunciation /rɪp/ and the example “she ripped the letter open.” Vocabulary.com describes it as tearing or being torn violently.

Verb uses

The verb works with or without an object, and it takes the forms ripped and ripping.

• With an object: “He ripped the tag off his new jacket.”
• Without an object: “The sail ripped in the storm.”
• Pulling something off or out by force: “The wind ripped the shingles from the roof.”
• Moving fast (informal): “The motorbike ripped down the empty road.”

Noun uses

As a noun, “rip” names the tear itself: “There’s a rip in the knee of your jeans.” Merriam-Webster dates this “rent or tear” sense to 1673. It also lists two other noun senses with their own histories:

Noun sense	Example	First known use (Merriam-Webster)
A tear or split	“a rip in the tent”	1673
A stretch of rough water	“the boat crossed the rip at the harbor mouth”	1775
A worthless or dissolute person (dated)	“an old rip of a gambler”	1781

The third sense is rare today. You will mostly see it in older novels.

Where the word comes from

The verb “rip” goes back to late Middle English, around 1400. The Online Etymology Dictionary (Etymonline) says it first meant “tear apart, cut open or off.” Its source is uncertain. Etymonline points to a North Sea Germanic origin, comparing Flemish rippen (“strip off roughly”) and Frisian rippe, or a Scandinavian one, comparing Swedish reppa. Merriam-Webster connects Middle English rippen with Middle Dutch words meaning “to pull” or “jerk.”

Neither dictionary settles on one parent word, so treat the Flemish link as likely, not proven. Merriam-Webster’s own pages date the verb to the 14th or 15th century depending on the version, which fits the “about 1400” estimate.

RIP

Phrasal verbs and idioms with rip

Most everyday uses of “rip” come in phrases. The ones below are the most common in current English.

Phrase	Meaning	Example	Register
rip off	to cheat, overcharge or steal from	“That garage ripped us off.”	Informal
rip-off (noun)	a swindle, or a cheap copy	“Twelve dollars for popcorn is a rip-off.”	Informal
rip up	to tear into pieces	“She ripped up the contract.”	Neutral
rip into	to criticize harshly	“The coach ripped into the team at halftime.”	Informal
rip apart / rip to shreds	to destroy, or to criticize without mercy	“Critics ripped the sequel to shreds.”	Informal
let rip / let it rip	to act or speak with no restraint; to go full speed	“Once the music started, the band let rip.”	Informal

Rip off: from African American slang to everyday English

“Rip off,” meaning to steal or rob, entered English in the late 1960s. Etymonline dates the verb to about 1967 in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). The noun “rip-off,” for a fraud or swindle, follows in 1969. By 1971 it also meant an exploitative imitation, and later a plagiarism.

The idea was older. Etymonline notes that “rip” alone was prison slang for “to steal” by 1904. Today “rip-off” is ordinary informal English and shows up in reviews, consumer reporting and casual speech.

Rip in computing: ripping a CD or DVD

To “rip” a disc means to copy its audio or video onto a computer or another device as digital files. Dictionaries trace this sense to “rip off.” A program that does the job is called a “ripper,” though most media players now include the feature.

Dictionary.com’s Random House entry labels the sense informal and says it can imply copying without permission or payment. The American Heritage entry on the same site leaves that out. In practice the word is neutral: “She ripped her old CDs to her laptop” describes a method, not a crime. Whether a given copy is legal depends on local copyright law, not the word.

R.I.P. and the slang “rip”

R.I.P. stands for the Latin requiescat in pace, “may he or she rest in peace.” Merriam-Webster notes it is used on tombstones, and Dictionary.com dates its English use to around 1815 to 1825. The plural form is requiescant in pace. In English the letters are often read as the three words “rest in peace.”

“RIP” online for small losses

Online, “RIP” or lowercase “rip” also works as a joking reaction to a minor disappointment. NetLingo describes it as a response to an unfortunate but mild problem, with “big RIP” for something a bit worse. Examples:

• “Spilled coffee on my keyboard. RIP.”
• “rip my phone battery, 2% and no charger.”
• “Oh no, RIP to the car.”

This use is common in gaming chats and group texts. Keep it out of real condolence messages. “RIP” written under news of someone’s death reads as sincere, but the joking tone can easily read as careless, so a full sentence is kinder.

Rip current, rip tide and riptide

A rip current is a narrow, fast channel of water flowing away from a beach. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service state that rip currents are not rip tides. Waves drive rip currents. “Rip tide” properly means a strong tidal current through an inlet or harbor mouth.

NOAA’s science notes say rip currents often form where water rushes back out through a break in a sandbar. They usually run 25 yards wide or less, but they can carry a swimmer hundreds of yards out. In everyday speech many people say “riptide” when they mean a rip current. Forecasters and lifeguards use “rip current.”

Synonyms and related words

The best synonym depends on the sense.

• Tear: tear, rend, split, slit, shred
• Steal or overcharge: cheat, swindle, fleece, gouge, con
• Criticize: slam, pan, blast, savage
• Move fast: tear, zoom, race

Related words built on the same root include ripper, ripping (dated British slang for “excellent,” as in “a ripping yarn”), ripped (informal for very muscular) and rip cord, the cord pulled to open a parachute.

About the old StarDict lookup page

This address once hosted the website of StarDict, a free, open-source dictionary program. The footer of this lookup page read “©2006 StarDict.” That notice belonged to the program’s developers, and its menu items, such as Help, pointed to their own pages. The old site also carried a banner asking “Looking for chinese translators?” That request was part of the old site and is no longer open here.

StarDict is still developed by its own team, led by Hu Zheng, on its own project pages and code repositories. Wikipedia lists version 3.0.7.1 from October 2023 as the latest stable release. If you came here looking for a “Download StarDict” button, this site does not host the program or any dictionary files. Some old dictionary files passed around online were unlicensed copies of commercial dictionaries. For licensed definitions you can look up the established dictionaries directly: Merriam-Webster, the Oxford dictionaries and Cambridge all publish free online entries.

FAQ

What does “rip” mean in slang?

It depends on the phrase. “Rip someone off” means to cheat or overcharge them, a use that began in African American slang in the late 1960s. Online, “rip” or “RIP” on its own is a mock-sad reaction to a small setback, such as “my phone died, rip.”

What does R.I.P. stand for?

R.I.P. is short for the Latin requiescat in pace, “may he or she rest in peace.” It appears on gravestones and in condolence messages. In English most people read it as “rest in peace.”

Is “rip-off” one word, two words or hyphenated?

The verb is two words: “They ripped me off.” The noun is usually hyphenated, “a rip-off,” though “ripoff” as one word is also common, especially in American English. Check your style guide if you write for a publication.

Is “riptide” the same as a rip current?

Not technically. NOAA says rip currents are not rip tides: rip currents are driven by waves near beaches, while rip tides are tidal currents through inlets and harbor mouths. In casual speech “riptide” is widely used for both, but safety warnings use “rip current.”

Is ripping a CD illegal?

The word itself only describes extracting digital content, whether from a disc such as a CD or DVD or from a streaming service or other digital source. Whether a particular copy is allowed depends on the copyright law where you live and on what you do with the files. Some dictionaries note the informal sense can suggest unauthorized copying, but many people use it neutrally.

Where does the word “rip” come from?

It entered English around 1400, possibly from a North Sea Germanic source related to Flemish rippen (“strip off roughly”) or a Scandinavian word such as Swedish reppa. Etymologists have not settled on one parent word. Rather than learning one “true” origin, remember that it belongs to a family of Germanic words about pulling and tearing.

Sources

• Merriam-Webster: rip
• Merriam-Webster: requiescat in pace
• Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries: rip
• Online Etymology Dictionary: rip
• Online Etymology Dictionary: rip-off
• Dictionary.com: rip
• NOAA rip current glossary (archived)
• Wikipedia: StarDict

In November 2026, “beat” works as a verb, a noun and an adjective. As a verb it means to hit something again and again or to defeat someone. As a noun it means a rhythm, a regular route or an area of work, and as an informal adjective it means worn out (“I’m beat”). The word goes back to the Old English verb bēatan, and Merriam-Webster dates it to before the 12th century.

Beat at a glance

• Word: beat
• Part of speech: verb, noun, adjective
• Pronunciation: BEET (IPA /biːt/), sounds the same as “beet”
• Verb forms: beat, beats, beating; past tense beat; past participle beaten or beat
• First recorded: before the 12th century (verb), 14th century (noun)
• Source language: Old English bēatan

What “beat” means as a verb

As a verb, “beat” has two main meanings. It means to hit something over and over, or to defeat someone in a game, a contest or a fight. Most of its other verb senses grow out of one of these two ideas.

To strike repeatedly

This is the oldest sense. Merriam-Webster defines it as striking repeatedly, including hitting someone so as to cause pain. The same idea of repeated movement covers some neutral and even pleasant uses:

• Cooking: “Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy.”
• Hearts and wings: “Her heart was beating fast.” “A hummingbird beats its wings dozens of times a second.”
• Drums and rain: “Rain beat against the windows all night.”
• Paths: “Hikers have beaten a trail to the lake.” This is where “the beaten track” comes from.

To defeat or do better than

The second big sense is about winning. Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries gives “beat somebody at something,” as in “He beat me at chess.” It stretches easily:

• Opponents: “The Cubs beat the Cardinals 5-2.”
• Records and targets: “She beat her personal best by four seconds.”
• Problems: “He beat cancer twice.”
• Getting there first: “Leave at six to beat the traffic.” “She beat me to the punch.”
• Puzzling someone: “It beats me why they closed the café.” Here the question has “defeated” the speaker.

Verb forms: beat or beaten?

“Beat” is irregular. The past tense is “beat,” and the standard past participle is “beaten.”

• Past tense: “We beat them last week.”
• Past participle: “We have beaten them twice this season.”

In informal American English, “beat” is also used as a past participle, especially with “get”: “We got beat in the final.” Merriam-Webster lists both “beaten” and “beat.” In formal writing, use “beaten.” The modern past tense “beat” is itself a later change. Etymonline notes it appeared around 1500, probably as a shortened form of Middle English beted.

What “beat” means as a noun

As a noun, “beat” most often means a single stroke or pulse, the rhythm made by a series of them, or a regular route or area someone covers. Merriam-Webster dates the noun to the 14th century.

Sense	Meaning	Example
Stroke or pulse	One hit, or one throb of the heart	“Her heart skipped a beat.”
Rhythm (music)	The basic pulse of a piece, or the backing track in hip-hop	“The song has a slow, heavy beat.” “He produced the beat for that track.”
Route	The area a police officer or guard patrols on foot	“Officers walking a beat downtown.”
Area of reporting	The subject or region a journalist covers	“Her beat is city hall.”
Pause (drama, writing)	A short pause or a single unit of action in a script or story	“Hold for a beat, then answer.”
Physics	A regular rise and fall in loudness when two close frequencies combine	“Tune the strings until the beats disappear.”

The route sense and the reporting sense are closely related. A journalist’s beat is the newsroom version of a patrol officer’s beat: a patch you know well and check all the time.

What “beat” means as an adjective

As an adjective, “beat” means very tired. It is informal: “After the double shift, I was completely beat.” Dictionaries mark it as colloquial, so keep it out of formal reports.

The longer form “dead beat,” meaning completely exhausted, appears in Pierce Egan’s Life in London (1821), according to Green’s Dictionary of Slang and Etymonline. Etymonline suggests the basic idea was “worn out, good for nothing.” By 1863, American English had the noun “deadbeat,” a lazy person who sponges off others. Today it more often means someone who avoids paying debts (“a deadbeat landlord,” “deadbeat dad”).

Where “beat” comes from

“Beat” is an old Germanic word with a clear family tree.

1. Proto-Indo-European: Etymonline traces it to a root reconstructed as bhau-, “to strike.”
2. Proto-Germanic: bautan, which also produced Old Norse bauta and Old High German bōzan.
3. Old English: bēatan, “to inflict blows on, strike repeatedly, thrash.” It was a strong verb with the past tense bēot and the past participle beaten.
4. Middle English: beten.
5. Modern English: “beat,” with the past tense “beat” appearing around 1500.

Some older sources, such as Webster’s 1828 dictionary, linked “beat” to Latin batuo (“to strike”). Modern dictionaries trace it through Germanic instead, and Merriam-Webster’s entry does not mention Latin.

The Beat Generation and “beatnik”

“Beat” also names a famous American literary movement. Most accounts say Jack Kerouac used the phrase “Beat Generation” in a 1948 conversation with the novelist John Clellon Holmes. Etymonline dates the phrase in print to 1952.

At first, “beat” meant weary and beaten down, a sense already used in jazz and street slang of the time. Later, Kerouac said it also pointed to “beatific” and “beatitude,” a state of blessed happiness. His 1957 novel On the Road became the movement’s best-known book, alongside writers such as Allen Ginsberg.

“Beatnik” came later, and it was meant as an insult. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen used it in April 1958, joining “beat” to the Russian suffix “-nik,” which was in the news after the Sputnik launch in 1957. Merriam-Webster gives 1958 as the first known use.

“Beat” in modern slang: a beat face

In makeup slang, to “beat” your face means to apply makeup with skill, and a “beat face” (or simply “a beat”) is a full, flawless look. The usage comes from drag and ballroom culture, and beauty creators on YouTube and Instagram spread it widely in the 2010s.

• “Her face was beat for the gala.”
• “That beat is flawless.”

There is no well-documented first use. Credit for the term belongs to the Black and Latino LGBTQ+ ballroom scene and to drag performers. It is still current in beauty and drag circles. Outside them, it can confuse people who only know the violent sense of “beat.”

Common idioms and phrases with “beat”

“Beat” turns up in dozens of everyday idioms. These are the ones readers search for most:

Phrase	Meaning	Example
beat it	Go away (informal, often rude)	“Beat it, kid.”
beat around the bush	Avoid saying something directly	“Stop beating around the bush and tell me.”
beat a dead horse	Keep arguing about something already settled	“We’ve decided, so don’t beat a dead horse.”
beat someone to the punch	Do something before someone else can	“I meant to call her, but she beat me to the punch.”
beat the clock	Finish before time runs out	“We beat the clock by ten minutes.”
beat the rap	Escape punishment (informal)	“He was charged but beat the rap.”
beats me	I have no idea	“Where’s the remote? Beats me.”
can you beat that?	Expresses surprise	“He won the lottery twice. Can you beat that?”
off the beaten track/path	Away from popular places	“A small village off the beaten track.”
not miss a beat	Carry on smoothly despite an interruption	“The singer’s mic failed, but she didn’t miss a beat.”
march to the beat of a different drummer	Live by your own standards	Based on a line in Thoreau’s Walden
beat up	Hurt badly by hitting; also “beat-up,” meaning worn and damaged	“A beat-up old pickup.”

Michael Jackson’s 1983 hit “Beat It” made the “go away” sense famous around the world. In the song, it means walk away from a fight.

Beat or beet?

“Beat” and “beet” sound the same but have nothing in common. A beet is a root vegetable (in British English, “beetroot”). “Beat” covers every other meaning on this page. If you can swap in “hit,” “defeat,” “rhythm” or “tired,” the spelling is “beat.”

“Beat” in other languages

“Beat” has no single translation, because its senses go in different directions. Pick the word that matches the sense.

English	Spanish	French	German	Note
beat (hit)	golpear	battre, frapper	schlagen	Spanish pegar is also common for hitting a person
beat (eggs)	batir	battre	schlagen	German uses the same verb: Eier schlagen
beat (defeat)	vencer, ganar a	battre, vaincre	schlagen, besiegen	Ganar a is more casual in Spanish
beat (music)	ritmo, compás	rythme, temps	Takt, Rhythmus, Beat	German borrows Beat for pop and electronic music
beat (route)	ronda	ronde	Revier	Used for police patrols
I’m beat (tired)	estoy molido	je suis crevé	ich bin kaputt	All informal; formal choices are agotado, épuisé, erschöpft

About this site and the old StarDict address

Star Dictionary is an independent reference for word meanings, origins, idioms and translations. It is not the StarDict project and has no connection to it. Until about 2013, this address carried the website of StarDict, an open-source dictionary program. This page started as a word lookup (“Query (beat)”) from that era.

StarDict is still developed by its own team. Wikipedia names Hu Zheng as its developer, and the project’s SourceForge site lists him as project leader. The source code is hosted on GitHub, the latest listed release is 3.0.7, and the program is licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later. It runs on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and some other systems. Official information about the program, including its file format (a set of.ifo,.idx and.dict files for each dictionary), comes from the project’s own pages, not from this site.

Some dictionary files that circulated for StarDict in the past were unlicensed copies of commercial dictionaries. For reliable definitions today, you can use publishers’ own online dictionaries, such as Merriam-Webster, Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries and Cambridge Dictionary. Openly licensed projects such as Wiktionary and the GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English (GCIDE) are also free to use.

FAQ

What does “I’m beat” mean?

It means “I’m very tired.” It is informal and mostly spoken. The stronger “dead beat,” meaning completely exhausted, goes back at least to 1821. In formal writing, use “exhausted” or “worn out.”

Is it “I got beat” or “I got beaten”?

Both are used. “Beaten” is the standard past participle and the safe choice in formal writing. “Got beat” is common in casual American English, especially in sports talk, and Merriam-Webster lists “beat” as a past participle as well.

What is a reporter’s or police officer’s beat?

It is the area someone covers regularly. For a police officer, it is the streets they patrol. For a journalist, it is a subject or region, such as health, sports or city hall. In both cases, the idea is a familiar patch you go over again and again.

Why were the Beat writers called “Beat”?

Jack Kerouac used “Beat Generation” around 1948 to describe young people who felt worn down and outside mainstream life, drawing on the slang sense of “beat” as exhausted. He later said the word also carried the idea of “beatific,” or blessed. “Beatnik” was a mocking label that Herb Caen added in 1958.

What does “beat face” mean?

It means makeup applied skillfully and fully, often a polished, flawless look. The phrase comes from drag and ballroom culture and spread through beauty creators online in the 2010s. It is praise, not violence.

Is this site the StarDict dictionary program?

No. Star Dictionary is an independent words and language reference that now uses an address that once belonged to the StarDict project. StarDict is developed by its own team elsewhere, and its official information is on the project’s own SourceForge and GitHub pages.

Sources

• Merriam-Webster: beat
• Merriam-Webster: beatnik
• Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries: beat
• Etymonline: beat
• Etymonline: beaten
• Etymonline: deadbeat
• Etymonline: beatnik
• Green’s Dictionary of Slang
• Encyclopedia.com: Beat Generation
• StarDict project site (SourceForge)
• StarDict on GitHub
• Wikipedia: StarDict

In the StarDict dictionary program, a “query” is the word or pattern you type into the search box. The first character of what you type decides how StarDict searches: a plain word gets an ordinary lookup, * and ? turn on pattern matching, a leading / runs a fuzzy search and a leading | searches inside definitions. Star Dictionary is an independent words and language reference and is not the StarDict project. StarDict’s developers maintain the program elsewhere: the official site is on SourceForge, where version 3.0.7 is listed as released on 3 October 2023, and the same site holds the project documentation, including the file-format and protocol documents.

What “query” means

Query is a noun and a verb, pronounced KWEER-ee. Merriam-Webster gives the US pronunciation as /ˈkwir-ē/ and lists KWERR-ee as a variant. As a noun it means a question, especially one that asks for information or expresses doubt. As a verb it means to ask or to question something. Merriam-Webster says the noun is an alteration of the earlier spelling quere, from Latin quaere, the command form of quaerere, “to ask”. Merriam-Webster dates the verb to 1614 and the noun to 1620. Etymonline dates the noun earlier, to the 1530s, as quaere, which writers often put in a margin to flag a question or a doubt.

In software, a query is a request sent to a program or database. In StarDict it is simply what you type into the lookup box, and the rules below describe how the program reads it.

The four query types

StarDict treats your input in one of four ways, depending on the characters in it. The project’s own StarDict Protocol document, which defines how StarDict clients talk to a dictionary server, lists the same types and gives a*p?le, /apple and |apple as examples.

Query type	How to type it	Example	What it returns
Ordinary lookup	Just the word	apple	The headword and close matches from the word list
Pattern matching (glob style)	Use * for any run of characters and ? for exactly one	a*p?le	Every headword that fits the pattern
Fuzzy query	Start with /	/aple	Headwords spelled close to your input, which helps with misspellings
Full-text search	Start with \|	\|apple	Entries whose definitions contain the word

StarDict’s feature list also names regular expression matching. For the exact rules, the protocol document points readers to the help file that ships with the program.

Pattern matching with * and ?

Pattern matching helps when you know part of a word. The asterisk stands for any number of characters, including none. The question mark stands for exactly one.

1. colo?r matches color, but also any other five-letter word that fits.
2. *ology lists every headword ending in -ology.
3. wo?d* (the example used in StarDict’s own package description) matches word, words, wordy and more.

Use pattern matching for crosswords and for finding word families. A pattern that starts with * makes the program scan the whole word list, so it is slower on large dictionaries.

appendix

Fuzzy query with /

A fuzzy query finds words spelled close to your input. Type / and then your best guess at the word, such as /recieve, and StarDict suggests the closest real headwords, including receive.

Use it when you only half know a spelling. The catch is that you get a list of possible words, not one answer, so check the definition before you trust the match.

Full-text search with |

Full-text search looks inside the definitions. Type | and a word, and StarDict lists every entry whose definition text contains it. Searching |fruit, for example, can bring up apple, mango and pome.

This is the most useful mode for going backwards from a meaning to a word. It is also the slowest, because the program has to read the definition data and not just the index. Some old guides call this mode “full-text translation”, but StarDict’s documents call it full-text search.

The console version: sdcv

sdcv is a separate command-line program that reads StarDict dictionaries, and it uses the same prefixes. Its manual page says each query can start with / for fuzzy search or | for full-text search, and can contain ? and * for pattern search. A few options matter in practice:

Option or setting	What it does
-e / , exact-search	Turns off fuzzy matching and returns exact matches only
, list-dicts	Lists the dictionaries sdcv can see
, json	Prints results in a format other programs can read
, data-dir or STARDICT_DATA_DIR	Points sdcv to a folder of dictionaries other than the default
Ctrl+D	Leaves interactive mode

On Linux, man sdcv shows the manual for the version you have installed. Details such as where the search history is saved differ between versions.

How StarDict dictionary files work

A StarDict dictionary is a small set of files that share one base name. The project’s file-format document describes them:

File	Role	Required?
.ifo	Plain-text information: name, word count, format version (2.4.2 or 3.0.0)	Yes
.idx or .idx.gz	The sorted index of headwords	Yes
.dict or .dict.dz	The definitions, often compressed	Yes
.syn	Extra synonyms that point to existing entries	No

The queries above work against these files. Ordinary lookups, pattern matching and fuzzy queries mostly use the index. Full-text search has to read the definition file too, which is why it is slower.

Other programs read the format as well. GoldenDict-ng lists StarDict .ifo, .dict, .idx and .syn files among the formats it supports, and the e-reader app KOReader uses StarDict files for its dictionary lookups. The free, openly licensed FreeDict project publishes dictionaries in StarDict format. Many dictionary packs that circulated in the 2000s were unlicensed copies of commercial dictionaries, so use only files whose license you can check.

About the original appendix

This appendix was first published in 2006, when the address carried the StarDict project’s website, and it carried the notice “©2006 StarDict”. The menu around it linked to pages called Download StarDict, FAQ and Help, and a recruitment notice asked: Looking for chinese translators? Those pages belonged to the StarDict developers and are not part of the current site. Official information about the program and its formats now lives on the project’s SourceForge site.

Questions readers ask

Is this site the official StarDict website?

No. Star Dictionary is an independent words and language reference with no connection to the StarDict software. The program’s developers maintain it elsewhere, and its official pages, including the file-format and protocol documents, are on SourceForge.

Is StarDict still maintained?

Yes, but releases are rare. The official site lists version 3.0.7 as released on 3 October 2023, and Linux distributions such as Debian and Ubuntu still ship 3.0.x packages. Code marked 4.0.0 exists in the developer’s repositories, but no stable 4.0 release has been confirmed on the official site.

What is the difference between fuzzy search and pattern matching?

Pattern matching follows your exact pattern: * stands for any run of characters and ? for one character, so you have to know part of the word. A fuzzy query (/word) guesses at words spelled close to what you typed. Use it when you don’t know the spelling.

How do I search inside definitions in StarDict?

Start the query with a pipe character, as in |harvest. StarDict then returns the entries whose definition text contains that word. This mode is slower than a normal lookup because it reads the full definition data.

Do StarDict search tricks work in other dictionary apps?

Only partly. sdcv uses the same /, |, * and ? rules: its manual page lists / for fuzzy search, | for full-text search and ? and * for pattern search. Apps like GoldenDict-ng and KOReader can open StarDict files, but each has its own search box and its own rules, so check that app’s help.

Where can I get legal StarDict-format dictionaries?

Look for projects that state their license clearly. FreeDict, for example, publishes free bilingual dictionaries in StarDict format. Many older dictionary packs were unlicensed copies of commercial works, so avoid any file whose origin and license you can’t confirm.

Sources

• StarDict official site (SourceForge): stardict-4.sourceforge.net
• StarDict Protocol v0.4: stardict-4.sourceforge.net/StarDict-Protocol_v04
• StarDict file format: stardict-4.sourceforge.net/StarDictFileFormat
• sdcv manual page (Debian 13): dokk.org/manpages/debian/13/sdcv/sdcv.1.en
• Merriam-Webster, “query”: merriam-webster.com/dictionary/query
• Etymonline, “query”: etymonline.com/word/query
• GoldenDict-ng supported formats: xiaoyifang.github.io/goldendict-ng/dictformats
• StarDict on Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarDict

“Arrival” is a noun with three main meanings: the act of reaching a place, a person or thing that has just come (a “new arrival” is often a baby), and reaching a goal or a decision. It is said uh-RYE-vul (/əˈraɪvəl/). The word came into English in the late 14th century from Anglo-French arrivaille, and it first meant coming ashore at the end of a sea voyage. Star Dictionary is an independent words and language reference and has no connection to the StarDict dictionary program. That program is maintained by its own developers elsewhere.

What “arrival” means

Arrival is the noun form of the verb arrive. Major dictionaries such as Merriam-Webster and the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries list these senses:

1. The act of arriving. You reach a place at the end of a trip. “Our arrival in Lisbon was delayed by fog.”
2. A person or thing that has arrived. This can be a new guest, a new employee, a new product or a newborn baby. “The bookshop has a table of new arrivals by the door.”
3. Reaching a state, goal or result. “After three hours of debate, the arrival at a compromise felt like a small miracle.”

Some fixed uses are worth knowing. In airports and train stations, Arrivals (plural, often capitalised) is the area or board for incoming travel, and Departures is its opposite. In hospitals and in business slang, dead on arrival means dead before reaching care, or a plan that fails as soon as it is proposed.

How to say it

Say it in three syllables: uh-RYE-vul, with the stress on the middle syllable.

Source	Transcription	Note
Simple respelling	uh-RYE-vul	Stress on “RYE”
IPA (US and UK)	/əˈraɪvəl/	The first vowel is a weak schwa
Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries	/əˈraɪvl/	The last syllable is reduced to a syllabic “l”
Merriam-Webster	ə-ˈrī-vəl	Merriam-Webster’s own respelling system

A common mistake is stressing the first syllable (“AIR-ih-vul”). Native speakers keep the first syllable short and unstressed.

Where the word comes from

The word started out at sea. Etymonline traces arrival to Anglo-French arrivaille, which comes from Old French ariver, “to come to land.” That verb goes back to Vulgar Latin *arripare, “to touch the shore,” from Latin ad ripam, “to the shore.” Ripa means riverbank or shore.

Here is how the meaning changed over time:

1. Late 14th century: the noun meant coming to land at the end of a voyage by sea, or getting off a ship.
2. 1510s: the broader sense, the end of any journey, appeared.
3. Later: the senses “a person who has arrived” and “reaching a goal” developed from these.

Merriam-Webster gives the Middle English forms as arivaile and arrival, borrowed from Anglo-French arrivayle or arivail. These were formed from ariver plus the noun suffix -ayle or -ail. The same suffix appears in rehearsal and refusal, two more nouns made from verbs with -al.

Example sentences

These examples show each sense in ordinary use:

• “Please check in at the front desk on arrival.”
• “The estimated time of arrival is 6:40 p.m.”
• “Congratulations on your new arrival! What did you name her?”
• “The arrival of cheap smartphones changed how people read the news.”
• “Late arrivals will be seated at the interval.”
• “Without funding, the proposal was dead on arrival.”

Common phrases with “arrival”

Most everyday uses come from a small set of set phrases.

Phrase	Meaning	Register
on arrival / upon arrival	when you get there	Neutral; “upon” is more formal
new arrival	someone who has just come, often a baby	Neutral, friendly
late arrival	a person or thing that comes late	Neutral
time of arrival (ETA)	when someone is expected to get there	Travel, business
Arrivals (hall, board)	the area or display for incoming travel	Signage
dead on arrival (DOA)	already dead on reaching a hospital; a plan that fails at once	Medical; informal in business

Synonyms, antonyms and related words

The closest synonym depends on which sense you mean.

• Act of arriving: coming, appearance, entrance, landing, homecoming.
• Person who has arrived: newcomer, incomer, visitor, entrant.
• Something new appearing: advent, emergence, introduction, debut.
• Antonyms: departure, exit, leaving, going.

Related words include the verb arrive, the noun arriver (rarely used), and arriviste. Arriviste is a later borrowing from French for an ambitious newcomer who is pushing for status. It is a disapproving word.

The most common confusion is arrival and advent. Advent means the coming of something important or long awaited (“the advent of the internet”). It is rarely used for a person stepping off a train.

arrival

The original page carried the line “©2006 StarDict.” It dates from the years when this web address belonged to the StarDict program.

“Arrival” the film

Many people searching the word mean the 2016 science fiction film. Arrival was directed by Denis Villeneuve. Eric Heisserer adapted it from Ted Chiang’s 1998 novella “Story of Your Life.” The film follows a linguist trying to communicate with alien visitors, so it suits a word reference well. At the 89th Academy Awards in 2017 it received eight nominations, including Best Picture, and won Best Sound Editing.

About this page and the StarDict program

This address once hosted the website of StarDict, a free, open-source dictionary program. In those years a query page like this one showed results from dictionary files loaded into StarDict. The old site’s menu offered items such as Download StarDict, FAQ and Help, and one banner asked “Looking for chinese translators?” All of that is history. Star Dictionary is a separate, independent reference and is not the program’s official home. It offers no downloads.

StarDict is still developed by its own team, led by Hu Zheng, and the main development now happens in the huzheng001/stardict-3 repository on GitHub. The program runs on Linux, Windows, FreeBSD and Solaris, and it once ran on Maemo. Its dictionary format stores each dictionary as a set of files: an.ifo information file, an.idx index file and a.dict data file, which is often compressed as.dict.dz. Other dictionary apps, such as GoldenDict, can read this format as well.

One point matters if you look for StarDict dictionaries today. Some old dictionary files that circulated online were unlicensed copies of commercial dictionaries. Use the project’s own pages for official information. For word meanings, use properly licensed sources: the free online editions of Merriam-Webster, Cambridge and the Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries, or open projects such as Wiktionary.

Frequently asked questions

What is the meaning of arrival?

Arrival means the act of reaching a place, a person or thing that has just come, or reaching a goal or state. “Her arrival at the station,” “a new arrival in the office” and “the arrival of spring” show the three uses. It is always a noun. The verb is arrive.

How do you pronounce arrival?

Say uh-RYE-vul, with the stress on the second syllable. In IPA it is /əˈraɪvəl/ in both American and British English. The first syllable is a quick, weak “uh,” never “air.”

What does “new arrival” mean?

A new arrival is someone or something that has just come. Most often it means a newborn baby, as in “the family is expecting a new arrival.” Shops also use “new arrivals” for stock that has just come in.

Is it “on arrival” or “upon arrival”?

Both are correct and mean the same thing: at the moment you get there. “On arrival” is more common in everyday English. “Upon arrival” sounds slightly more formal and often appears on hotel and travel notices.

Where does the word arrival come from?

It comes from Anglo-French arrivaille, from Old French ariver, “to come to land.” That goes back to Latin ad ripam, “to the shore.” In English the word first meant landing at the end of a sea voyage, in the late 14th century, and the general sense of finishing any journey followed in the 1510s.

Is this site the official StarDict website?

No. Star Dictionary is an independent words and language reference and has no connection to the StarDict program. StarDict is maintained by its own developers, and its source code and official information are in the project’s own repository on GitHub.

Sources

• Merriam-Webster: entries for “arrival” and “arrive”
• Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries: entry for “arrival”
• Online Etymology Dictionary (Etymonline): entries for “arrival” and “arrive”
• Wikipedia: “StarDict” and “Arrival (film)”
• StarDict project repository on GitHub (huzheng001/stardict-3)