Last updated: 2 years
The best app for the Hans Wehr Arabic dictionary
A new Hans Wehr app makes full-text search in Arabic (and English) possible.
The Hans Wehr is still the best reference work if you want to translate a word quickly from Standard Arabic – especially because it is organized by roots and indicates vowels and prepositions.
In German, the 6th edition was published just a few weeks ago, which includes new terms from technology and from dialects. The 5th edition was published in 1985 and was partly completely outdated. I have no information when the new edition will also be published in English.
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The German publisher of the Hans Wehr (Harrassowitz Verlag) does not offer a digital version, let alone an app for cell phones which is very disappointing and questionable.
Digital Hans Wehr
Gibreel Abdullah is a developer from India. He created a new app for the Hans Wehr dictionary because all other available Hans Wehr dictionary apps used scanned pages which made it difficult to navigate. I guess that the 4th edition was used as a database, but I am not sure.
FEATURES
- Free and Open Source (FOSS). No Ads
- No internet connection needed
- Search in Arabic or English
- Search for words or search in the definition
- It shows how often and where the word in question occurs in the Qur’an
- Dark or light theme
- Browse the entire dictionary without searching
Disclaimer: I have no idea if there are any copyright issues.
You can download the Hans Wehr app in the Google App Store!
Apple users
So far, there is no version for Apple users, but there is another app that works quite well.
Web application
If you are looking for a web application: On ejtaal.net/aa/ you find the most important dictionaries: Hans Wehr (4th edition), Lane’s Lexicon, al-Mawrid, and the Egyptian Arabic dictionary of Hinds/Badawi. Furthermore, you will get the Classics and many Qur’an dictionaries.
Lane’s Lexicon
The developer of the Hans Wehr app has also launched a similar app for the famous Lane’s Lexicon which is a great tool if you read older texts.
Apple users
Apple users can try another app:
Web application
For offline usage, there is Lane’s Lexicon by Graeme Andrews which is a great tool. It is fully searchable and you can adjust almost anything in the settings. It is available for almost any platform (Windows, Apple, Linux). Just download the appropriate installer.
JazaakaLlaahu khayraa, shukran jazeelan akhee.
I’m the developer of these apps. They are available only on Android, but the apps have been written in Flutter language so should work on iOS as well.
I don’t own a MacBook so I cannot publish the app on Apple appstore.
If you could use your platform to find some iOS developer who could publish the app to the AppStore it would be great.
The app can be published with minimal code change in the existing code base.
The code can be found here – https://github.com/MuslimTechNet/HansWehrDictionary
And
https://github.com/MuslimTechNet/LaneLexicon
My email address for queries- gibreel.khan@gmail.com
I think this webpage, that also has an app, is based on a database from wehr, but I’m not sure. But it’s anyways a helpful dictionary since it gives conjugations and tashkil http://aratools.com/
I tried it. It’s not accurate I put بين in and keeps going to ثقل
I’ve found ARABIC Dict Box in the Apple App Store very helpful. Certainly I’m at a much lower proficiency level, but gives prepositions, example uses, etc
Wow. Got featured in Arabic For Nerds. That explains the spike in downloads.
Dear Gibreel, thank you so much for your amazing work. I was thrilled to discover your app and share it with the audience. We all very much appreciate it!