LEO dictionary
My guess would be that you if you have anything to do with translating texts from German to English or English to German (or from German to a number of other languages) visiting Leo.org is something you do on a regular basis.
Leo.org is also available for Android. Read today’s review to find out if the LEO dictionary is as good as the website.
Rating
| Reviewed version | Latest version |
| 3.1 | Varies with device |
Features & Use
LEO dictionary provides the same thing as Leo.org: a dictionary from German to English, French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, and Russian. Further information such as definitions, thesaurus, conjugation tables, grammar, and pronunciation (audio files) are also included.
What’s missing are the links towards the translator’s forum discussions. Unfortunately, these can’t be accessed via the app.
Screen & Controls
Once LEO dictionary kicks off you have to start by choosing a dictionary. You can change dictionary at any given point whilst using the app.
You then have to pick a search mode.
The results can be displayed as lists or tables and, again, you can switch between these two options whenever you feel like it.
Once you’ve set up the search mode you can search for words or even phrases in the search bar located at the top of the display. Click on the icon on the right hand side to start the search. You can change search by clicking on the second icon (located next to the first).
Search results are displayed in two categories: “Direct matches” and “Additional matches”. Both categories are broken down into the following:
• Nouns
• Verbs
• Definitions
• Phrases/collocations
If you’re familiar with Leo.org it won’t come as a surprise to you that search results can often be very encompassing. Sometimes one lexeme has four or five valid translations (e.g. the German word “Gänsehaut” can be translated to Gooseflesh, Goose Pimples, Goose Bumps or Goose Skin). It could also be heebie-jeebies, depending on the context.
You can look up any of the search results. Let’s say you look up the English word “murder”: you can then click on the noun and the little button at the top in order to hear the audio file for the word. This option isn’t available for every term, though.
You can also make use of options such as “Definitions” and “Thesaurus, Synonyms, Antonyms”. Just click on the word you’re interested in. The “murder” example will lead you towards the popular Merriam-Webster dictionary website.
The secondary sources that are linked vary according to the words: the German word for “murder” (“Mord”) is linked to the DWDS (Das digitale Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache des 20. Jahrhunderts) website; further information regarding conjugation/declination are displayed via Canoonet.
The following options are available in the LEO dictionary main menu:
• Info
• Help
• Dictionary
• Search mode
• Chinese settings
• Results display
You can make changes to option such as dictionary, search mode, and results display, as well as read up on LEO dictionary tips for users under “Help”.
There is an ad banner both at the top and bottom of the display which some of you may find to be annoying; I have to say that it didn’t really bother me, which is why it won’t have much of a negative impact on this section’s rating.
Bottom line:
I’ve been using MultilangDictionary for Android for a while now and am quite satisfied, but because I’m familiar with Leo.org it was easy for me to navigate through LEO dictionary for Android. Seeing as the app is easy for me to use and it’s fully functional I think it’s safe to say that it will be replacing my previous dictionary app. I can also recommend LEO dictionary to users who aren’t at all familiar with Leo.org.
Speed & Stability
LEO dictionary’s performance is good; I didn’t experience any crashes,
Price/Performance Ratio
LEO dictionary can be downloaded for free from the Market.
Screenshots
