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If you’re traveling to a foreign land, learning a language or have other translation needs, you may wish for a translator to follow you wherever you go. Worldictionary is an app that can help translate languages for you and help build your vocabulary.
Worldictionary is simple and intuitive to use, but also has loads of advanced features that make it useful beyond a typical translation app. The developer, who also developed the impressive WorldCard Mobile app, provided me with the iOS version to try.
Using the App
Press the bottom bar on the screen to choose from the source and target languages. Point your camera lens at the text you want to translate and the app instantly translates the word. Quick and easy.
You can use this for instant translations of signs, book titles, menus, items in a store, and other words you want to translate. The app has dictionaries for 21 languages in the iOS app and 15 languages in the Android app. You can easily flip the source and target languages by pressing the arrow button on the left of the bar.
Note that you must be connected to the Internet to use the app.
Advanced Features
Translating Sentences
By taking a picture of text with your camera, you can translate sentences. If you need to translate more than one word, Worldictionary can do that easily.
From the home screen, tap the 
button and choose whether you want to use your camera or an image from a photo album. When you choose the image, a “Sentence” button will appear that lets you choose the text you want to translate.
This feature is also handy when you want to take a photo to translate the words at a later time.
Advanced Search
You can press the T + Magnifying glass icon 
in the upper left corner of the home screen to do an advanced search. The Advanced Search screen shows you the last word you searched or you can type in a new word.
Choose a word and the app will take you to a new screen where you can see the definition. From that screen you can also look the word up in Google, find Wikipedia entries and YouTube videos. You can become an expert on the word from within the app!
Pronunciation
In Advanced Search you can also hear how the word is pronounced by pressing the speaker button.
Sharing Translations
You can also share the translations with others using email or text messages by pressing the sharing button in Advanced Search.
Bookmarks
You can save word translations as bookmarks so you can refer back to the translations later. This feature is especially helpful if you are studying a language or traveling and often encounter a word that you need to translate.
History
Worldictionary retains a history of the words you have translated so you don’t have to keep looking them up repeatedly. To access your history, press the 
button in the home screen. You can also add words that you’ve bookmarked into history to keep all of your important words in one place.
You can clear your history if you want to start from scratch.
See the Light
A killer feature of this app is the light feature. You can press the light button in the upper right corner of the home screen and the light from your camera will illuminate, allowing you to translate words, even in the dark. If you’ve ever been to a darkly lit restaurant where the menu is in a foreign language and accidentally selected a dish that you deeply regretted later, you will love this app.
Help!
If you ever need assistance with using the app, you can refer to the handy Help guide which is included in the app. Go to Settings (the cog wheel icon on the bottom right of the home screen) and choose Help. The app walks you through how to use all of its nifty features.
My Test
I first tested this app when we were hosting students from China in February. I used the app to translate a menu from a Chinese restaurant. The students were very excited to see how the app worked and delighted when they could see instant translations of the words on the menu.
The app wasn’t perfect, one menu item was translated as “Bad Chicken,” which the Chinese girls said wasn’t correct. After I ate the chicken I thought perhaps the app was even smarter than I thought!
I also tried Worldictionary on a Norwegian blog, Berget Marketing, and the app was very helpful in translating the Norwegian words I didn’t understand (which was most of them).
Pricing
Worldictionary is currently on sale for $3.99, 50% off of the regular price at the iTunes App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.
Worldictionary is also available for Android devices at Google Play. The app has a free version that lacks the ability to save bookmarks and a full version for $5.99.
Bottom Line
If you’re traveling, learning a language or have other translation needs, take a look at Worldictionary. The app offers plenty of features that will make translating quick and easy for you.
Do you need to translate words to another language? Do you sometimes wish you had a translator with you? Let us know in the Comments section below!
Nice! Though I always make sure I know some of the basic language of the place I am travelling to; that belief and determination has often not helped at all. I remember being in Chennai, India to meet my brother and I ended up telling the cab driver that I need to have a bath when in my head I was saying “I need to buy some water”.
This application might be just right for people like me…..
Hi Hajra, That’s funny! I imagine the cab driver got a big kick out of your mis-translation. You’re right, this app might take some of the fun away, but at least you could get your real point across easily!
Have a great weekend, Hajra!
Oh my goodness that would be exactly what I would need if and when I travel to a country where they don’t speak English. That’s always been my fear. I can’t imagine being someplace and not speaking their language which is why I probably don’t ever travel to a non-speaking English country.
Heck, they’ll create an app for everything eventually so I should be fine.
Thanks Carolyn, cool app.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, You’re not alone. Many people hesitate to visit countries where they don’t speak the language which is a shame because it’s a wonderful world out there! This app would definitely help with that.
Imagine traveling to a country confident that you could communicate even if you don’t speak the language. You’re right, that’s very cool! 🙂
Hi Carolyn
It seems like a great app to have when you are out traveling or have visitors from a foreign country. Can the app also translate to Danish? 🙂
Hi Thomas, Good news! Both the iOS and the Android versions of the app include Danish.
You’re right, this app would be very handy when you have guests from other countries. I found it to be very handy when our Chinese visitors stayed with us.
Hi Carolyn,
Wow, what an awesome demo you did 🙂 And you got the right answer as well, so it works, that’s for sure.
I was thinking about a friend of mine who just adopted a kid from China, that this app might be something they could be using. The boy is 5 years old, so he understand a lot Chinese but only a few words of Norwegian. I will let him know about the app, and I’m definitively going to try it as soon as I need to. I should have had it when I was in Italy last summer (since I’m going to be a dad again in a month or so, I probably won’t be traveling much) 🙂
Thanks a lot for mentioning me in your post Carolyn. And I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend.
Hi Jens, That’s good to know that Worldictionary was correct in translating Norwegian. I didn’t cross check it with Google Translate because if there were a conflict, I wouldn’t know which was right. Thanks for letting us know.
Yes, this would be a good tool for translating between Chinese and Norwegian. I hope your friends make good use of this handy tool!
C’est tellement cool, maintenant vous pouvez pratiquement aller n’importe où et ne jamais être à court de mots.
Pourquoi avez-vous toujours l’occasion d’essayer le truc cool, je wan à jouer.
Merci pour le partage.
Bonjour, Guillaume, vous avez raison, c’est très cool. Je suis très chanceux d’être en mesure de tester des choses cool.
Je vous remercie pour vos commentaires!
Quand je serai grand, je veux être cool comme vous.
Avez-vous eu à payer une redevance Jens d’inclure sa photo dans votre message?
Very Cool app.
This is getting added to my resource and toolkit box i’m making for my readers for career breakers who want to travel. Love it..
Language is one of the biggest challenges of people who travel or live abroad. Carrying a dictionary is not always convenient is it?
What a great tool for travel or for translating tweets too. So many times I see them in other languages and wonder. Awesome to know, thanks for sharing.
Hi Lisa, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech. You’re right, it’s easy to run across information in a language you don’t understand. Worldictionary is a very handy tool to have with you wherever you go!
I can clearly see how useful this app would be when travelling to different countries where the spoken language is something else.
I would be interested to check out the features and see how easy it is to use with various languages. Good read.
Wow that is really good and great. Really good application to have it on my phone.
Hi Asher, I’m glad you like this app. You’re right, this app is very handy, even if you don’t travel to other countries, you might need it for guests from foreign lands, restaurant menus and other occasions where you need translations.
Haha – Bad Chicken! I love your little comment there! Rarely do I have a need to translate, but this sounds like a really handy little app. My travels are generally within North America, so my favourite app along those lines is Open Table. Have you reviewed that one? But WorldDictionary sounds like one worth buying! Thanks Carolyn.
Hi Ruth, I’m a big fan of OpenTable! I wrote an article about it in February, both here and for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Here is a link to my article here: https://wonderoftech.com/open-doors-with-opentable/
I realize that not everyone has an immediate need for Worldictionary, but you may find it handy someday! 🙂
Hey!
Ultimate info ,Thank you so much for this! I will surely read this and share this to my other friends.
Hi Bharat, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m so glad you enjoyed the article. Thank you very much for sharing it with your friends!
Hey!
this is very great for me and my friends, thanks for this gesture carolyn.
I agree with you Carolyn that if every traveler need have this weapon during their journey. The app looks so cool, but unfortunately it’s not a freebie.
Hi Erwin, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! Yes, this app is very handy when you travel. The app has a free version available for Android devices from Google Play, which has all of the features except for the ability to add bookmarks.