How to Change or Add Dictionary to Kindle

One primary reason that I like reading on Kindle is the utterly convenient dictionary feature. To look up the definition of a strange word on Kindle, we just need to press and hold on the word. But sometimes the default dictionary doesn't work very well especially when it meets some plural nouns or past participle.

Here we are going to introduce how to add or change the Kindle dictionary. German version please refer to Wie man ein Wörterbuch in Kindle ändert oder hinzufügt.

Add Dictionary to Kindle

1 Download the dictionary file to computer

The dictionary for Kindle is actually a .mobi file, which can be downloaded freely from the internet or bought from Amazon Kindle Store. Here I got a Collins Cobuild V3 dictionary file. Yes I like Collins dictionary since my college years.

2 Plug Kindle to computer with USB Cable

Every Kindle user should have a USB cable in the box which is shipped with the device. Find it and use it to connect Kindle and computer. Seconds later there will generate a Removable Disk called "Kindle". Open it and find "documents\dictionaries" folder.

3 Paste the dictionary file into the "dictionaries" folder

4 Safe eject Kindle and unplug the USB Cable

Now all the steps on computer are finished. The following job is to make the dictionary file work on Kindle.

Change the default Kindle dictionary

Different generation of Kindle should be set in different ways. Do it as the list below:

As I am using a Kindle Paperwhite at the moment, so I am going to take Kindle Paperwhite for example and introduce the process. And let's start with the "Dictionaries" screen.

Press the "Dictionaries" option, and we can see the default Kindle dictionary - "Oxford Dictionary of English".

By pressing it we can change the primary dictionary of english. As the screen shows below, "Oxford Dictionary of English" is defaultly chosen and we need to switch to "collins3", which is recently imported by me.

Then back to the previous screen we can see the default dictionary for english has been changed.

Now let's check the result.

Want to add foreign language dictionary to Kindle?

No problem! And the steps are pretty similar to the above. Suppose I am reading a book written in french, so I need a french-english dictionary.

First we need to download a french to english dictionary file, then transfer to the Kindle dictionary folder. As this is the first french dictionary in my Kindle, I need not to change any settings. The Kindle will choose this file as the primary dictionary for french language.

Then open a french book, press and hold on a word I don't know the definition, and see what happens.

 

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