DictionaryDictionary API

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Overview

To use Dictionary, you need an API key. You can get one by creating a free account and visiting your dashboard.

GET Endpoint

URL
https://api.apiverve.com/v1/dictionary

Example

How to call the Dictionary API in different programming languages.

cURL Request
curl -X GET \
  "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/dictionary?word=apple" \
  -H "X-API-Key: your_api_key_here"
JavaScript (Fetch API)
const response = await fetch('https://api.apiverve.com/v1/dictionary?word=apple', {
  method: 'GET',
  headers: {
    'X-API-Key': 'your_api_key_here',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  }
});

const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);
Python (Requests)
import requests

headers = {
    'X-API-Key': 'your_api_key_here',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
}

response = requests.get('https://api.apiverve.com/v1/dictionary?word=apple', headers=headers)

data = response.json()
print(data)
Go (net/http)
package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "io"
    "net/http"

)

func main() {
    req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", "https://api.apiverve.com/v1/dictionary?word=apple", nil)

    req.Header.Set("X-API-Key", "your_api_key_here")
    req.Header.Set("Content-Type", "application/json")

    client := &http.Client{}
    resp, err := client.Do(req)
    if err != nil {
        panic(err)
    }
    defer resp.Body.Close()

    body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
    fmt.Println(string(body))
}
Example Response
{
  "status": "ok",
  "error": null,
  "data": {
    "word": "apple",
    "definitionCount": 5,
    "definitions": [
      "The fleshy pome or fruit of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus malus) cultivated in numberless varieties in the temperate zones. Note: The European crab apple is supposed to be the original kind, from which all others have sprung.",
      "(bot.)  Any tree genus Pyrus which has the stalk sunken into the base of the fruit; an apple tree.",
      "Any fruit or other vegetable production resembling, or supposed to resemble, the apple; as, apple of love, or love apple (a tomato), balsam apple, egg apple, oak apple.",
      "Anything round like an apple; as, an apple of gold. Note: Apple is used either adjectively or in combination; as, apple paper or apple-paper, apple-shaped, apple blossom, apple dumpling, apple pudding. Apple blight, an aphid which injures apple trees. See Blight, n. -- Apple borer (Zoöl.), a coleopterous insect (Saperda candida or bivittata), the larva of which bores into the trunk of the apple tree and pear tree. -- Apple brandy, brandy made from apples. -- Apple butter, a sauce made of apples stewed down in cider. Bartlett. -- Apple corer, an instrument for removing the cores from apples. -- Apple fly (Zoöl.), any dipterous insect, the larva of which burrows in apples. Apple flies belong to the genera Drosophila and Trypeta. -- Apple midge (Zoöl.) a small dipterous insect (Sciara mali), the larva of which bores in apples. -- Apple of the eye, the pupil. -- Apple of discord, a subject of contention and envy, so called from the mythological golden apple, inscribed \"For the fairest,\" which was thrown into an assembly of the gods by Eris, the goddess of discord. It was contended for by Juno, Minerva, and Venus, and was adjudged to the latter. -- Apple of love, or Love apple, the tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum). -- Apple of Peru, a large coarse herb (Nicandra physaloides) bearing pale blue flowers, and a bladderlike fruit inclosing a dry berry. -- Apples of Sodom, a fruit described by ancient writers as externally of air appearance but dissolving into smoke and ashes plucked; Dead Sea apples. The name is often given to the fruit of Solanum Sodomæum, a prickly shrub with fruit not unlike a small yellow tomato. -- Apple sauce, stewed apples. [U. S.] -- Apple snail or Apple shell (Zoöl.), a fresh-water, operculated, spiral shell of the genus Ampullaria. -- Apple tart, a tart containing apples. -- Apple tree, a tree naturally bears apples. See Apple,",
      "-- Apple wine, cider. -- Apple worm (Zoöl.), the larva of a small moth (Carpocapsa pomonella) which burrows in the interior of apples. See Codling moth. -- Dead Sea Apple. (a) pl. Apples of Sodom. Also Fig. \"To seek the Dead Sea apples of politics.\" S. B. Griffin. (b) A kind of gallnut coming from Arabia. See Gallnut.  To grow like an apple; to bear apples. Holland."
    ]
  }
}

Authentication

The Dictionary API requires authentication via API key. Include your API key in the request header:

Required Header
X-API-Key: your_api_key_here

Learn more about authentication →

Interactive API Playground

Test the Dictionary API directly in your browser with live requests and responses.

Parameters

The following parameters are available for the Dictionary API:

Get Word Definition

ParameterTypeRequiredDescriptionDefaultExample
wordstringrequired
The word for which you want to get the definition (e.g., apple)
-apple

Response

The Dictionary API returns responses in JSON, XML, YAML, and CSV formats. The JSON response is shown in the Example section above; alternative formats below.

Other Response Formats

XML Response
200 OK
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<response>
  <status>ok</status>
  <error xsi:nil="true" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"/>
  <data>
    <word>apple</word>
    <definitionCount>5</definitionCount>
    <definitions>
      <definition>The fleshy pome or fruit of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus malus) cultivated in numberless varieties in the temperate zones. Note: The European crab apple is supposed to be the original kind, from which all others have sprung.</definition>
      <definition>(bot.)  Any tree genus Pyrus which has the stalk sunken into the base of the fruit; an apple tree.</definition>
      <definition>Any fruit or other vegetable production resembling, or supposed to resemble, the apple; as, apple of love, or love apple (a tomato), balsam apple, egg apple, oak apple.</definition>
      <definition>Anything round like an apple; as, an apple of gold. Note: Apple is used either adjectively or in combination; as, apple paper or apple-paper, apple-shaped, apple blossom, apple dumpling, apple pudding. Apple blight, an aphid which injures apple trees. See Blight, n. -- Apple borer (Zoöl.), a coleopterous insect (Saperda candida or bivittata), the larva of which bores into the trunk of the apple tree and pear tree. -- Apple brandy, brandy made from apples. -- Apple butter, a sauce made of apples stewed down in cider. Bartlett. -- Apple corer, an instrument for removing the cores from apples. -- Apple fly (Zoöl.), any dipterous insect, the larva of which burrows in apples. Apple flies belong to the genera Drosophila and Trypeta. -- Apple midge (Zoöl.) a small dipterous insect (Sciara mali), the larva of which bores in apples. -- Apple of the eye, the pupil. -- Apple of discord, a subject of contention and envy, so called from the mythological golden apple, inscribed &quot;For the fairest,&quot; which was thrown into an assembly of the gods by Eris, the goddess of discord. It was contended for by Juno, Minerva, and Venus, and was adjudged to the latter. -- Apple of love, or Love apple, the tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum). -- Apple of Peru, a large coarse herb (Nicandra physaloides) bearing pale blue flowers, and a bladderlike fruit inclosing a dry berry. -- Apples of Sodom, a fruit described by ancient writers as externally of air appearance but dissolving into smoke and ashes plucked; Dead Sea apples. The name is often given to the fruit of Solanum Sodomæum, a prickly shrub with fruit not unlike a small yellow tomato. -- Apple sauce, stewed apples. [U. S.] -- Apple snail or Apple shell (Zoöl.), a fresh-water, operculated, spiral shell of the genus Ampullaria. -- Apple tart, a tart containing apples. -- Apple tree, a tree naturally bears apples. See Apple,</definition>
      <definition>-- Apple wine, cider. -- Apple worm (Zoöl.), the larva of a small moth (Carpocapsa pomonella) which burrows in the interior of apples. See Codling moth. -- Dead Sea Apple. (a) pl. Apples of Sodom. Also Fig. &quot;To seek the Dead Sea apples of politics.&quot; S. B. Griffin. (b) A kind of gallnut coming from Arabia. See Gallnut.  To grow like an apple; to bear apples. Holland.</definition>
    </definitions>
  </data>
</response>
YAML Response
200 OK
status: ok
error: null
data:
  word: apple
  definitionCount: 5
  definitions:
    - >-
      The fleshy pome or fruit of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus malus) cultivated in
      numberless varieties in the temperate zones. Note: The European crab apple
      is supposed to be the original kind, from which all others have sprung.
    - >-
      (bot.)  Any tree genus Pyrus which has the stalk sunken into the base of
      the fruit; an apple tree.
    - >-
      Any fruit or other vegetable production resembling, or supposed to
      resemble, the apple; as, apple of love, or love apple (a tomato), balsam
      apple, egg apple, oak apple.
    - >-
      Anything round like an apple; as, an apple of gold. Note: Apple is used
      either adjectively or in combination; as, apple paper or apple-paper,
      apple-shaped, apple blossom, apple dumpling, apple pudding. Apple blight,
      an aphid which injures apple trees. See Blight, n. -- Apple borer (Zoöl.),
      a coleopterous insect (Saperda candida or bivittata), the larva of which
      bores into the trunk of the apple tree and pear tree. -- Apple brandy,
      brandy made from apples. -- Apple butter, a sauce made of apples stewed
      down in cider. Bartlett. -- Apple corer, an instrument for removing the
      cores from apples. -- Apple fly (Zoöl.), any dipterous insect, the larva
      of which burrows in apples. Apple flies belong to the genera Drosophila
      and Trypeta. -- Apple midge (Zoöl.) a small dipterous insect (Sciara
      mali), the larva of which bores in apples. -- Apple of the eye, the pupil.
      -- Apple of discord, a subject of contention and envy, so called from the
      mythological golden apple, inscribed "For the fairest," which was thrown
      into an assembly of the gods by Eris, the goddess of discord. It was
      contended for by Juno, Minerva, and Venus, and was adjudged to the latter.
      -- Apple of love, or Love apple, the tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum). --
      Apple of Peru, a large coarse herb (Nicandra physaloides) bearing pale
      blue flowers, and a bladderlike fruit inclosing a dry berry. -- Apples of
      Sodom, a fruit described by ancient writers as externally of air
      appearance but dissolving into smoke and ashes plucked; Dead Sea apples.
      The name is often given to the fruit of Solanum Sodomæum, a prickly shrub
      with fruit not unlike a small yellow tomato. -- Apple sauce, stewed
      apples. [U. S.] -- Apple snail or Apple shell (Zoöl.), a fresh-water,
      operculated, spiral shell of the genus Ampullaria. -- Apple tart, a tart
      containing apples. -- Apple tree, a tree naturally bears apples. See
      Apple,
    - >-
      -- Apple wine, cider. -- Apple worm (Zoöl.), the larva of a small moth
      (Carpocapsa pomonella) which burrows in the interior of apples. See
      Codling moth. -- Dead Sea Apple. (a) pl. Apples of Sodom. Also Fig. "To
      seek the Dead Sea apples of politics." S. B. Griffin. (b) A kind of
      gallnut coming from Arabia. See Gallnut.  To grow like an apple; to bear
      apples. Holland.
CSV Response
200 OK
keyvalue
wordapple
definitionCount5
definitions[The fleshy pome or fruit of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus malus) cultivated in numberless varieties in the temperate zones. Note: The European crab apple is supposed to be the original kind, from which all others have sprung.,(bot.) Any tree genus Pyrus which has the stalk sunken into the base of the fruit; an apple tree.,Any fruit or other vegetable production resembling, or supposed to resemble, the apple; as, apple of love, or love apple (a tomato), balsam apple, egg apple, oak apple.,Anything round like an apple; as, an apple of gold. Note: Apple is used either adjectively or in combination; as, apple paper or apple-paper, apple-shaped, apple blossom, apple dumpling, apple pudding. Apple blight, an aphid which injures apple trees. See Blight, n. -- Apple borer (Zoöl.), a coleopterous insect (Saperda candida or bivittata), the larva of which bores into the trunk of the apple tree and pear tree. -- Apple brandy, brandy made from apples. -- Apple butter, a sauce made of apples stewed down in cider. Bartlett. -- Apple corer, an instrument for removing the cores from apples. -- Apple fly (Zoöl.), any dipterous insect, the larva of which burrows in apples. Apple flies belong to the genera Drosophila and Trypeta. -- Apple midge (Zoöl.) a small dipterous insect (Sciara mali), the larva of which bores in apples. -- Apple of the eye, the pupil. -- Apple of discord, a subject of contention and envy, so called from the mythological golden apple, inscribed \For the fairest,\ which was thrown into an assembly of the gods by Eris, the goddess of discord. It was contended for by Juno, Minerva, and Venus, and was adjudged to the latter. -- Apple of love, or Love apple, the tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum). -- Apple of Peru, a large coarse herb (Nicandra physaloides) bearing pale blue flowers, and a bladderlike fruit inclosing a dry berry. -- Apples of Sodom, a fruit described by ancient writers as externally of air appearance but dissolving into smoke and ashes plucked; Dead Sea apples. The name is often given to the fruit of Solanum Sodomæum, a prickly shrub with fruit not unlike a small yellow tomato. -- Apple sauce, stewed apples. [U. S.] -- Apple snail or Apple shell (Zoöl.), a fresh-water, operculated, spiral shell of the genus Ampullaria. -- Apple tart, a tart containing apples. -- Apple tree, a tree naturally bears apples. See Apple,,-- Apple wine, cider. -- Apple worm (Zoöl.), the larva of a small moth (Carpocapsa pomonella) which burrows in the interior of apples. See Codling moth. -- Dead Sea Apple. (a) pl. Apples of Sodom. Also Fig. \To seek the Dead Sea apples of politics.\ S. B. Griffin. (b) A kind of gallnut coming from Arabia. See Gallnut. To grow like an apple; to bear apples. Holland.]

Response Structure

All API responses follow a consistent structure with the following fields:

FieldTypeDescriptionExample
statusstringIndicates whether the request was successful ("ok") or failed ("error")ok
errorstring | nullContains error message if status is "error", otherwise nullnull
dataobject | nullContains the API response data if successful, otherwise null{...}

Learn more about response formats →

Response Data Fields

When the request is successful, the data object contains the following fields:

FieldTypeSample ValueDescription
wordstring"apple"
The word that was looked up in the dictionary
definitionCountnumber5
Total number of definitions found for the word
definitionsarray["The fleshy pome or fruit of a rosaceous tree (Pyrus malus) cultivated in numberless varieties in the temperate zones. Note: The European crab apple is supposed to be the original kind, from which all others have sprung.", ...]
Array of definition strings for the word

Headers

Only X-API-Key is required. Optional headers include Accept for response format negotiation (JSON, XML, or YAML), User-Agent, and X-Request-ID for request tracing. See all request headers →

GraphQL AccessALPHA

Access Dictionary through GraphQL to combine it with other API calls in a single request. Query only the dictionary data you need with precise field selection, and orchestrate complex data fetching workflows.

Test Dictionary in the GraphQL Explorer to confirm availability and experiment with queries.

Credit Cost: Each API called in your GraphQL query consumes its standard credit cost.

GraphQL Endpoint
POST https://api.apiverve.com/v1/graphql
GraphQL Query Example
query {
  dictionary(
    input: {
      word: "apple"
    }
  ) {
    word
    definitionCount
    definitions
  }
}

Note: Authentication is handled via the x-api-key header in your GraphQL request, not as a query parameter.

CORS Support

The Dictionary API accepts cross-origin requests from any origin, so it can be called directly from browser-based applications without a proxy. See CORS support →

Rate Limiting

Dictionary requests are throttled per minute on the Free plan and unthrottled on paid plans. Exceeding the limit returns 429 Too Many Requests; rate-limit usage is reported in the X-RateLimit-Limit, X-RateLimit-Remaining, and X-RateLimit-Reset response headers. See per-plan limits and best practices →

Error Codes

The Dictionary API uses standard HTTP status codes — 200 on success, 400 for invalid parameters, 401 for missing or invalid keys, 403 for insufficient credits, 429 for rate-limit exhaustion, and 500/503 for server-side issues. Each error response includes an X-Request-ID header you can quote when contacting support. See full error handling guide →

SDKs for Dictionary

Official Dictionary packages on npm, PyPI, NuGet, and JitPack — plus a Postman collection and an OpenAPI spec. See the SDK guide →

No-Code Integrations

Dictionary works with Zapier, Make, Pipedream, n8n, and Power Automate using the same API key. See setup guides →

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I get an API key for Dictionary?
Sign up for a free account at dashboard.apiverve.com. Your API key will be automatically generated and available in your dashboard. The same key works for Dictionary and all other APIVerve APIs. The free plan includes 1,000 credits plus a 500 credit bonus.
How many credits does Dictionary cost?

Each successful Dictionary API call consumes credits based on plan tier. Check the pricing section above for the exact credit cost. Failed requests and errors don't consume credits, so you only pay for successful dictionary lookups.

Can I use Dictionary in production?

The free plan is for testing and development only. For production use of Dictionary, upgrade to a paid plan (Starter, Pro, or Mega) which includes commercial use rights, no attribution requirements, and guaranteed uptime SLAs. All paid plans are production-ready.

Can I use Dictionary from a browser?
Yes! The Dictionary API supports CORS with wildcard configuration, so you can call it directly from browser-based JavaScript without needing a proxy server. See the CORS section above for details.
What happens if I exceed my Dictionary credit limit?

When you reach your monthly credit limit, Dictionary API requests will return an error until you upgrade your plan or wait for the next billing cycle. You'll receive notifications at 80% and 95% usage to give you time to upgrade if needed.

What's Next?

Continue your journey with these recommended resources

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