Dictionarystandard

Dictionarystandard is a proposed international framework for the structure and exchange of dictionary data, intended to ensure consistency across monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, lexicographic databases, and language technology resources. It describes both the editorial concepts used by lexicographers and a machine-readable data model suitable for digital environments.

The primary purpose of dictionarystandard is to define an interoperable data model and editorial guidelines so publishers, researchers, and tools can share dictionary entries with minimal ambiguity. It aims to support a wide range of dictionary types, from traditional print-adapted works to online dictionaries and lexical databases, while addressing metadata, licensing, and provenance to facilitate reuse and citation.

Core components envisioned by dictionarystandard include a standardized entry structure with a headword, pronunciation, part of speech, etymology, senses with glosses, usage notes, and examples; metadata such as publication date, source, region, dialect, and licensing information; and auxiliary data like inflectional and derivational information, cross-references, frequency data, and links to corpora. The standard also contemplates schema for semantic relations, bibliographic sources, and editorial history to support revision tracking.

Technically, dictionarystandard is designed to align with established formats and initiatives in the field, including the Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) and TEI dictionary conventions, and to support serializations in XML, JSON-LD, and RDF. Development is envisioned as open and collaborative, led by an international consortium of publishers, researchers, and language technologists, with governance through a published specification and reference implementations.

Adoption has been gradual, with pilot implementations in several open and proprietary projects. Critics note potential complexity, transition costs, and licensing considerations. Related standards include LMF and TEI, which influence its design and interoperability.