Mynary Dictionary

Mynary Dictionary

Look up a word while you are reading, understand how it is used, and save it as a vocabulary note — without leaving Obsidian.

Mynary uses Wiktionary for dictionary data and is designed to stay out of your way. Select a word, look it up, and keep going.

Current release: 1.2.1. Mynary is maintained by zhyfei314.

Get started

Install from Community Plugins

1. Open Settings → Community plugins.
2. If Obsidian asks, turn off Restricted mode.
3. Search for Mynary Dictionary, then select Install and Enable.

That is all you need for dictionary lookups. Node.js, Python, model downloads, and the optional TTS WASM file are not required.

Install manually

Download main.js, manifest.json, and styles.css from a GitHub release. Copy them into:

<Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/mynary/

Then enable Mynary under Settings → Community plugins. Reload Obsidian after replacing plugin files.

Look up a word

The quickest way is to select a word or short phrase in a Markdown note and choose one of these options:

• Select Lookup from the editor context menu.
• Run Mynary Dictionary: Lookup selected word from the Command Palette.
• Press Mod + Shift + L (Ctrl on Windows/Linux, Cmd on macOS).
• Open the dictionary sidebar and search there.

On mobile, add Mynary Dictionary: Lookup selected word to Settings → Mobile → Configure mobile toolbar. The selection menu and sidebar work there too.

To keep the sidebar open, select the book icon in the ribbon or run Mynary Dictionary: Open dictionary sidebar. Type a word or phrase, choose a Wiktionary language, and press Enter.

Mynary accepts selections up to 80 characters or 8 words by default. Longer selections can still be looked up exactly or reduced to their first word.

Optional offline dictionary packs

Mynary can use a small local dictionary pack before falling back to Wiktionary. Run Mynary Dictionary: Install offline dictionary pack from URL, then enter a pack manifest.json URL. Packs contain only indexed definitions, pronunciation, examples, and selected translations; audio is not included. A missing pack or missing entry falls back to the normal Wiktionary lookup.

Pack files are installed under .mynary/dictionaries/<language>/. Downloads are written to temporary files and verified with SHA-256 when the manifest provides checksums. The pack datasets are maintained separately in the Mynary Offline Dictionary Hugging Face Dataset; this plugin repository does not include the source datasets or pack-building pipeline.

Pack manifests use the same schema for core and bilingual packs. Core packs use kind: "core" and language; bilingual packs use kind: "bilingual", language as the source language, and targetLanguage as the translation language. entriesFile may end in .gz; its checksum is always the SHA-256 of the exact downloadable bytes.

The small catalog is maintained in both dictionary-catalog/catalog.json and the Hugging Face Dataset repository. It points to the large pack assets in Hugging Face and includes download sizes. Repository automation refreshes and checksum-verifies it weekly and whenever a plugin release tag is pushed. To mirror the catalog back to the Dataset, configure the repository Actions secret HF_TOKEN with a write-enabled token; without it, the GitHub catalog still refreshes. The repository retains only the small scripts needed to verify published pack checksums and refresh the catalog.

Optional local translation

Mynary can send selected text to a locally running MTranServer. Enable MTranServer translation in settings, configure the local endpoint (normally http://127.0.0.1:8989), and use Translate selected text with MTranServer. The plugin sends text only when this command is used; it does not send vault content automatically.

What you will see

Depending on the entry, Mynary can show:

• definitions grouped by part of speech;
• usage labels such as Transitive, Intransitive, Countable, and Uncountable;
• examples, pronunciation, Wiktionary audio, translations, synonyms, antonyms, and etymology.

Mynary keeps each entry exactly as Wiktionary presents it. It does not silently replace an inflected or ambiguous word with a guessed root. When Wiktionary provides a link such as destroy or run, Mynary keeps that link available in the result. In generated Markdown, those links become Obsidian links:

third-person singular simple present indicative of [[destroy]]
plural of [[run]]

Select a linked word to look it up directly in Mynary. The popup and dictionary sidebar use the same result renderer, so definitions, labels, examples, and Wiktionary links stay consistent between both views.

Translate text locally

Mynary provides a separate translation action powered by a local MTranServer. It does not send vault content automatically.

1. Install and start MTranServer locally. The default endpoint is http://127.0.0.1:8989.
2. Open Settings → Mynary Dictionary and enable MTranServer translation.
3. Check the endpoint, optional bearer token, source-language mode, timeout, and default target language.
4. Select text in a note and choose Translate selected text with MTranServer, or use Translate selected text in the dictionary sidebar.
5. In the translation panel, choose a supported target language and select Translate.

The lookup popup also includes Translate this text, while the sidebar includes Translate current query. The default target language is English (en). The source can use the current dictionary language or auto for MTranServer builds that support automatic detection.

Offline dictionary packs

Open Settings → Mynary Dictionary → Offline dictionary packs and select Choose language. Mynary loads the public catalog from GitHub, with a Hugging Face fallback, lets you choose a language and pack, downloads only the pack files, verifies SHA-256 checksums, and stores the pack in the vault under .mynary/dictionaries/<language>/.

Core packs contain definitions and pronunciation. You can install multiple bilingual packs for the same source language, including different translation directions such as English → Vietnamese and English → Japanese. Installing the same pack again updates that pack. If installed packs have no matching entry, Mynary falls back to Wiktionary when online.

Data and licenses

Dictionary data is generated from Wiktionary extracts provided by Kaikki.org and is distributed according to the applicable source terms. Pack manifests identify the source snapshot and license. The repository includes the full license texts used by the data catalog:

• CC BY-SA 3.0
• CC BY-SA 4.0
• GNU Free Documentation License 1.3

The plugin source itself remains MIT-licensed. Do not add audio, source HTML, or third-party data unless its redistribution terms are documented in the relevant pack manifest.

Save what you learned

The lookup action bar groups Copy, Insert, and Create note under Save. The icon actions refresh, translate, add a flashcard, or select an installed offline pack for that language. The offline-pack action is disabled when no matching pack is installed.

You can manage this workflow under Settings → Mynary Dictionary:

• Note folder — where new vocabulary notes go. Leave it empty to use the vault root.
• Filename template — for example {{word}} or {{language}}-{{word}}.
• Default template — the template selected first.
• Existing note behavior — ask before replacing, replace automatically, or update only Mynary's managed section.

Study vocabulary

Select Add to vocabulary on a lookup and choose a deck and flashcard template. Mynary creates a normal editable Markdown note under the vocabulary folder and deck folder; you can move it, add images or audio, and edit its front/back content. Open Vocabulary study from the ribbon or Command Palette to browse decks, search and manage cards, and study due cards. Decks show New/Learning/Review counts; Again/Hard/Good/Easy show their next-review intervals. Set the vocabulary folder, suggested deck, default flashcard template, and daily new-card limit in settings. Export files are written into the vault; Anki export is tab-separated with import directives, and CSV/JSON include deck and review status.

Mynary creates missing folders automatically and replaces unsafe filename characters.

When you choose Update section, only the content between these markers is managed:

<!-- mynary:lookup:start -->
Generated dictionary content
<!-- mynary:lookup:end -->

Anything outside the markers is left alone. If the markers are not present, Mynary appends a new managed section.

Make the notes yours with templates

Open Settings → Mynary Dictionary → Manage templates to create, edit, duplicate, delete, or restore templates. Note and flashcard templates are managed separately, and the live Markdown preview shows the rendered output. Flashcard templates have separate Front and Back preview panels. Variable names are case-insensitive, so {{Title}} is the same as {{word}}.

Flashcard templates use paired markers to choose what appears on each side. The default template includes:

<!-- mynary:front:start -->
{{word}}
<!-- mynary:front:end -->

<!-- mynary:back:start -->
{{meaningsMarkdown}}
<!-- mynary:back:end -->

The template editor has buttons to insert each marker. The parser also accepts question/prompt as Front aliases, answer/reverse as Back aliases, and begin/open or close/stop in place of start/end.

You can hide optional sections when they are empty:

{{#if IPA}}
**IPA:** {{IPA}}
{{/if}}

Optional text-to-speech

Dictionary lookup does not need Supertonic. It is an optional feature for generating pronunciation audio or reading selected text aloud.

Web runtime

1. Enable Supertonic local TTS in Settings → Mynary Dictionary.
2. Keep Supertonic runtime set to Web.
3. Download ort-wasm-simd-threaded.jsep.wasm from the matching onnxruntime-web package or release.
4. Place it next to main.js in the Mynary plugin folder.
5. Use Generate TTS, Read selected text with supertonic, or Mod + Shift + R.

The first Web runtime use downloads the Supertonic ONNX models from Hugging Face, so it may take a little longer and use a substantial amount of storage. If the WASM file is missing, dictionary lookup continues to work and Mynary shows a setup message when speech is requested.

Local server runtime

Install Supertonic in a Python environment:

pip install supertonic
supertonic serve --host 127.0.0.1 --port 7788

Select Local server under Settings → Mynary Dictionary → Supertonic runtime. The default endpoint is http://127.0.0.1:7788/v1/tts.

The server must be running whenever speech is generated. Supertonic supports fewer languages than Wiktionary; for unsupported languages, Mynary keeps the Wiktionary pronunciation and disables Supertonic generation.

Languages

The language selector includes Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

Wiktionary coverage varies by language and by entry. When in doubt, follow the source link in the result and verify the original entry.

Cache and privacy

Mynary stores lookup results and recent searches in Obsidian's local plugin data. The defaults are:

• cache lifetime: 7 days;
• maximum cached entries: 100;
• recent searches: 20 words;
• request timeout: 15 seconds.

There is no telemetry, advertising, analytics, or account system. Mynary does not scan or index your vault. The word or phrase you look up, along with the selected language, is sent to the public Wiktionary API. Large entries may also request their public /translations subpage.

If Web Supertonic is enabled, model and voice assets are requested from Hugging Face. If Local server is enabled, selected text is sent only to the endpoint configured in Mynary's settings.

Development

Requirements: Node.js 18 or newer and npm. Install dependencies with npm install, then run the test, lint, and production build commands below before preparing a release.

npm install
npm test
npm run lint
npm run build

Use npm run dev for esbuild watch mode. The production build writes main.js to the plugin root. Include or update tests for changed lookup, cache, parser, or template behavior. Do not commit generated main.js, node_modules/, or offline dataset files; the pack catalog/checksum scripts are the only dataset-maintenance tools in this repository. Preserve local-first behavior and do not introduce telemetry or send vault content without an explicit user action. For user-facing text, use concise sentence case. Before preparing a release, run npm test, npm run lint, and npm run build.

The main source folders are:

src/
  main.ts          Plugin lifecycle, commands, and views
  providers/       Wiktionary parsing and TTS runtimes
  services/        Local cache management
  templates/       Template rendering and note generation
  ui/              Modals and dialogs
  utils/           Selection and result formatting

License

Mynary is distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.