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Find the perfect word with the new English Bilingual Dictionary feature on Translator for Bing

When you’re learning a new language, sometimes it can be hard to find just the right word. That is why we are introducing the brand new English Bilingual Dictionary feature on Translator for Bing. The feature is available for English language learners and English speakers learning a foreign language. The new feature displays alternative translations from or to English, examples of words in context to help you choose the perfect translation and even example of translated sentences using this word.

Whether you are trying to quickly find the best translation for a specific word, an alternative way to translate a particular word in your sentence, find out what that one word means in a sentence you are trying to translate, or just discover new words you might not have learned yet, the new English Bilingual Dictionary feature can give you exactly what you need to make the learning process easier.

The English Bilingual Dictionary is powered by Microsoft Translator, which is an automatic translation service that uses statistical analysis to determine the best translation from one language to another. Because of the way automatic translation works, translations are best when you provide some context to tell the computer how to translate a word — that is why it works better for translating sentences than single words.

Take, for instance, the English word “great”. There are many words in English that might mean the same thing in the context of your sentence — excellent, glorious, large, etc. Now imagine you are translating the word to Spanish. Not only do you have the subtle differences in the English meanings to consider, but the subtle differences in the Spanish translations as well.

If you already are familiar with English and one of the 50+ languages supported by Microsoft Translator, the new dictionary feature can help you find the perfect word in an instant. The new English Bilingual Dictionary feature is great for language learners or language professionals who use Translator as a reference to increase the speed of their translation work.

Now when you translate a word with Translator for Bing, the new feature will give you a list of alternative translations to the word in the target language. You will also be able to see examples of the alternatives used in context to help you choose just the right translation. In addition, the new feature displays a confidence meter next to each alternative translation to show how relevant the alternative might be. Finally, by just clicking or touching one of the proposed words (in the example below, “amazing” was selected), you will also get an example of a sentence using this word and its translation coming from our translation engine.

Because this feature depends on a significant amount of language data, the feature is currently only available to or from English.

The Translator Bilingual Dictionary is just one of Microsoft Translator’s tools to give you translation whenever and wherever you need it. You can find other Translator apps and supported products at www.microsofttranslator.com/apps.

 

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