# Random dictionary words with a game



## mkellogg

Many people have been asking for a random words page, so we finally obliged.  Here's one for English>Spanish.  Feel free to set it as your homepage. 

Not finding it interesting enough, we made a simple game out of it, where it covers the dictionary entry till you have made your guess. 

To find your favorite languages, you can currently find a link to the Random Word and game at the bottom of the left column of all dictionary search result pages.

Of course, let us know if you have any problems with it.

Mike


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## JamesM

This is fantastic!  I"m trying it with "fren" (for French-English).  This makes the WordReference dictionary the largest stack of flash cards ever made.  :^)   Thanks!


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## swift

_'You currently are 2 for 2 in the English to Spanish dictionary.'_ 

Nice game, though you have to be not only very smart but also very honest to even scores with the dictionary. 

Thanks, Mike.


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## AnotherStephen

The random feature is good but it would be brilliant if I could get the generator to come up only with the most used words. If I could click on "5,000 most used words", for example. That would be a fun way of refreshing the words one knows and finding out new one that weren't too obscure.


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## mkellogg

Thanks. We'll see what we can do next time we work in it.


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## rostasi

Hi,

I'm new here and tried the search function.
This is the closest post to what I'm wanting to ask.

I'm unable to see the difference between the 
"standard" random word function and the
"game" version of random words. The above
comment references the English to Spanish version
which appears to obscure the definition, but I don't see
this difference in the English version. 
Is there something obvious that I'm not seeing?

thanks,

Rod


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## DearPrudence

Hi Mike,

Oh, I hadn't checked out the hidden definition game in quite some time now but you can only see the translations offered by the Collins (and nothing if the Collins doesn't offer anything), and not by WordReference anymore


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## rostasi

Well, I guess I won't be getting an answer.
That's fine. The words appear to be from Collins
and not the OED, like I was expecting, so I'll go elsewhere.

R


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## JamesM

Hello, rostasi.  I didn't quite understand your question.  What English version are you talking about?  The game is for practicing from one language to another.  I'm not aware of a game for English only.  How are you trying to access it?

[edit] Hmm... I just tried the French-English version of the game and I see the definition in French and English as well.  I'm sure it didn't work like that before... or I'm using it wrong.


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## rostasi

The page is located here
(since I'm not allowed to post a link,
this is the best I can do):

wordreference.com/random/definition

R


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## JamesM

That is the random definition page, but the game page is supposed to hide the definition from you.  The random definition page doesn't and it appears that the game page doesn't anymore, either.


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## rostasi

Ok, so there doesn't appear to be any difference.
Just thought I was missing something.

®ø∂


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## jann

JamesM said:


> That is the random definition page, but the game page is supposed to hide the definition from you.  The random definition page doesn't and it appears that the game page doesn't anymore, either.


Ugh, it is a bit of a miss, isn't it? 

*(1) *For dictionaries like English Definitions, which do not use "tabs" to separate content from different sources (e.g., WR vs. Collins), the game is not working properly.  As you say, the dictionary content should be hidden until you reveal it if you're playing the game, but instead it's always visible.
*
(2)* For dictionaries that do use tabs (e.g., FR-EN, EN-ES, etc.), the game is sort of working.  If the random entry actually exists, the tabs for WR and Collins are visible, but the translations are hidden.  You have to click one tab or the other to reveal that dictionary's translations for the word.  However, if the random word also exists in another dictionary entry, the cross reference to that entry is visible... which means that you can see the general meaning without revealing the actual translations, so that's quite pointless if you're trying to use the game to quiz yourself. 

For example, the Game version of the EN>ES page for undercooked fails to hide the following from the _"*undercooked*" found in these entries_ section that usually appears after the entry...





> Spanish:
> crudo  - tierno


...whereas the non-Game version shows the full entry:





> *Principal Translations**undercooked* _adj_ (not cooked enough)medio crudo _loc adj_semicrudo _adj_
> 
> Is something important missing? Report an error or suggest an improvement
> 
> '*undercooked*' found in these entries
> Spanish:
> crudo  - tierno



What's more, the database being used to generate random words seems to include many terms for which we do not now have an entry or even any forum titles.

Mike, can you please fix this?  It looks to me as if the "hiding" feature from the Game version was optimized for Oxford content, and now that we don't license from Oxford anymore, there are all sorts of layout issues that compromise the utility of the game.


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