Wiktionary Sidebar
Jonas Karneboge82 downloadsRight-click any selected word to look it up in Wiktionary. Works in editor and reading view. Shows definitions, etymology, synonyms and more for German, English, French, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, and Spanish — each from its native Wiktionary edition.
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An Obsidian plugin that lets you look up any word in Wiktionary without leaving your vault.
Right-click any selected word → "Wiktionary: „word"" → definitions appear in a sidebar.
Features
- Works in both editor view and reading view
- Supports 7 languages: German, English, French, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Spanish
- Each language can be toggled individually in settings
- Direct links to the source Wiktionary page for each language
- Shows structured entries: part of speech, definitions, etymology, synonyms, and more
- Respects Obsidian's light and dark themes via CSS variables
- Desktop only
Installation
From the Community Plugin Browser (recommended)
- Open Obsidian → Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
- Search for Wiktionary Sidebar
- Install and enable
Manual installation
- Download
main.js,manifest.json, andstyles.cssfrom the latest release - Copy them to
.obsidian/plugins/wiktionary-sidebar/in your vault - Enable the plugin in Settings → Community Plugins
Usage
- Select a word in any note (editor or reading view)
- Right-click → Wiktionary: „word"
- The sidebar opens with entries for all enabled languages
The sidebar updates every time you look up a new word and stays open until you close it.
Settings
Open Settings → Wiktionary Sidebar to toggle languages on or off:
| Language | Source | On by default |
|---|---|---|
| Deutsch | de.wiktionary.org | ✓ |
| English | en.wiktionary.org | ✓ |
| Français | fr.wiktionary.org | |
| Italiano | it.wiktionary.org | |
| Svenska | sv.wiktionary.org | |
| Nederlands | nl.wiktionary.org | |
| Español | es.wiktionary.org |
How it works
Each language is fetched from its own native Wiktionary edition via the MediaWiki action=parse API — German from de.wiktionary.org, English from en.wiktionary.org, and so on. This means words with special characters (e.g. „autonomía") are found correctly on their native edition. The HTML response is parsed locally — no data leaves your machine beyond the Wiktionary API request itself.
Compatibility
- Obsidian 0.15.0 or later
- Desktop only (Windows, macOS, Linux)
License
MIT