I’m trying to set up a Google Sheet that can look up word definitions automatically. I want to type a word into a cell and have all its definitions show up from a good online dictionary.
I’ve been messing around with the IMPORTXML function, but I can’t get it to work right. Here’s what I tried:
The word part would be a cell reference. But yeah, it’s not doing what I want.
Has anyone figured out how to do this? Maybe there’s a script or add-on that can handle it better? I’d really appreciate any tips or ideas on how to make this work. Thanks!
hey mate, i’ve tried something similar before. sadly, most online dictionaries block web scraping. you might wanna look into using an API instead. Some free dictionary APIs are out there, but they usually need a bit of coding to work with sheets. Good luck!
I’ve tackled this challenge before. While Google Sheets doesn’t have a built-in function for dictionary lookups, there are workarounds. One approach is using the DICTIONARYAPI function from the ImportJSON add-on. It connects to the Merriam-Webster API, allowing you to fetch definitions directly into your sheet. You’ll need an API key, but it’s free for limited use. Another option is writing a custom Google Apps Script to make API calls to a dictionary service. Both methods require some setup, but they’re more reliable than web scraping. Let me know if you need more details on implementation.