Difference Between a Dictionary Entry and a Machine Translation

When you search for a word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph on SpanishDictionary.com, the site will send to you one of two places — either a dictionary entry or a machine-translation page.

Our bilingual lexicographers have written 202,255 original dictionary entries since 2014, and they're not done yet! Our dictionary pages show the word you searched for at the top of the page with the main translation shown directly under it. The page will then list out all of the translations of the word with contextual information in green print and an example sentence in both languages to show how the translation is used.

If you search for something for which we don't have a dictionary entry, you will be routed to our machine-translation page. Since these translations are being made by computers, they are not always 100% accurate. That's why we show three different translation results (Microsoft, SDL, PROMT). You may need to click on the option for "Show more translations" to reveal the second and third options.

You can compare the three options to either find the best result or to piece together a better result than what the translators offered. If you'd like additional guidance on how to utilize all three translators together, we recommend clicking the "Learn how." link below the translation results.

You will also find a word-by-word breakdown of the original search query below the machine-translation results that can be helpful if you want to double check a word choice that the machine translators provided. You can click on the words in the word-by-word translation to view their dictionary entries.