Dictionaries of the Nordic languages
There are a great many online dictionaries which work well and are easy to look up. The Nordic languages are also well represented on the internet. Here is a list of online dictionaries in one or more of the Nordic languages. We will be pleased to hear from you regarding other Nordic online dictionaries which we do not have on this list.
- Photographer
- Ane Cecilie Blichfeldt
Several of the dictionaries have been funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Culture Fund .
- A website with 40 Danish/Swedish free dictionaries. It includes a search functionality for over 74,000 Swedish references. In addition, free help is available with translating difficult words between Danish and Swedish.
- On Denmark's education portal there is a Danish/Swedish and a Swedish/Danish dictionary with an excellent reference function. There is also a list of the special characters in the two languages, such as, for example, ø, å. ä etc. So if you don't have them on your computer you can use them from here. Free of charge.
- On Ordbogen.com there is access to an excellent Danish/Swedish dictionary for a small subscription fee.
- Sprogbro is a Swedish/Danish dictionary started as a private initiative. New words are added regularly. Free of charge.
- The Swedish Academy's Glossary (SAOL). Corresponds to the Danish Orthography Dictionary. The search function is however not quite as good as in the Danish edition. Free of charge.
- The Swedish Academy's Dictionary A historical Swedish dictionary. Free of charge.
- The Swedish National Encyclopaedia, which has a free section and a section with a subscription you have to pay for.
- On Projekt Runeberg there is a collection of scanned dictionaries. Since only free dictionaries are available some of them are very old. For example, there are eight different editions of the Swedish Academy's Glossary (between 1874 and 1991, the Swedish Etymological Dictionary and a Swedish-Norwegian dictionary.
- Faroese dictionary. Contains the same as the printed edition as well as corrections and new words. But if you don't understand Faroese it can be hard to use. Faroese/Faroese Free of charge.
- A tool to find out how Icelandic words are conjugated. Free of charge.
- ISLEX is a free dictionary which translates between Icelandic/Swedish, Icelandic/Danish and Icelandic/Norwegian.
- Icelandic dictionary. Icelandic/English and Icelandic/Danish. For sale.
- Orðabanki is an Icelandic dictionary which translates from Icelandic to other Nordic languages. It is somewhat flawed as it repeatedly tells you that an ordinary word does not exist. But it is one of the few tools that also includes Greenlandic. Free of charge.
- Snara.is: Icelandic dictionary. Translates to and from Danish, English, French and Spanish. Dictionary for sale.
- Frasar.net translates phrases between Danish and Icelandic. You can also listen to the phrases in Danish.
- Lexin translated from Finnish to Swedish and vice versa. Free of charge.
- On the Greenland Language Secretariat's website there is a dictionary between Greenlandic and Danish. Free of charge.
- Nordisk Mini dictionary is an online dictionary for children and young people between 10 - 12. The aim of the dictionary is to give children and young people a tool to improve their Nordic understanding, and to allow children in the Nordic Region to practise reading, understanding and listening to the language of their neighbours.
- Google Translate is very useful for translating or looking up words. Google translates everything from individual words and expressions to entire websites or uploaded documents. The Nordic languages available are Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic. Free of charge.
- Wiktionary is a web-based dictionary and reference site, which allows anyone at all to update and add information to the collection. Many of the Nordic languages are included, although to a greater or lesser extent.
- Tvärslå is a collection of several online dictionaries in the Nordic languages. Free of charge.
- On this page there are several different dictionaries which translate from one language to another. This has several different Nordic languages, as well as many others. Free of charge.
- The free dictionaries project is a very practical free dictionary with all the world languages. Of the Nordic languages it includes Danish, Swedish, Norwegian (Bokmål/New Norwegian), Finnish, Icelandic and Faroese - albeit to varying degrees, as the minority languages are not as well developed as the major languages.
- Freelang consists of a number of free dictionaries. From Finnish, Faroese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and English and vice versa. If you mostly use a certain language, you can download it free.
- Tradusa, is a free Scandinavian dictionary.
- Nordic food glossary delivers food terminology in the Nordic languages.
- Lexins bildtema consists of glossaries which explain words in the Nordic languages in pictures and sounds. The glossaries are in Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Bokmål and New Norwegian.
- This little meeting glossary lists words that are useful when you hold meetings with people from the other Nordic countries.
- IATE, the InterActive Terminology for Europe, is a glossary EU specific terms and expressions. Here you can look up terms between Swedish, Danish, Finnish and English, for example.
- In the NAT Dictionary on Archival Terminology you can look up archived terms in English and the Nordic languages.
- Nordlist is a reference source for terms
- Nordic dictionaries for road traffic terminology