Looking for a Tamil–English or English–Tamil dictionary online? This page lists free dictionaries that Tamil students and researchers use, with a note on what each is best for. All of them are independent websites, not run by this journal; links open the external site.
Tamil Changathi (தமிழ் சங்கதி)
A popular free English–Tamil and Tamil–English dictionary, useful for everyday words and quick look-ups. Open it at tamil.changathi.com.
Dictionaries for research: classical and historical Tamil
- Tamil Lexicon (University of Madras) – the standard large Tamil–English dictionary, with literary citations; digitised by the Digital South Asia Library: dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/tamil-lex.
- Fabricius, Tamil and English Dictionary – a historical dictionary, also on DSAL: dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/fabricius.
- Winslow, A Comprehensive Tamil and English Dictionary – a 19th-century dictionary valuable for older usage: dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/winslow.
Contemporary Tamil
- Cre-A Dictionary of Contemporary Tamil (க்ரியாவின் தற்காலத் தமிழ் அகராதி) – search: crea.in.
- Shabdkosh – English–Tamil with example sentences: shabdkosh.com/ta.
- Tamilcube dictionary – English to Tamil and Tamil to English: dictionary.tamilcube.com.
- TamilDict – tamildict.com.
- MyDictionary – mydictionary.in.
- Lexicool – a directory of online dictionaries by subject: lexicool.com.
Which dictionary should I cite?
For research articles, cite a published lexicon – usually the Tamil Lexicon – with volume and page, rather than a general-purpose website. For the meanings of words in classical texts, also consult the commentaries (urai) on the text you are studying. See our guide to writing a Tamil studies paper.
Links checked against the sites’ published addresses; if one stops working, please tell us at editorial.kalanjiyam@ngmc.org.
More resources: Project Madurai works · Typing Tamil in Microsoft Word · Classical Tamil manuscripts search