twtdict v. 0.9

How?

In three easy steps, you can get a definition for a word:

1. Follow twtdict on Twitter.
2. Mention twtdict, followed the letter d, then the word you want defined. Like this: @twtdict d defenestrate
3. @twtdict will send you a direct message within 5 minutes with the definition: defenestrate: v-t. to throw (something or someone) out of a window.
4. New! Add an @ symbol after the word to have it sent as an @reply instead of a direct message: @twtdict d defenestrate@

If a definition is longer than 140 characters, you will receive a series of direct messages, each ending with the number in the series. (i.e.: (1/2), (2/2), etc.) If you don't have a smart phone and do all your tweeting through SMS, you probably want to set your account to send direct messages as texts to your phone. Here is a good place to go for more information on that.

Update! You can now get synonyms and antonyms for words. It's easy.

• Synonym: @twtdict s quit
• Antonym: @twtdict a stop

(And now you see why I used "d" for definitions, yeah?)

Coming soon will be a way to specify a type of speech, so you can specify the noun hound or the verb hound.

Why?

One night, I was reading in a bar. (I find it very easy to read in bars. The noise gives me something to block out.) Specifically, I was reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein. I came across a word which I could not recall ever seeing before: sybaritic. I don't have a fancy smart phone so I couldn't go out to the internet to look up the word. That got me thinking. Could there be a way to tweet a word and have something send you the definition? When I got home I poked around online and saw that there didn't seem to be this kind of service. twtdict was born.

When I first thought of it, I wasn't sure if anyone would use it. I'm still not sure. I mean, I will, but like I said, I don't have a smart phone. What about the people who do? And how many people find themselves wanting for a dictionary in the middle of a bar? I have no idea. But I thought it would be fun to do so I did it.

Technically Speaking

This service makes use of a few bits of technology:

• Tijs Verkoyen's Twitter class to access the Twitter API. You can get it here.
• The Wordnik API to get the definitions. You can learn more here.
• PHP, MYSQL, and a CRON job.

Currently, I'm only checking for new words every 5 minutes. The reason for that is I'm trying to avoid being rate limited by Twitter. If this happens to take off, I may apply for whitelisting. Wordnik does not appear to have a fixed rate limit on API calls but I'd like to avoid over-taxing them as well, since they're very generously providing the API for free. And speaking of Wordnik, not every word available on the website is available via API, so a request might not return anything, even though it does, in fact, have a definition.

Future Plans

Right now, the definition served is the first one returned by Wordnik. I need to work out a way to handle problems where the defition returned is not really the most common (as in, hope: n. A sloping plain between mountain ridges. Not really the first thing one thinks of upon hearing the word "hope".) Also, I've yet to have a wide-base user test to see how the Twitter and Wordnik APIs are going to react to the requests.

PRIVACY POLICY

When using the twtdict service, your Twitter username is not saved in any way. It will only ever be used for DMs and @replies and will never be sold, bartered, traded, auctioned, or loaned to anyone or anything. I hate spam just as much as you do.