The Kindle eReader Journal

Some of you Kindle users may not realize that you can change your default dictionary that is used by the device to look up definitions of words. The Kindle comes with a built-in Oxford English dictionary, but you can get other language dictionaries and swap them out as you like.

Among the alternate dictionaries you can download to your  Kindle or ones that let you translate between English and another language. For instance, there are an English-German dictionary,  an English-Spanish one, and an English-Russian one, among others. Having these installed can let you do an instant translation, right there on your Kindle, of any word you choose.

The procedure for changing out dictionaries is fairly simple, but may not be immediately obvious to many users. First, go to your  Kindle home screen (if you are not already there). Press the Menu button, and select Settings. At the Settings screen, press the Menu button again and choose the Change Primary Dictionary option (if this option is not selectable, it means you only have one dictionary on your Kindle at this point; you need to downloaded additional dictionaries to be able to change them out). Now choose from the list the dictionary you want Kindle to use for instant word look-up.

To try out word translation, just open any book written in English. Move the cursor to any word in the book, and you should see the translation pop up on your screen.  If you later want to switch to another translation language, or go back to the default Oxford English dictionary and its definitions, just follow the procedure above.