Mynary Dictionary

Mynary Dictionary

Mynary is an Obsidian community plugin for looking up words and short phrases with Wiktionary, then turning the result into reusable Markdown vocabulary notes.

Features

• Look up selected text from the editor or search from the dictionary sidebar.
• Display definitions, pronunciation, part of speech, examples, translations, synonyms, antonyms and etymology when available.
• Copy, insert or create a note using a reusable Markdown template.
• Update only a managed section of an existing note while preserving personal content.
• Cache results locally with configurable expiration and size limits, including a persistent Recent lookup list.
• Work on desktop and mobile.

Installation

Manual installation

1. Download or build the plugin files: main.js, manifest.json and styles.css.

2. Create this folder inside your vault:

   <Vault>/.obsidian/plugins/mynary/
   

3. Copy the three files into that folder.

4. Open Settings → Community plugins.

5. Enable Mynary Dictionary.

Reload Obsidian after replacing main.js or styles.css.

Looking up a word

Desktop

Select a word or short phrase in a Markdown note and use one of these options:

• Press Mod + Shift + L. Mod means Ctrl on Windows/Linux and Cmd on macOS.
• Open the editor context menu and select Lookup.
• Run Mynary Dictionary: Lookup selected word from the Command Palette.
• Open the dictionary sidebar and search directly.

The default selection limit is 80 characters or 8 words. For a longer selection, Mynary lets you look up the exact selection, look up the first word, or cancel.

Mobile

Obsidian supports adding editor commands to the mobile toolbar. To add the lookup action:

1. Open Settings → Mobile → Configure mobile toolbar.
2. Add Mynary Dictionary: Lookup selected word.
3. The command uses the search icon.

You can also select text, open the editor selection menu and choose Lookup. If the command is placed under the menu's overflow button, use the mobile toolbar command above. The sidebar also provides a Lookup selected text button for opening the lookup popup after selecting text in a note.

The sidebar can search independently of the popup. Results indicate whether they came from the local cache or from a fresh Wiktionary request. Refresh bypasses the cache.

Templates

Open Settings → Mynary Dictionary → Manage templates to create, edit, duplicate, delete and restore templates. The template picker is available independently for Copy, Insert and Create note.

Templates are Markdown strings containing case-insensitive variables such as {{word}}. {{Title}} is an alias for {{word}}.

Available variables

Empty or unavailable values render as empty strings. The Template Manager validates unknown variables and malformed conditional blocks before use.

Conditional blocks

Use {{#if variable}} and {{/if}} to include a section only when its value is not empty:

{{#if IPA}}
## Pronunciation

{{IPA}}
{{/if}}

This is useful for optional translations, examples and source links:

{{#if translationsMarkdown}}
## Translations

{{translationsMarkdown}}
{{/if}}

{{#if examplesMarkdown}}
## Examples

{{examplesMarkdown}}
{{/if}}

Conditional blocks can be nested. Conditions use the same case-insensitive variable names as normal placeholders. If a condition is empty, the entire block—including its contents—is omitted.

Creating and updating notes

After a lookup, select Create note and choose a template. Mynary uses these settings:

• Note folder — destination folder; leave empty for the vault root.
• Filename template — for example {{word}} or {{language}}-{{word}}.
• Existing note behavior — what to do when the target note already exists.

Unsafe filename characters are replaced automatically. Missing folders are created when needed.

Existing note behavior

• Ask before replacing — ask for confirmation before replacing the complete note.
• Replace automatically — replace the complete note without confirmation.
• Update section — preserve the rest of the note and replace only the Mynary-managed section.

Managed sections use these markers:

<!-- mynary:lookup:start -->
Generated dictionary content
<!-- mynary:lookup:end -->

When the markers are not present, Mynary appends a new managed section. Keep personal notes outside these markers so future updates do not overwrite them.

Cache

Lookup results are stored in Obsidian's local plugin data, not as files in the vault.

Default settings:

• Cache lifetime: 7 days
• Maximum entries: 100
• Request timeout: 15 seconds

The cache key includes the language and normalized lookup text. Refresh bypasses the cached value and stores the new result. Use Clear cache in settings to remove all cached results.

The Recent list stores the last 20 looked-up words in local plugin data and is restored when Obsidian is reopened. Existing cached entries are used to restore the list after upgrading from an earlier version.

Privacy and attribution

Mynary is local-first:

• No telemetry, analytics, advertising or account system.
• No vault scanning or indexing.
• No note content, filenames or personal metadata are uploaded.
• Only the explicitly requested word or phrase and selected language are sent to the public Wiktionary API.
• Cached lookup data remains in local Obsidian plugin storage.

Large Wiktionary entries may also request the entry's public /translations subpage. Network access is used only to retrieve the requested dictionary result.

Mynary uses and links to Wiktionary as its dictionary source. Results should be checked against the linked original page, especially for translations and usage examples.

Supported languages

The built-in language options are:

• English (en)
• Vietnamese (vi)
• Japanese (ja)
• Korean (ko)
• Chinese (zh)
• French (fr)
• German (de)
• Spanish (es)
• Italian (it)
• Russian (ru)

Available fields depend on the selected Wiktionary entry. Mynary does not invent missing data.

Development

Requirements:

• Node.js 18 or newer
• npm

Install dependencies:

npm install

Start esbuild in watch mode:

npm run dev

Create a production build:

npm run build

Run tests:

npm test

Run ESLint:

npm run lint

The build generates main.js at the plugin root. Build artifacts and node_modules/ should not be committed to source control. For manual testing, reload Obsidian after rebuilding and enable the plugin from Settings → Community plugins.

Project structure

src/
  main.ts                    Plugin lifecycle, commands and views
  providers/                 Wiktionary requests and parsers
  services/                  Local cache management
  templates/                 Rendering and note generation
  ui/                        Modals and confirmation dialogs
  utils/                     Selection and result formatting
  settings.ts                Settings, defaults and migration

License

Mynary is distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE.