Look an Old English word up
anglo_searchLook an Old English word up on Wiktionary and return its senses plus full declension/conjugation tables — attested content, not invented. Any form of the word works; an inflected query is resolved to its lemma automatically via previously cached paradigms and the result notes the resolution. With search_language='eng' the query is a modern English word instead: the result lists its per-sense Old English equivalents (the translations block) plus their expanded entries. Returns Markdown plus the same result as structuredContent matching the declared outputSchema.
Results are cached server-side; first-time queries reach the live upstream politely and calls are rate limited — on a rate-limit error, wait a few seconds and retry. Content is from en.wiktionary.org (CC BY-SA 4.0 — attribute and share alike if republished).
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| query | Yes | The word to look up, in the language search_language names. Old English (default): a SINGLE Old English word, any form — an inflected form ('bindaþ') is resolved to its lemma ('bindan') automatically via cached paradigms, and the result says so; the special letters are optional once a paradigm is cached ('thing' finds þing, 'waeter' finds wæter). English (search_language='eng'): the English word whose Old English equivalents you want — multiword entries like 'apple tree' work. | |
| max_forms | No | Optional override for how many inflection tables to expand this call (0–12). On an uncached query each table is one politely paced upstream fetch, so high values on cold queries are slow. Omit for the server default. | |
| include_forms | No | When true (default), each match's full declension/conjugation table is returned INLINE — usable cases/tenses (nouns, the adjectives' strong/weak family, the verbs' moods, the pronouns' dual) in ONE call, no follow-up anglo_get_inflections. Set false for a cheap screen of which entries exist. Bounded by a per-search cap — use max_forms to adjust per call. For eng queries this governs the expanded Old English entries; the per-sense translations list itself is always returned. | |
| search_language | No | Language the query word is in: 'ang' (default) looks the Old English word up directly; 'eng' finds the Old English equivalents of a modern English word (per-sense, from Wiktionary's translation tables) and returns their full entries. Glosses are in modern English either way. | ang |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| found | Yes | False when nothing matched. For an eng query, True means Old English translations were found — entries may still be empty when none of them could be expanded (see translations). | |
| query | Yes | ||
| source | No | Wiktionary, the free dictionary (en.wiktionary.org), Old English entries. Wikimedia Foundation. Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0; attribution and share-alike required when republishing. (CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Adapted: reformatted and condensed from the original. | |
| entries | No | ||
| handles | No | ||
| language | Yes | ||
| translations | No | Populated only for eng queries (always [] for ang): the Old English terms each English sense translates to, in sense order. Entries/handles below are the expanded dictionary entries of those terms. | |
| resolved_from | No | The original inflected query when resolved; else empty. ang queries only — always empty for eng results. | |
| search_method | No | How the match was found: 'direct' = the query itself matched; 'lemma_index' = an inflected form resolved via a previously cached paradigm; 'translations' = an English query resolved via Wiktionary translation tables. | direct |
| resolved_lemma | No | The lemma actually searched when resolved; else empty. ang queries only — always empty for eng results. | |
| forms_truncated | No | How many handles did NOT get an inline table because the per-search cap was reached. | |
| translations_truncated | No | How many distinct translated lemmas were NOT expanded into entries because the per-search expansion cap was reached (they still appear under translations). |