Lexika - Offline French Dictionary

Lexika is a Python desktop application for browsing a complete French dictionary locally, building a personal vocabulary lexicon, and reviewing it through an interactive quiz.

Overview

Key Features

Offline dictionary with over 800,000 French entries, including conjugated verb forms
Structured definitions: sub-definitions, usage examples, registers (familiar, literary, archaic...) and domains (music, computing...)
Smart suggestions when a word is not found, with support for missing accents (element → élément)
Personal lexicon to save words you want to remember
Custom words: add your own definitions for terms not found in the dictionary
Vocabulary quiz to review the words in your lexicon
Import / Export the lexicon as a JSON file
Modern dark interface built with CustomTkinter
Resizable window with adaptive layout

Requirements

Python 3.10 or higher
Dependencies listed in requirements.txt

pip install -r requirements.txt

requirements.txt:

customtkinter
pillow

Installation and First Launch

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/Kartmaan/lexika-fr.git
cd lexika-fr

2. Install dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Run the application

python main.py

On first launch, if data/french_dict.db is missing, a setup window appears automatically and offers two options:

Download the dictionary from Hugging Face (~270 MB)
Import a compatible .db file already on your disk

The file is automatically validated before use (extension, SQLite structure, data presence).

Project Structure

lexika-fr/
├── main.py                  # Entry point
├── requirements.txt
├── assets/
│   ├── icon.png             # Linux icon
│   ├── icon.ico             # Windows icon
│   └── icon.icns            # macOS icon
├── core/
│   ├── dictionnaire.py      # SQLite queries + suggestions
│   └── lexique.py           # Lexicon JSON management
├── ui/
│   ├── app.py               # Main window and tabs
│   ├── setup_window.py      # First-launch setup window
│   ├── tab_dictionnaire.py  # Dictionary tab
│   ├── tab_lexique.py       # Lexicon tab
│   └── tab_quiz.py          # Quiz tab
└── data/
    ├── french_dict.db       # SQLite database (generated at setup)
    └── lexique.json         # Personal lexicon (auto-created)

Dictionary Tab

The main tab of the application.

Search

Type a word in the search field and confirm with the button or the Enter key
Search is case-insensitive

Results display

Definitions are grouped by part of speech (Noun, Verb, Adjective...) with a color badge
Each definition is numbered and may include:
- Hierarchical sub-definitions
- Usage examples in italics
- Register tags (familiar), semantic tags [figurative] or domain tags ‹music›

Word not found

If the word does not exist in the dictionary, Lexika automatically suggests similar words
The fuzzy search handles missing accents: typing element suggests élément, typing enchevetre suggests enchevêtré
Clicking a suggestion directly loads its definition

Copy to clipboard

Copies the selected word and its definitions to the clipboard.

Add to lexicon

An Add to lexicon button is available below each result
If the word is already in the lexicon, a message notifies you

Lexicon Tab

The personal lexicon, laid out in two columns.

Left column - word list

Saved words appear in alphabetical order as clickable tiles
Words sourced from the dictionary appear in blue
Custom words appear in purple

Right column - definitions

Clicking a tile immediately displays the full definition in the right column
A View in dictionary button navigates to the Dictionary tab to show the original entry (available only for dictionary-sourced words)

Lexicon management

Remove a word from the lexicon using the dedicated button
Add a custom word: opens a form to enter a word and one or more free-form definitions - useful for technical terms, jargon, or neologisms absent from the dictionary
Export the lexicon to a .json file of your choice
Import a previously exported lexicon - existing words are preserved and new ones are merged in

Quiz Tab

A tool for reviewing the vocabulary saved in your lexicon.

How it works

The quiz can only start if the lexicon contains at least one word
Words are drawn in a random order at the start of each session
Each word appears only once per session

The flashcard

The card first displays the word to define on a blue background
The See the answer button flips the card: it turns green and reveals the definition(s)
The See the word button flips it back to the word side
The Next word button moves to the next word in the session

End of session

When all words have been reviewed, a completion screen shows the number of words covered
A Play again button starts a new session in a different random order

Dictionary Source

The dictionary is derived from WiktionaryX, a structured lexical resource parsed from the French Wiktionary, produced by Franck Sajous, CNRS research engineer and lecturer in Language Sciences at the University of Toulouse.

Original source: http://redac.univ-tlse2.fr/lexiques/wiktionaryx.html

The french_dict.db file is hosted separately on Hugging Face (CC BY-SA 4.0 license):
👉 https://huggingface.co/datasets/Kartmaan/french-dictionary

Licenses

Component	License
Source code (this repository)	MIT
`french_dict.db` database	CC BY-SA 4.0 (derived from Wiktionary)

Kartmaan/lexika-fr