---
name: "translate"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "translate"
version: "1.1.3"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/translate"
---

# translate(1)

looks up for words in a dictionary

## NAME

translate - looks up for words in a dictionary

## SYNOPSIS

**translate** *\[options\] words*

## DESCRIPTION

translate looks up for words in a dictionary and translates them. It can handle multiple dictionaries and charsets.  It comes with an english-german dictionary and is able to translate in both directions.

## OPTIONS

- **-n**

  non-interactive (don't prompt if no matches found)

- **-i**

  invers lookup (from second to first language)

- **-w**

  searches only whole words

- **-l**

  languages to translate between

- **-C**

  disable (automatic) color highlighting

- **-v**

  display version and exit

- **-h**, **--help**

  display help

## EXAMPLE

- translate -l en-de simplest

  ## SEE ALSO

ding

## FILES

translate's preferred language and is stored in **/etc/translate.conf**. You can store your private configuration file in **~/.translate/translate.conf**.  If there are no options in the commandline it uses the default values **de-en**.

It can also create a private dictionary in the **~/.translate/** directory, e.g. **~/.translate/de-en** for the default language combination.

## AUTHOR

Jochem Huhmann \<jochem@revier.com\> initially wrote translate.  The Debian Project took over maintenance of translate since version 0.6. It is currently maintained by Axel Beckert \<abe@debian.org\> on https://salsa.debian.org/debian/translate.

This manual page was written for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may be used by others).