Wiktionary Definition API

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Wiktionary MediaWiki Core REST Definition API
  description: The newer MediaWiki Core REST API, exposed per wiki at /w/rest.php. It offers a smaller, streamlined surface than the Action API for fetching page content, history, search, files, and revisions. On Wiktionary it serves the same content as the Action API in a more developer-friendly JSON shape. All content is CC BY-SA 4.0.
  version: 1.0.0
  termsOfService: https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Terms_of_Use
  contact:
    name: Wikimedia Foundation
    url: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:REST_API
  license:
    name: CC BY-SA 4.0
    url: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
  x-generated-from: documentation
  x-last-validated: '2026-05-30'
servers:
- url: https://en.wiktionary.org/w/rest.php
  description: English Wiktionary Core REST endpoint
security:
- {}
- oauth2: []
tags:
- name: Definition
  description: Wiktionary-specific structured multilingual definition endpoint
paths:
  /page/definition/{term}:
    get:
      operationId: getDefinition
      summary: Wiktionary Get Definition
      description: Return a multilingual structured definition for a term, broken down by source language code (en, fr, de, …) and then by part of speech. Wiktionary-specific endpoint built on top of Parsoid parsing.
      tags:
      - Definition
      parameters:
      - name: term
        in: path
        required: true
        description: The dictionary term (URL-encoded; case-sensitive on Wiktionary).
        schema:
          type: string
        example: hello
      - name: redirect
        in: query
        required: false
        description: Whether to follow page redirects (defaults to true).
        schema:
          type: boolean
          default: true
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Multilingual definition response keyed by language code.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/DefinitionResponse'
        '301':
          description: Permanent redirect to the canonical term page.
        '302':
          description: Temporary redirect to a different term page.
        '404':
          description: Term not found.
          content:
            application/problem+json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ProblemDetails'
        '501':
          description: Unsupported language for structured definitions.
          content:
            application/problem+json:
              schema:
                $ref: '#/components/schemas/ProblemDetails'
      x-microcks-operation:
        delay: 0
        dispatcher: FALLBACK
components:
  schemas:
    LanguageEntry:
      title: LanguageEntry
      description: One language's worth of definitions for the term.
      type: object
      required:
      - partOfSpeech
      - language
      - definitions
      properties:
        partOfSpeech:
          type: string
          description: Grammatical part of speech for this entry.
          example: Interjection
        language:
          type: string
          description: Human-readable language name.
          example: English
        definitions:
          type: array
          items:
            $ref: '#/components/schemas/DefinitionEntry'
    DefinitionResponse:
      title: DefinitionResponse
      description: Multilingual structured definitions keyed by ISO language code. Each value is a list of language-grouped entries describing the term in that language.
      type: object
      additionalProperties:
        type: array
        items:
          $ref: '#/components/schemas/LanguageEntry'
      example:
        en:
        - partOfSpeech: Interjection
          language: English
          definitions:
          - definition: A standard greeting.
            examples:
            - Hello, world!
            parsedExamples: []
    DefinitionEntry:
      title: DefinitionEntry
      type: object
      required:
      - definition
      properties:
        definition:
          type: string
          description: HTML/wikitext definition body for one sense.
          example: A standard greeting.
        examples:
          type: array
          description: Raw usage example strings.
          items:
            type: string
          example:
          - Hello, world!
        parsedExamples:
          type: array
          description: Structured usage examples (HTML or translation pairs).
          items:
            type: object
            additionalProperties: true
    ProblemDetails:
      title: ProblemDetails
      description: RFC 7807 problem-details error envelope.
      type: object
      properties:
        type:
          type: string
          format: uri
          example: https://mediawiki.org/wiki/HyperSwitch/errors/not_found
        title:
          type: string
          example: Not found.
        method:
          type: string
          example: get
        detail:
          type: string
          example: Page or revision not found.
        uri:
          type: string
          example: /en.wiktionary.org/v1/page/definition/nonexistentword
  securitySchemes:
    oauth2:
      type: oauth2
      description: OAuth 2.0 access tokens issued via api.wikimedia.org.
      flows:
        authorizationCode:
          authorizationUrl: https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/rest.php/oauth2/authorize
          tokenUrl: https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/rest.php/oauth2/access_token
          scopes:
            basic: Basic read access to user identity