Tamil lexicon

The Tamil lexicon app is a product of the Digital South Asia Library program (https://dsal.uchicago.edu) at the University of Chicago. The app offers a searchable version of the University of Madras's "Tamil lexicon," [Madras], University of Madras, 1924-1936.

The Tamil lexicon app can be used both online and offline. The online version interacts with a database that runs remotely on a server at the University of Chicago. The offline version uses a database that is created on the device upon first download.

By default, the app operates in the online mode.

The app allows users to conduct both headword and fulltext queries.

The default mode for this app is to search headwords. To search for a headword, touch the search box at the top (magnifying glass icon) to expose the on-screen keyboard and begin searching. Headwords can be entered in Tamil, accented Latin characters, and unaccented Latin characters. For example, headword searches for புள்ளுவம், puḷḷuvam, and pulluvam all yield the definition "Cry of birds."

After entering three characters in the search box, a scrollable list of search suggestions will pop up. Touch the word to search for and it will automatically fill in the search field. Or ignore suggestions and enter the search term completely. To execute the search, touch the return button on the keyboard.

By default, headword searches expand off the end of the search term. In other words, searching for "mann" will generate results for headwords that begin with "mann" and have any number of trailing characters, like "maññai" (மஞ்ஞை) "maṇṇavar" (மண்ணவர்), etc. To expand the front of a query, users can enter the "%" character at the beginning of search term. For example, "%mann" will find "appiramaṇṇiyam" (அப்பிரமண்ணியம்), "ulaka-maṉṉavaṉ" (உலகமன்னவன்), etc. The wildcard character at the front of a word also expands search suggestions.

For fulltext searching and advanced search options, select the "Search Options" sub-menu in the overflow menu (usually the three vertical dots icon at the top right corner of the screen).

For fulltext searching, check the "Search all text" box then enter a term in the search field.

Fulltext searching supports multiword searching. For example, the search "ceremonial bath" returns 30 results where "ceremonial" and "bath" can be found in the same definition. Multiword searches can be executed with the boolean operators "NOT" and "OR" as well. The search "ceremonial OR bath" returns 317 fulltext results; "ceremonial NOT bath" returns 91 fulltext results.

Search results come first in a numbered list that displays the Tamil headword, the accented latin transliteration of the headword, and a chunk of the definition. To see a full definition, touch the headword.

In online mode, the full result page also has a page number link that the user can click to get the full page context of the definition. Link arrows at the top of the full page allow the user to click to previous and next pages in the dictionary.

To select either online or offline mode, simply check or uncheck the "Search offline" box in the overflow menu. When in online mode, the world icon at the top of the screen will appear dark; in offline mode, it will appear light.

Note that on start up, the app will test to see whether the device has an internet connection and the remote server is available. Again, the app operates in online mode by default. The user should select the appropriate mode before conducting a search.