Look up a wordLook a word up and get everything the dictionary holds for it: its pronunciation and audio, every part of speech, every definition with its usage example, and its synonyms and antonyms. A word with more than one origin, such as 'bass', comes back as several separate entries and all of them are returned. The fields at the top are the ones a message usually wants, so the common case needs no digging.
Get a word's definitionsList a word's definitions as flat rows, one per definition, each with its part of speech and its usage example. Narrow it to particular parts of speech to answer 'what does this mean as a verb?'. Every entry is read, so a word with more than one origin has all of its senses listed.
Get a word's synonymsList a word's synonyms as one deduplicated list, and grouped by part of speech beside it. The dictionary keeps synonyms in two places, on the part of speech and on the individual definition, and both are read, so nothing is missed.
Get a word's antonymsList a word's opposites as one deduplicated list, and grouped by part of speech beside it. Like synonyms, antonyms sit both on the part of speech and on individual definitions, and both levels are merged here.
Get a word's usage examplesList the sentences the dictionary gives to show a word in use, each beside the definition it illustrates. Only some definitions carry one, so this is the subset that does, which is what a vocabulary exercise or a writing prompt needs.
Get a word's pronunciationsGet how a word is said: its phonetic spellings, and links to recordings of it in the British, American and Australian accents where they exist. Each row carries the licence and the source page behind it, which is what has to be credited if a recording is played or republished.
Get a word's parts of speechFind out which parts of speech a word has, and how much sits under each: how many definitions, how many synonyms and antonyms, and the first definition as a sample. This answers 'is run a noun as well as a verb?' without reading a whole entry.
Check whether a word existsCheck whether the dictionary has an entry for a word. A word that is not in it answers 'no' rather than failing the step, which is what a spell check, a word game or a form validation needs. A word that is in it also comes back with its pronunciation, its parts of speech and its first definition, so a single step can both check and report.
Look up several wordsLook up a list of words in one step and get each one's first definition, pronunciation and parts of speech, plus the words that turned out not to be in the dictionary. This is the step for checking a vocabulary list or a spelling list without a loop. Each word costs one request to a free service, so up to 25 words at a time.
Look up a word (legacy v1 format)Look a word up through the original v1 route, which the service keeps running for anything already built against it. v1 groups an entry's definitions under each part of speech and carries no part-of-speech-level synonym lists, so use this only to match something that already expects that shape. 'Look up a word' is the one to use otherwise.