Not related to the issue raised in the article, but using a translation tool for individual words is going to give you the wrong answer in many situations by definition. The meaning of a word depends on its context.

For translating a single word, a dictionary that lists all possible meanings in the target language is the right tool. A translator (human or algorithm) can only guess or give you the list of possible translations. Google Translate has come up with a suitable proxy solution by adding the "More Translations" pane.