Show HN: WordFor – a free, open, private reverse dictionary running on browser

Posted by zshn25 on Friday April 17, 2026 @08:07AM
from the show-hn dept.

We all know the feeling: can’t remember the word but we know what it means. That’s why I built:

WordFor - a reverse dictionary where you describe a concept and it suggests the word you’re looking for.

- Runs entirely in the browser (no server calls) - No ads, tracking, or accounts - Low latency (results show up immediately as you type)

Curious how well it works for other people, and happy to answer questions about the approach or tradeoffs.

Technical Blog explaining the workings: https://zshn25.github.io/wordfor-reverse-dictionary/

( 4 comments | on HN )

Re:Show HN: WordFor – a free, open, private reverse dictiona... by nigardev on Friday April 17, 2026 @09:24AM (#47805667)

browser-only reverse dictionary is an interesting constraint. do you pre-compute embeddings and store them locally, or are you doing something lighter? the semantic matching part is where i'd expect the tradeoff between what runs locally and what you'd get from a server-based approach

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: WordFor – a free, open, private reverse dictiona... by zshn25 on Friday April 17, 2026 @09:28AM (#47805718)

I first compute the embeddings to the dictionaries and store these. At query-time, when the user inputs the description, its embeddings are again computed by a lighter model. Then comparison happens between this and the stored ones

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: WordFor – a free, open, private reverse dictiona... by anwar_nairi on Saturday April 18, 2026 @11:10AM (#47816516)

It is very well done congratulations! I am building an installable web app catalog, and I am happy to see other apps using offline content download instead of server-client roundups for search queries. It works very well and this is comforting me in keeping the same strategy!

Your app being a PWA, I will list it at https://korru.app :)

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: WordFor – a free, open, private reverse dictiona... by zshn25 on Wednesday April 22, 2026 @09:20AM (#47863226)

Thank you for your kind words. Great catalog. I found WordFor already.

[ Parent | on HN ]