Sepo Dictionary

A community dictionary for WordPress. Members suggest words, meanings and corrections, and the community votes on how accurate they are. Suggestions that win the vote are merged into the entry, and every change is kept in the entry's history. It runs on WordPress alone. It needs no outside service and no other plugin.

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Contents

• Features
• Requirements
• Installation
• Getting started
• Shortcodes, blocks and widgets
• Uninstalling
• Privacy
• Changelog
• License

Features

Entries

• Every entry has its own page at /dictionary/<word>/. The page shows:
  • the headword and pronunciation, with a Listen button;
  • the part of speech and numbered meanings with examples;
  • synonyms, antonyms and "see also" links;
  • origin, usage notes, source, tags and contributors.
• The Listen button plays a recorded pronunciation. When there is no recording, it uses the browser's own speech.
• The dictionary page has:
  • search with live suggestions;
  • an A to Z index;
  • language and category filters;
  • a word of the day;
  • results split into pages.
• Several languages can share one dictionary. You can also show one dictionary per language, for example with [sepo_dictionary language="bemba"].

Community review

• Signed-in members can suggest:
  • a new word or a new meaning;
  • better wording for a meaning;
  • the removal of a wrong meaning;
  • a correction to the other details.
• Other members vote accurate or not accurate, with an optional note. Members cannot vote on their own suggestions.
• You set two thresholds in Settings: how many members must find a suggestion accurate, and how far ahead it must be. A suggestion that meets both is accepted. One that falls too far behind is declined.
• Suggestions for the same thing compete. Examples are two meanings for the same new word, or two rewrites of the same meaning.
  • Only the leader can win. The others are superseded.
  • A new word that lost can be put forward again as an extra meaning.
• When voting closes, the leader is accepted if more members found it accurate than not. The rest close.
• If the entry changed after a suggestion was made, a winning suggestion goes to an editor rather than overwriting the newer text. You can also send every winning suggestion to an editor first.
• Editors can accept, decline or delete any suggestion. They can do this on the site or under Dictionary → Suggestions.

History

• Every change is recorded:
  • entries created;
  • suggestions merged, with their votes;
  • editor changes and imports;
  • entries moved to the trash and restored.
• The History tab shows each change with the words added and removed.
• Editors can restore any earlier version. The restore is recorded too.

Pronunciation recordings

• Editors can record a word with the microphone, on the entry page or in the dashboard editor.
• They can also upload a sound file: MP3, M4A, OGG, WAV or WebM.
• Recordings are kept in the media library.
• Adding, replacing or removing a recording is recorded in the entry history, with a player for each version.

More

• Import and export as JSON or CSV.
• Emails to members when their suggestion is settled, and to editors when a suggestion needs them.
• Schema.org DefinedTerm data on entry pages.
• WordPress personal data export and erase.
• Dark mode follows the theme.

Requirements

Installation

Upload the zip (recommended)

1. Download sepo-dictionary.zip.
2. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins → Add New Plugin → Upload Plugin.
3. Choose the zip file and click Install Now.
4. Click Activate.

Upload the folder

1. Unzip the download.
2. Copy the sepo-dictionary folder into wp-content/plugins/ on your server, using FTP or your host's file manager.
3. Go to Plugins in the dashboard and activate Sepo Dictionary.

[!NOTE] If you downloaded the repository with GitHub's Code → Download ZIP, the folder inside is named after the branch, such as sepo-dictionary-main. Rename it to sepo-dictionary before uploading. That keeps updates and settings tied to the right folder.

Getting started

1. Open Dictionary → Settings. Set the voting thresholds, the voting period and whether winning suggestions go to an editor first.
2. Add your first entries under Dictionary → Add New, or bring in a list under Dictionary → Import and export.
3. Visit /dictionary/ to see the dictionary page. Signed-in members can now suggest and vote.

Shortcodes, blocks and widgets

Blocks and Elementor widgets are included for the dictionary, one word and the word of the day.

Uninstalling

Deactivating the plugin (Plugins → Deactivate) stops it and keeps all your data. Activate it again and everything is back.

Deleting the plugin (Plugins → Deactivate, then Delete) removes the plugin files. What happens to your data depends on one setting:

• By default your data is kept. Entries, suggestions, votes and history stay in the database, so you can reinstall later without losing anything.
• To remove everything, first tick Delete all entries, suggestions, votes and history under Dictionary → Settings and save, then delete the plugin. This removes:
  • every entry, with its languages, categories and tags;
  • the suggestion, vote and history tables;
  • the plugin's settings and cached data.

Pronunciation recordings stay in your media library either way.

Privacy

Suggestions, votes and history entries are tied to the member who made them. They are included in WordPress's Tools → Export Personal Data and Tools → Erase Personal Data.

Changelog

1.2.0

• The plugin's classes, colour tokens and data attributes use the sdict- prefix. Themes that style sd- class names no longer restyle or hide parts of the dictionary.
• Dark mode has brighter text, headwords and meanings, lighter labels and hints, and light-on-dark filled buttons, for readable contrast.
• Theme form, label and heading styles no longer change the dictionary's forms.

1.1.2

• Form error messages are added only when needed. Word suggestion lists sit outside the form, so nothing hidden takes up space in the form layout under any theme.

1.1.1

• The suggestion and editor forms keep compact rows when a theme gives forms a fixed height or a flex layout.

1.1.0

• Pronunciation recordings: record with the microphone or upload a sound file, from the entry page or the dashboard. The Listen button plays the recording.
• Steadier spacing in the suggestion and editor forms under themes that space paragraphs, labels and inputs.

1.0.0

• First release.

License

GPL-2.0-or-later