Cebuano-English Dictionary

Jeroen Hellingman

About this app

This Cebuano-English Dictionary app contains the full text of "A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan", edited by John U Wolff and first published in 1972. This dictionary is still one of the best dictionaries made for Cebuano.

Cebuano, also known as Visayan, Bisayan, or locally as Binisaya, is spoken in the provinces of Cebu, Negros Oriental, Siquijor, Bohol, and Leyte, in the Visayas region in the Central Philippines, as well as on the island of Mindanao in the Southern Philippines. Cebuano is related to, but distinguished from Hiligaynon (or Ilonggo) and Waray-Waray, languages which are also sometimes called "Visayan".

The content of this dictionary is based on original research between 1966 and 1972, in which the editor and his team collected samples of actual written and spoken Cebuano to use in this dictionary. Besides providing English definitions, it provides sample sentences for many words, all taken from daily usage.

When using this dictionary, please keep in mind that the spelling of words used is different from the normal spelling used in the Philippines. In line with the editor's focus on the language as spoken, the dictionary uses a phonetic transcription that uses only three vowels, "a", "i", and "u". The "o" and "e" are not used. The search interface has been adjusted, such that words spelled in the normal way will still be found, for example, if you search for "unom", six as it normally written, the dictionary will return unum, following the phonetic spelling used in Wolff's dictionary.

The app provides a fast searchable interface, structured formatting of entries, and allows reverse look-ups to a limited extend. It can be used off-line, as all dictionary data is stored on our device.

Since all dictionary data is part of the app, the app functions off-line, and does not require (or even use) internet access. It will not send any information back to me. My privacy policy is simple: I do not collect any information (except that which is collected by Google itself in Google Play, and that information I will only use to get some impression of how many people use the app and to resolve possible technical issues.)