Doha Historical Dictionary of Arabic Releases Smartphone App on Apple and Google Play

The Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language launched its official smartphone application on Apple's App Store and Google Play on November 2, 2026, giving users access to about 300,000 entries, 10,000 roots and 10,000 bibliographical sources. The Peninsula reported the launch.

What The Doha Dictionary App Offers

The redesigned application mirrors the latest updates to the dictionary's online portal, which were introduced alongside a ceremony marking the project's completion last year. The upgrades make the portal's resources more readily accessible to smartphone users across different operating systems.

Users can search approximately 300,000 dictionary entries, 10,000 roots and 10,000 bibliographical sources, and explore the linguistic contexts of a corpus containing nearly one billion words. The app also carries the portal's enhancements from the past year, chiefly its automated pronunciation service, introduced in June.

Personal accounts let users sign in as they can on the online portal, unlocking services such as saving searches and their results, submitting comments and corrections on dictionary entries to the scientific team, and proposing words, meanings or textual citations that may not yet appear in its entries. Users can browse the "Word of the Day" feature and reach the dictionary's social media accounts.

Dr. Mohammed Al Obaidi, executive director of the Doha Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language, said the new application builds on a vision for the dictionary that took shape during its early founding stages. He said the decision to go online stemmed from an ambition to navigate the constraints of time and place, making it accessible to anyone seeking to benefit from it, wherever they may be.

Al Obaidi said the dictionary's value lies not merely in its breadth, precision and reliability, but equally in making its content accessible to Arabic speakers through modern, user-friendly means. He said efforts to expand its user base through various search engines and the application are instrumental to fulfilling its objective of serving as a transformative intellectual project for the Arab world as a whole.

How The Dictionary Project Is Structured

The dictionary is a non-profit scholarly project under the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, according to akta.pro company records. The project was established in 2013 under the center, which serves as parent institution and copyright holder, providing governance, funding and scientific council oversight. The same records list a supporting linguistic corpus that provides primary textual materials behind dictionary entries.

What Comes Next For The Dictionary

The dictionary's team is laying the groundwork for a new phase focused on capitalizing on the linguistic wealth of what it describes as the largest historical dictionary of the Arabic language. Its completion was announced on December 22, 2025, following its official launch in May 2013 under the supervision of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies.