English Arabic Dictionary - Lite

There is nearly a different language for every country or culture. Even characters used differ in style and combinations to form words. If you're planning to go abroad, you might want to learn a few common words. With utilities like English Arabic Dictionary – Lite, you can easily find corresponding words, in this case for the Arabic language.

Since the application is built on the Java engine, you need to make sure you have Java Runtime Environment installed to take full advantage of its features. What's more, you don't need to install it on your system, thus keeping registries intact and you can store it on a USB Flash drive so you can look up words on the go.

The set of features is pretty shallow, with all buttons and display area stored in a compact interface. There's a text field where you can write down words to get the Arabic equivalent, with results being displayed along with related words.

Besides the possibility to look up words, there's an integrated game you can run to see if you learned a thing or two. To trigger it, you need to select one of the two levels of difficulty. Your score is kept track of, and each wrong answer costs you one life, with a starting default of ten. Depending on the level you choose, you either get four or five choices to pick the right word.

One of the biggest disappointments is that you can't access the whole dictionary to browse for words so you need to know exactly what you're looking for. Moreover, character implementation is poor, with Arabic words being displayed with Latin characters, and no phonetic view, making learning rather difficult and confusing.

English Arabic Dictionary - Lite aims to eliminate the need and time needed to manually look up words in a pocket dictionary. Half of the task is accomplished thanks to portability and quick feedback. However, the poor implementation of features and simple word display, as well as no support for Arabic characters makes overall practicality questionable.