Personal Dictionary

Create a personal dictionary of definitions for anything from keeping track of academic concepts to everyday use. An Obsidian plugin that lets you browse definitions in a sidebar and link to them from anywhere in your vault.

Features

• Add definitions via a modal form — capture the term, definition text, source (author/year), page number, and link to your literature note
• Multiple definitions per term — the same concept defined by different authors lives in one note
• Inline trigger (;;) — type ;; followed by a search query to quickly insert a [[link]] to any definition
• Dictionary sidebar — browse, search, and filter all definitions by source
• Quick search modal — fuzzy search across all terms and definitions
• Definition cards — embed a styled definition card in any note with a ```definition code block
• Book source integration — right-click a book note (with type: Book in frontmatter) to add a definition with source info auto-filled
• Edit existing definitions — update definition text, sources, or page numbers at any time
• Plain markdown storage — definitions are individual .md files in a Dictionary/ folder, fully compatible with wiki-links, backlinks, graph view, and Dataview

Installation

1. Open Settings → Community Plugins → Browse
2. Search for Personal Dictionary
3. Click Install, then Enable

Quick Start

1. Open the command palette (Cmd/Ctrl + P) and run "Add new definition"
2. Fill in the term, definition, source, and optional page number
3. The definition is saved as Dictionary/YourTerm.md
4. Link to it from any note with [[YourTerm]], or type ;; in the editor for quick insertion
5. Open the dictionary sidebar via the book icon in the ribbon to browse all definitions

Commands

Command	Description
Add new definition	Open the definition modal
Add new definition (same source as last)	Pre-fills the last-used source
Add definition from this book	Auto-fills source from a book note's frontmatter
Add selected text as new definition term	Pre-fills the term from your text selection
Search dictionary	Fuzzy search and navigate to a definition
Insert link to definition	Search and insert a [[link]] at the cursor
Open dictionary panel	Open the sidebar

Definition Cards

Embed a definition card in any note:

```definition
Consideration
```

This renders as a styled card showing the term, all definitions with sources, and a link to the full note.

Book Source Integration

If your book notes have frontmatter like:

type: Book
Author: John R. Zaller
Year: "1992"

You can right-click the note or run "Add definition from this book" to open the definition modal with the source pre-filled as "John R. Zaller (1992)".

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Dictionary folder	Dictionary	Where definition notes are stored
Trigger string	;;	What you type to activate inline suggestions
Insert as wiki-link	On	Insert [[Term]] vs plain text

License

MIT - Quentin Cochran