Cambridge Dictionary Scraper Actor

A powerful Apify actor that extracts comprehensive dictionary data from Cambridge Dictionary, including definitions, phonetic transcriptions, audio pronunciations, usage examples, and CEFR proficiency levels.

What Is This Actor?

The Cambridge Dictionary Actor is a web scraping tool that programmatically retrieves detailed English word information from Cambridge Dictionary (dictionary.cambridge.org). It extracts phonetic transcriptions for both UK and US English, audio pronunciation files, definitions organized by part of speech, real-world usage examples, and CEFR level indicators (A1-C2) indicating word difficulty.

Use this actor when you need to build dictionary applications, language learning tools, vocabulary databases, or any project requiring authoritative English definitions with pronunciation data.

Use Cases

• Language Learning Apps — Fetch definitions with CEFR levels to organize vocabulary by difficulty
• Vocabulary Builders — Create word lists with pronunciations and examples for study
• Dictionary Websites — Power your own dictionary with Cambridge data
• NLP Projects — Obtain phonetic transcriptions and audio for text-to-speech systems
• Writing Tools — Retrieve definitions and examples to improve content quality
• Educational Platforms — Build vocabulary quizzes with authentic example sentences

Features

Feature	Description
Word Lookup	Search multiple English words in Cambridge Dictionary
UK Phonetics	Returns British English phonetic transcription
US Phonetics	Returns American English phonetic transcription
Audio Pronunciations	Provides direct audio URLs for both UK and US pronunciations (single words only)
Definitions by Part of Speech	Groups definitions by noun, verb, adjective, adverb, etc.
Usage Examples	Includes authentic example sentences for each definition
CEFR Levels	Shows proficiency level (A1-C2) when available
Concurrent Processing	Processes multiple words in parallel for efficiency

Input Schema

Field	Type	Required	Description
words	array	Yes	Array of Cambridge Dictionary URLs to scrape

Field Details

words

• Type: array
• Required: true
• Description: List of Cambridge Dictionary URLs to look up. Each item must be an object with a url property pointing to a valid Cambridge Dictionary entry page.

Input Example

{
  "words": [
    { "url": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hello" },
    { "url": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/take-care" },
    { "url": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/give-up" },
    { "url": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/break-the-ice" }
  ]
}

URL Format

Cambridge Dictionary URLs must follow this pattern:

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/{word}

Where {word} is the English word (use hyphens to separate multi-word entries). Examples:

• Single words: /dictionary/english/hello
• Multi-word expressions: /dictionary/english/take-care
• Phrasal verbs: /dictionary/english/give-up
• Idioms: /dictionary/english/break-the-ice

Output Schema

The actor returns a JSON object for each word with the following structure:

{
  "word": "serendipity",
  "phonetic": "ˌserənˈdɪpəti",
  "phoneticUk": "ˌserənˈdɪpəti",
  "phoneticUs": "ˌserənˈdɪpəti",
  "audioUk": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/medias/english/uk_pron/uk_sER/uk_ser__/uk_serendipity_GB_1.mp3",
  "audioUs": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/medias/english/us_pron/s/ser/seren/serendipity.mp3",
  "definitions": [
    {
      "partOfSpeech": "noun",
      "definitions": [
        {
          "definition": "the fact of something interesting or pleasant happening by chance",
          "examples": ["a fortunate stroke of serendipity"],
          "level": "C2"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wordUrl": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/serendipity",
  "sourceUrl": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org",
  "sourceName": "Cambridge Dictionary"
}

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
word	string	The searched word
phonetic	string	Default phonetic transcription
phoneticUk	string	UK English phonetic (IPA format)
phoneticUs	string	US English phonetic (IPA format)
audioUk	string	URL to UK pronunciation audio file
audioUs	string	URL to US pronunciation audio file
definitions	array	Array of part-of-speech groups
definitions[].partOfSpeech	string	Part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.)
definitions[].definitions	array	Array of definitions
definitions[].definitions[].definition	string	The definition text
definitions[].definitions[].examples	array	Usage examples
definitions[].definitions[].level	string	CEFR level (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2)
wordUrl	string	Full Cambridge Dictionary URL
sourceUrl	string	Source website URL
sourceName	string	Source name ("Cambridge Dictionary")

Quick Start

Run in Apify Console

1. Open the actor in Apify Console
2. Enter words in the input field:

{
  "words": [{ "url": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ephemeral" }]
}

3. Click "Run"

Run Locally

$apify run

Example Outputs

Simple Word: "hello"

{
  "word": "hello",
  "phonetic": "heˈləʊ",
  "phoneticUk": "heˈləʊ",
  "phoneticUs": "həˈloʊ",
  "audioUk": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/...",
  "audioUs": "https://dictionary.cambridge.org/...",
  "definitions": [
    {
      "partOfSpeech": "exclamation",
      "definitions": [
        {
          "definition": "used when meeting or greeting someone",
          "examples": ["Hello, Paul! I haven't seen you for ages."],
          "level": "A1"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Advanced Word: "ubiquitous"

{
  "word": "ubiquitous",
  "phonetic": "juːˈbɪkwɪtəs",
  "phoneticUs": "juːˈbɪkwɪtəs",
  "definitions": [
    {
      "partOfSpeech": "adjective",
      "definitions": [
        {
          "definition": "present, appearing, or found everywhere",
          "examples": ["Smartphones have become ubiquitous in modern society."],
          "level": "C1"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CEFR level?

The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) classifies language proficiency from A1 (beginner) to C2 (mastery). Cambridge Dictionary assigns these levels to words indicating the complexity level where learners typically encounter them.

Can I look up phrases or idioms?

Yes, the actor can retrieve multi-word expressions, idioms, and phrasal verbs present in Cambridge Dictionary.

Does it work for American English?

Yes. The actor returns both UK and US phonetic transcriptions and audio pronunciation URLs.

Is there a rate limit?

The actor respects Cambridge Dictionary's terms of service. For bulk lookups, it processes words concurrently with a maximum of 5 parallel requests.

What happens if the word isn't found?

The actor returns a warning and skips the word. Check the logs for details.

How many words can I scrape at once?

There's no hard limit, but for best performance and to respect the website, consider batching large word lists.

Technical Details

Property	Value
Scraping Library	Cheerio (fast HTML parsing)
Runtime	Bun.js
Validation	Zod
Input Format	JSON
Output Format	JSON
Max Concurrency	5 parallel requests

Dependencies

• Apify SDK — Actor development framework
• Cheerio — Fast HTML parsing and DOM manipulation
• Zod — TypeScript-first schema validation
• Bun.js — Fast JavaScript runtime and toolkit

License

ISC