# Urban Dictionary Scraper - Slang Definitions, Votes & Examples (`ninhothedev/urban-dictionary-scraper`) Actor

$0.5/1K 🔥 Urban Dictionary scraper! Slang definitions, examples, author & votes for any term. No key. JSON, CSV, Excel or API in seconds. Power slang/NLP datasets & social listening ⚡

- **URL**: https://apify.com/ninhothedev/urban-dictionary-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [ninhothedev](https://apify.com/ninhothedev) (community)
- **Categories:** AI, Developer tools, Social media
- **Stats:** 3 total users, 2 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.50 / 1,000 results

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## Urban Dictionary Scraper 🗣️

Scrape **Urban Dictionary** slang definitions, usage examples, up/down votes, vote ratio and author for any term — straight from Urban Dictionary's clean public JSON API. **No API key, no login, no cookies.**

Perfect for building **slang / NLP datasets**, **social listening**, **content research** and **trend tracking**. Two modes: look up a list of terms, or pull a stream of random definitions.

***

### ✨ What it does

- 🔎 **Define mode** — pass any list of terms (`rizz`, `yeet`, `ghosting`, …) and get every published definition for each.
- 🎲 **Random mode** — fetch a batch of random Urban Dictionary definitions for discovery and dataset building.
- 📊 Structured, clean output — votes, ratio, author, ISO timestamps and permalinks, ready for analysis.
- 🧹 Light text cleaning — normalises `\r\n`, keeps the original `[bracketed]` cross-link markup as readable text.
- ⚡ Fast HTTP-only scraping with a Chrome browser fingerprint (`curl_cffi`) plus a stdlib fallback.

### 💸 Pricing

Runs on tiny memory (512 MB) and pure API calls, so it's cheap: roughly **$0.5 per 1,000 definitions**. Actual cost depends on your Apify plan and platform usage.

### 📥 Input

| Field | Type | Description |
|-------|------|-------------|
| `mode` | select (`define` | `random`) | `define` looks up your terms; `random` fetches random definitions. Default `define`. |
| `terms` | array of strings | Terms to look up in `define` mode. Prefilled with `["rizz","yeet","ghosting"]`. |
| `maxItems` | integer | Max number of definition records to collect (1–1000). Default `100`. |

#### Example input

```json
{
  "mode": "define",
  "terms": ["rizz", "yeet", "ghosting"],
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

### 📤 Output

Each dataset item is one definition:

```json
{
  "word": "Rizz",
  "definition": "Another word for spitting [game]/how good [you are] with pulling and sustaining partners.",
  "example": "Person 1: are you from [Tennessee] cuz u the only ten i see ;)",
  "thumbs_up": 750,
  "thumbs_down": 250,
  "ratio": 0.75,
  "author": "bro got no rizz",
  "written_on": "2022-03-31T10:36:17+00:00",
  "permalink": "https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rizz&defid=17115763",
  "defid": 17115763,
  "source": "urban-dictionary",
  "scraped_at": "2026-07-24T00:00:00+00:00"
}
```

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| `word` | The term / headword. |
| `definition` | Definition text (cleaned, `[brackets]` kept, capped 5000 chars). |
| `example` | Usage example (cleaned, capped 3000 chars). |
| `thumbs_up` / `thumbs_down` | Up / down votes. |
| `ratio` | `thumbs_up / (thumbs_up + thumbs_down)`, rounded to 2 decimals. |
| `author` | Username of the submitter. |
| `written_on` | Submission timestamp in ISO-8601 UTC. |
| `permalink` | Direct URL to the definition. |
| `defid` | Urban Dictionary definition ID. |
| `source` | Always `urban-dictionary`. |
| `scraped_at` | When the record was scraped (ISO-8601 UTC). |

All fields are nullable.

### 🧑‍💻 Use cases

- **Slang & NLP datasets** — build labelled corpora of informal language for model training.
- **Social listening** — decode slang appearing in comments, DMs and reviews.
- **Content & copywriting** — research how audiences actually use a term before you write.
- **Trend research** — track new slang and its adoption over time.

### 🔗 Related actors

- [Wiktionary Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/wiktionary-scraper)
- [Dictionary Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/dictionary-scraper)
- [Reddit Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/reddit-scraper)
- [Wikipedia Scraper](https://apify.com/ninhothedev/wikipedia-scraper)

### ⚖️ Notes

This actor scrapes publicly available data from Urban Dictionary's public API. Use responsibly and in line with Urban Dictionary's terms and applicable law.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

Scraping mode. Use 'define' to look up definitions for the terms you provide, or 'random' to fetch a batch of random Urban Dictionary definitions.

## `terms` (type: `array`):

List of slang terms or words to look up. Each term returns its Urban Dictionary definitions (only used in 'define' mode).

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of definition records to collect across all terms. Between 1 and 1000.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "define",
  "terms": [
    "rizz",
    "yeet",
    "ghosting"
  ],
  "maxItems": 100
}
```

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "terms": [
        "rizz",
        "yeet",
        "ghosting"
    ]
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("ninhothedev/urban-dictionary-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "terms": [
        "rizz",
        "yeet",
        "ghosting",
    ] }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("ninhothedev/urban-dictionary-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "terms": [
    "rizz",
    "yeet",
    "ghosting"
  ]
}' |
apify call ninhothedev/urban-dictionary-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,ninhothedev/urban-dictionary-scraper"
        }
    }
}

```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/P1CqnBMN7ZAC6bc5l/builds/Yy7MI4PQduBEbH2dt/openapi.json