📕 Urban Dictionary Scraper: Slang Definitions, Examples & Dates

Urban Dictionary Scraper is an Apify actor that exports slang definitions for any list of words: definition text, usage example, author, written date and permalink, in Urban Dictionary's own ranking order. It also pulls the words of the day and random entries. No login, no API key. Export CSV, Excel, JSON, XML or use the API. Priced $0.015 per definition row; misses and errors are free.

The Urban Dictionary Scraper reads Urban Dictionary's public JSON API and turns a list of slang terms into a clean dataset: up to 50 definitions per term, each with example, author, date and link. A 10-row test run in the Apify cloud returned 10 definitions for "rizz" and "sigma" and cost $0.15 in result events. It is built for trust and safety teams, marketers, NLP researchers and anyone who needs slang meanings in bulk instead of one browser tab at a time.

🔎 What does the Urban Dictionary Scraper do?

• Look up slang terms in bulk. Paste a list of words or phrases such as rizz, sigma, mid and get the top definitions for each.
• Control depth per term. Ask for 1 to 50 definitions per term.
• Export words of the day. One switch adds the current featured entries as rows.
• Sample random definitions. Pull up to 500 random entries for lexicon sampling and trend research.
• Skip empty and duplicate rows. A term with no definition returns a free note row. Duplicates are removed before you are charged.
• Stop at your budget. The run ends cleanly when your max total charge or maxItems is reached.

📊 What data can you extract from Urban Dictionary?

Field	Meaning
recordType	definition, word-of-the-day or random
term	The slang word or phrase
rank	Position among the term's definitions (definition rows)
definition	Definition text with Urban Dictionary link brackets removed
example	Usage example (omitted when the entry has none)
author	Username of the contributor
definitionId	Urban Dictionary definition id, unique per entry
writtenOn	ISO date when the definition was written
url	Permalink to the definition
thumbsUp, thumbsDown, approvalPercent	Vote data, present only when the source returns votes (see the note below)
scrapedAt	UTC timestamp of the run

Optional fields are left out instead of filled with placeholders, so you never see fake "N/A" values.

Important note on votes. When this README was updated (October 2026), Urban Dictionary's public API returned 0 thumbs up and 0 thumbs down for every definition we tested, both from a local machine and from Apify's cloud. The actor therefore leaves the vote columns out instead of reporting false zeros. If Urban Dictionary restores vote counts, thumbsUp, thumbsDown and approvalPercent appear automatically, and the minimum-upvotes filter becomes useful again. Until then, definitions come back in the order Urban Dictionary itself returns them, and minThumbsUp above 0 will return nothing.

🧾 Sample output of the Urban Dictionary Scraper

A real row from a cloud run with the terms rizz and sigma:

{
  "recordType": "definition",
  "term": "Rizz",
  "definition": "Another word for spitting game/how good you are with pulling and sustaining bitches.",
  "example": "Person 1: are you from Tennessee cuz u the only ten i see ;) Person watching from a far:Damn, that nigga has no rizz",
  "author": "bro got no rizz",
  "definitionId": "17115763",
  "writtenOn": "2022-03-31T10:36:17.000Z",
  "url": "https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Rizz&defid=17115763",
  "rank": 1,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-10-04T05:12:07.023Z"
}

Urban Dictionary is user-generated, so definitions can be explicit or offensive. Filter the dataset before showing it to end users.

💰 How much does it cost to scrape Urban Dictionary?

The actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You pay only for rows that are saved.

Event	What is charged	Price per row (Free plan)
definition-record	One definition from a term lookup	$0.015
discovery-record	One word-of-the-day or random definition	$0.015

That is $15 per 1,000 rows on the Free plan, with lower per-row prices on paid Apify plans (down to $0.01313 on Gold and above). Not charged: error rows, terms with no match, duplicates and rows missing a definition. A 10-row run costs $0.15 in result events. Set a max total charge on the run and it stops when the budget is reached. Free Apify users are limited to 10 rows per run.

🚀 How to scrape Urban Dictionary in 3 steps

1. Open the actor on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Enter your terms (one per line), choose definitions per term, and optionally switch on words of the day or random definitions.
3. Click Start, then download the dataset as CSV, Excel, JSON or XML.

⚙️ Urban Dictionary Scraper input

Field	Type	Default	What it does
terms	array	none	Slang words or phrases to look up
maxDefinitionsPerTerm	integer	10	Definitions kept per term (1 to 50)
minThumbsUp	integer	0	Minimum upvotes (see the votes note above)
includeWordsOfTheDay	boolean	false	Add the current words of the day
randomCount	integer	0	Number of random definitions (0 to 500)
maxItems	integer	none	Cap on rows for the whole run

At least one of terms, includeWordsOfTheDay or randomCount is required. An empty input fails immediately with a clear message and costs nothing.

{
  "terms": ["rizz", "sigma"],
  "maxDefinitionsPerTerm": 5,
  "maxItems": 10
}

📦 Urban Dictionary Scraper output

Every run writes one dataset. The Overview view shows type, term, rank, definition, example, date and link in a table. A run where a term has no definition adds one note row with an error field for that term and charges nothing. If Urban Dictionary cannot be reached and no rows were delivered, the run fails instead of finishing empty.

⚖️ Urban Dictionary scraper vs alternatives

We checked the public pricing of the other Urban Dictionary actors on the Apify Store on 2026-10-04:

Actor	Price model	Price per 1,000 rows
apidojo/urbandictionary-scraper	pay per event	$1.00
ninhothedev/urban-dictionary-scraper	pay per event + start fee	$0.50
muhammadafzal/urban-dictionary-definitions-scraper	pay per event + start fee	$2.00
parseforge/urbandictionary-definitions-scraper	pay per event	$12.00
PunkRecordsData (this actor)	pay per event	$15.00

We are the most expensive on price per row. What the extra buys: you are never charged for error, empty, duplicate or incomplete rows, the run stops cleanly at your budget, input is validated before any charge, and one actor covers term lookups, words of the day and random sampling. If you only need a few thousand plain rows and the cheapest price matters most, one of the lower-priced actors may suit you better.

💼 Urban Dictionary use cases

• Moderation lexicons. Collect meanings of emerging slang so filters and reviewers know what a word signals.
• Campaign vetting. Check candidate brand names and taglines for a second meaning before launch.
• NLP and language research. Build slang datasets with examples and dates for classifiers, embeddings or glossaries.
• Trend tracking. Schedule the words of the day export daily and track new slang over time.

🔌 Run the Urban Dictionary Scraper via API and integrations

Call it from any language with the Apify API:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/recordsdata~urban-dictionary-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"terms":["rizz","sigma"],"maxDefinitionsPerTerm":5,"maxItems":10}'

Schedule runs in the Apify Console, or connect the dataset to Zapier, Make, n8n, Google Sheets or Slack. AI agents can call the actor through the Apify MCP server using its input schema, which has descriptions for every field.

⚖️ Is it legal to scrape Urban Dictionary?

The actor calls Urban Dictionary's public API at a low rate (one request every half second) and collects only public definitions and usernames shown on the site. It does not log in or bypass protection. Definitions are user-generated content, so credit Urban Dictionary and check its terms of service before republishing text commercially. You are responsible for how you use the data.

❓ Frequently asked questions

Why do I get 0 results from the Urban Dictionary Scraper?

Either the term has no entry on Urban Dictionary, or you set minThumbsUp above 0 while Urban Dictionary reports 0 votes everywhere. The run finishes as succeeded with a status message and charges nothing. Try a different spelling or set minThumbsUp to 0.

Why are thumbsUp and approvalPercent missing?

Urban Dictionary's API currently returns 0 votes for all definitions, so the actor omits those columns instead of showing fake zeros. They return automatically when the source provides votes.

How are definitions ordered?

By Urban Dictionary's own order for the term, then by votes when votes exist. rank shows the position per term.

Do I need an Urban Dictionary account or API key?

No. The actor works without login or key.

How many definitions can I get per term?

Up to 50 with maxDefinitionsPerTerm. The source may return fewer for rare words.

What are words of the day and random mode?

Words of the day are the featured entries on Urban Dictionary right now. Random mode pulls random entries, useful for sampling the lexicon. Both are charged as discovery-record.

Am I charged for terms that are not found?

No. Not-found notes, errors and duplicates are saved without a charge, and a run that fails to reach the source delivers nothing and charges nothing.

Can I try it for free?

Yes. Free Apify accounts get a 10-row preview per run, and new accounts include free platform credit.

🧩 Want more text and reference data? Other PunkRecordsData scrapers

• Wikipedia Articles Scraper for article text and metadata.
• Hacker News Search Scraper for stories, comments and trends.
• Wayback Machine Scraper for archived page snapshots.

🛟 Support

Found a bug or a missing field? Open the Issues tab on this actor's page, or write to contact.punkrecordsdata@gmail.com. Custom solutions are available on request.

Last updated: 2026-10-03