Sanskrit Dictionary

How to read this dictionary

Nouns are given in their dictionary form, the nominative singular (प्रथमा विभक्ति, एकवचन) — that is why many end in -ḥ (masculine, e.g. वृक्षः), -m (neuter, e.g. जलम्) or a long vowel (feminine, e.g. नदी). The ending also tells you the gender. Adjectives are shown as bare stems, since their ending changes to match the noun they describe.

Verbs are shown in the form you will meet most often, the third-person singular present (he/she goes), with the verbal root (धातु, dhātu) in brackets — gacchati comes from √gam, "to go". Learn the root and you can recognise the whole family of words built on it: gamana (going), āgamana (arrival), nirgamana (exit).

Why some Hindi meanings look so similar

A large share of Hindi vocabulary comes straight from Sanskrit, either unchanged (तत्सम, like पुस्तक and नदी) or worn down over centuries of everyday speech (तद्भव, like हस्त → हाथ and दुग्ध → दूध). If you already speak Hindi, Marathi, Bengali or another Indian language, you already know more Sanskrit than you think. See Sanskrit to Hindi for how those changes work, and Sanskrit to English for the surprising number of English words that share a root with Sanskrit.

Using the words in sentences

Sanskrit marks the role of each word with its ending rather than its position, so रामः फलं खादति and फलं रामः खादति both mean "Rama eats a fruit". To use these nouns as objects, places or instruments you will need the case endings — see the Vibhakti chart. For questions like "where?" and "when?", see question words in Sanskrit.