Dictionaries · head-to-head
Wiktionary vs Words
Wiktionary exposes its full multilingual dictionary — definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, and translations spanning thousands of languages — through the same MediaWiki Action API that powers Wikipedia, with no key required for read access. Cross-origin browser requests need the documented origin=* query parameter rather than a bare Origin header, since that's what actually unlocks the API's CORS headers.
WordsAPI is a RapidAPI-hosted REST dictionary/thesaurus returning JSON definitions, synonyms, antonyms, rhymes, pronunciations, and word-frequency data across more than 150,000 English words — its own docs still show code samples calling the deprecated `wordsapiv1.p.mashape.com` host with an `X-Mashape-Key` header, but that legacy domain now refuses every request and a current RapidAPI key against the live `.p.rapidapi.com` proxy is required instead. A live unauthenticated request against that real proxy host returned a reflected `access-control-allow-origin` header plus `access-control-allow-credentials: true`, confirming CORS; its free tier covers 2,500 requests/day before paid plans starting at $10/month raise the ceiling to 25,000+/day.
| Wiktionary | Words | |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | None | API Key |
| Pricing | free | freemium |
| Formats | JSON, XML | JSON |
| CORS | yes | yes |
| HTTPS | Yes | Yes |
Wiktionary needs no API key, while Words requires API Key — pick Wiktionary to start without signup.