translate-cli

Look up an English word in the terminal and list all of its meanings from the Collins dictionary (柯林斯英汉双解大词典), with phonetics, part-of-speech tags, example sentences and related phrases.

$ translate hello
hello
英 [həˈləʊ]   美 [həˈloʊ]
词形  复数 hellos · 第三人称单数 helloes · 现在分词 helloing · 过去式 helloed · 过去分词 helloed

基本释义
  int. 喂，你好（用于问候或打招呼）…；喂，你好（打电话时的招呼语）…
  n. 招呼，问候…
  v. 说（或大声说）“喂”；打招呼

柯林斯英汉双解大词典
  /hɛˈləʊ/  CET4 TEM4  ★★★  (also hullo)

  1. CONVENTION 习惯表达
     You say "Hello" to someone when you meet them.
     你好 (打招呼用语) [套语]
     例 Hello, Trish. I won't shake hands, because I'm filthy.
        你好，特里斯。我就不握手了，我的手好脏。

  2. N-COUNT 可数名词
     Hello is also a noun.
     招呼
     ...

相关短语
  say hello 打招呼；问好

Install

Requires Node.js ≥ 18 (no dependencies at all).

From npm (once published):

npm install -g @cloudedseal/translate-cli
translate hello

From source (development):

git clone https://github.com/cloudedseal/translate-cli
cd translate-cli
npm link                # puts the `translate` command on your PATH

Or run directly without linking:

node bin/translate.js hello

To remove the global command later: npm unlink -g @cloudedseal/translate-cli

Usage

translate <word or phrase>
translate hello
translate "look after"
translate don't

Option	Effect
-h, --help	show help
-v, --version	show version
--no-color	disable colored output
--no-examples	hide example sentences

Colors are disabled automatically when output is piped or when NO_COLOR is set.

Output sections

Section	Meaning
phonetics / 词形	UK & US pronunciation, inflected forms
基本释义	short part-of-speech + meaning list
柯林斯英汉双解大词典	all numbered Collins senses: POS tag, English definition, Chinese meaning, examples
相关短语	common phrases containing the word

How it works / data sources

1. Primary – Youdao's JSON endpoint (dict.youdao.com/jsonapi) returns structured data including the Collins English-Chinese Advanced Dictionary (柯林斯英汉双解大词典). This works even for contractions like don't.
2. Fallback – if the JSON endpoint fails, the CLI downloads the dictionary page (dict.youdao.com/w/<word>) and parses the HTML with a built-in zero-dependency HTML parser.

Notes:

• collinsdictionary.com itself is protected by Cloudflare and blocks non-browser clients, which is why the Collins content is read through Youdao, which legitimately publishes the Collins bilingual data.
• Bing Dictionary renders its content with JavaScript (not readable via plain HTTP) and Baidu Hanyu returns an empty shell, so neither is used.

Project layout

.github/workflows/publish.yml  auto-publish to npm on GitHub Release
bin/translate.js    CLI entry point: args, formatting, output
lib/youdao.js       source chain (JSON → HTML fallback), HTML-page parsing
lib/youdao-json.js  JSON endpoint fetch + Collins/ec/phrases parsing
lib/html.js         minimal dependency-free HTML parser + query helpers
lib/errors.js       shared LookupError

License

MIT