Encyclopaedia Britannica Introduces Al-Jazem - A Free Online Arabic-English Dictionary

Online, June 15, 2011 (Newswire.com) - As the world watches the rise of democracy in the Arab World, the Al-Jazem free online Arabic- English dictionary (www.aljazem.com ), by Encyclopaedia Britannica, is enabling translation and understanding in real-time.

Al-Jazem (www.aljazem.com) is an English-Arabic-English dictionary provides users with a dictionary, translation, pronunciation and a thesaurus for both words as well as phrases. What sets Al-Jazem apart from other Arabic / English dictionaries is the natural language processing technology, developed by Encyclopaedia Britannica. The company's technology enables understanding the morphology (the way the words are constructed) of the Arabic language, which ensures that the syntax and sentiment of the translations are correct. For example, for the word "break", Al-Jazem is able to understand the difference between "break down", "break off" and "break up".

The Al-Jazem's Arabic-English dictionary is updated on a daily basis, and the update team is attentive to the many changes taking place in both English and Arabic. Within Al-Jazem, a user will find translations of words and expressions from the realm of the web, such as "captcha" and "blogosphere".

"With social communications reduced to 140 characters using platforms like Twitter, the need has arisen for real-time translation of individual words and short phrases," said Jorge Cauz, President, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.. "The recent surge in activity experienced by Al-Jazem beginning in late January shows us how important real-time translations have become between Arabic and English."

Arabic is one of the most complicated languages in the world, making it extremely difficult for computers to deal with search, translation and information extraction. Encyclopaedia Britannica, the world leader in educational and language content, has designed and developed natural language processing technology tools for searching, monitoring and translating foreign language texts that specifically addresses the morphological complexity and ambiguity, providing an optimal solution to computerized analysis of the Arabic language.

Al-Jazem (www.aljazem.com) can be accessed from any web-enabled computer as well as iPad, iPhone or any other mobile device.

About Encyclopaedia Britannica

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. is a leader in reference and educational publication whose
products can be found in many media forms, from the Internet, wireless devices to books. A pioneer in electronic publishing since the early 1980s, the company still publishes the 32â€volume Encyclopaedia Britannica, along with services such as Britannica Online School Edition and new printed products, which are available online at http://www.britannicastore.com/. The company's headquarters is in Chicago.