Many people use online dictionaries. These take many forms.

One popular type is a language to language work like an English Gaelic dictionary. These are more like translators than dictionaries.

Dictionaries like an English Gaelic dictionary used to be books purchased by folks. They could look up words and phrases in the book for on the spot translations. For example if they wanted to find a bus they look up the phrase where's the bus. It didn't always result in being understood.

An online English Gaelic dictionary is an automated translator. It allows people to enter in phrases, words, or even a whole block of text . The translation is complete in seconds. These tools can create decent translations of web sites.

When looking for an English Gaelic dictionary one of the earliest sources online was the Babelfish. Alta Vista now owns it. It received a lot of traffic. It was a novel concept. It was often used by people who chatted with others who spoke different languages. The translations weren't always terrific.

Something that many people thought about doing for something like an English Gaelic dictionary was to translate from one language to another and then translate back to see if it still makes sense. Many times the final result of this process was quite different from the starting point. A phrase like I have a dog could turn into the dog has me when filtered through this process. This was a good way to come up with alternate versions of a sentence or paragraph, but it proved the translation wasn't really up to par.

Recently Google has come up with a translation service that includes an English Gaelic dictionary. It's one of the best there is. That test of translating from one language to another and then back generally produces exactly the same text as the starting text. It cant be used as a rewrite tool for people. But the translations are superior.

Astronomers and magicians performed translations in the ancient world. An English Gaelic dictionary was unheard of. Now you can feel like a king thanks to the Internet.