Lexicography and Terminology

Lexicography and terminology are a legislative responsibility of Foras na Gaeilge. We have a particular role in respect of comprehensive and modern dictionaries which facilitate and consolidate the use of the language in all areas of contemporary life.

Department of Lexicography

The dictionary projects include:

• New Irish Dictionaries 2022-2027. The Department of Lexicography have started a five-year project which involves publishing two new major dictionaries: a monolingual Irish dictionary and a new Irish-English Dictionary.
• The New English-Irish Dictionary. Available at focloir.ie/en, the dictionary first went online in 2013. The dictionary app is available on Android and Apple since 2015.
• Concise English-Irish Dictionary. The print edition of the New English-Irish Dictionary was published in 2020. More information about the book may be found at focloir.ie/en/page/book.html
• Dictionary and Language Library. Available at teanglann.ie/en, this site contains digital versions of the following dictionaries: de Bhaldraithe’s English-Irish Dictionary (1959), Ó Dónaill’s Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla (1977) and An Foclóir Beag (1991), as well as a pronunciation database, a grammar database, a spelling game and the Grammar Wizard.
• Corpus of Irish for Lexicography. Available at corpas.focloir.ie, this corpus contains up to 100 million words and Foras na Gaeilge intend to increase the size of the corpus in the coming years.

The dictionary staff can be contacted directly by sending an email to aiseolas@focloir.ie.

The Terminology Committee

The Terminology Committee aims to develop, approve and provide authoritative standard Irish terminology to support the Irish language as a means of communication in a modern society.

Monthly meetings are held in Foras na Gaeilge offices of the Terminology Committee, a voluntary committee of 20 members appointed for a three year period. The Terminology Committee sets terminology principals, they plan and supervise the work, they create terms, they deal with various queries from the public and with translation questions from the Irish offices of the EU, and they establish subcommittees of experts as required.

The National Terminology Database for Irish can be found here.

The Terminology Committee staff can be contacted by emailing tearmai@forasnagaeilge.ie or by calling 01-6398418.