Speech Synthesizer
The Speech Synthesizer is a built-in text-to-speech engine that converts text into spoken words. It uses your browser's native text-to-speech capabilities, allowing you to hear the pronunciation of words and phrases in various languages.
This feature is particularly valuable for language learners, helping you improve both pronunciation and listening comprehension. Unlike many dictionary audio features that only offer pre-recorded single words, the Speech Synthesizer can vocalize entire sentences or paragraphs on demand.
Usage
- Select or type a word/phrase to search with Definer
- Click on the audio button (speaker icon) that appears above your results
This source works immediately after installation and requires no additional setup.
Example of using Speech Synthesizer in Definer
Configuration
To customize your Speech Synthesizer settings, go to:
Options → Sources → Speech Synthesizer → Settings.
Voices
The Speech Synthesizer works with the voices already installed on your computer. You can assign these voices to specific languages, which tells the system which voice to use when reading text in each language.
You can add as many voices as you want and even assign multiple voices to the same language. This flexibility is particularly useful when you use Definer across different computers. Since each computer might have different voices installed, Definer will automatically select the first available voice from your list for each language.
If Definer can't find a voice you've assigned, it will try the next voice you've assigned to that language. When all your assigned voices are unavailable, the system will fall back to the default voice for that language.
The order of voices matters - Definer checks from top to bottom, trying to use the highest voice in your list that's both in your target language and available on your computer.
Autoplay
When enabled, the Speech Synthesizer will automatically begin playing audio as soon as your search results appear, removing the need to click the play button manually.
This option is disabled by default to prevent unexpected audio in quiet environments.