Cambridge Dictionary Anki Add-on (English Focus Fork)
A personal fork of Cambridge Dictionary Parser for Anki (add-on #204494925), rebuilt to create clean, minimal English vocabulary cards to fit my need.
What's Different From the Original
The original add-on (#204494925) was designed for English β Russian learners. It:
- Fetches from the English-Russian Cambridge dictionary by default
- Shows the word, pronunciation, and part of speech on the front of the card
- Reveals a Russian translation on the back
- Dumps the full Cambridge HTML block (synonyms, thesaurus, SMART Vocabulary, related words) into the card
This fork changes all of that for English learners who want a clean, distraction-free card.
My Card Format
Front
thrive
Back
/ΞΈraΙͺv/
verb
to grow, develop, or be successful
His business thrived in the years before the war.
She seems to thrive on stress.
π (US pronunciation audio)
Changes Made
cambridge.py
- Removed English-Russian URL entirely β fetches from
dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ only
- Replaced full HTML block scraping with clean plain-text extraction
- Fixed
get_text(separator=" ") so linked words like <a>His</a><a>business</a> render with spaces
- Pulls one definition and one example per sense block, combines all examples into a single field separated by line breaks
- Returns one card per word regardless of how many sense blocks Cambridge has
__init__.py
- Replaced fields: removed
TranscriptionUK/US β single IPA field; removed raw Definitions HTML β separate Definition and Example fields
- New fields:
Word, IPA, AudioUK, AudioUS, PartOfSpeech, Definition, Example
- Front template: word only
- Back template: IPA β type β space β definition β space β examples β space β audio
- CSS: dark background (
#111111), white word text with !important to override Anki defaults, teal IPA, muted italic examples with a left border
config.json
default_language set to english
languages block contains only english
- Deck renamed to
My English Vocabulary
- Note type renamed to
English Vocab Card
Installation
- In Anki, go to Tools β Add-ons β Get Add-ons and paste
#1624807104
- Restart Anki
- If you used the original add-on before, go to Tools β Manage Note Types, delete English Vocab Card, then restart again so the new field structure is created fresh
Usage
Tools β Add from Cambridge β type a word β press OK
The add-on will:
- Fetch the English definition from Cambridge
- Download UK and US pronunciation audio to your media folder
- Create one card in your My English Vocabulary deck
Syncing to Mobile
You cannot add words from mobile (Python add-ons don't run on AnkiDroid or AnkiMobile), but your cards sync fully:
- Add words on desktop as usual
- Click Sync in Anki desktop
- Open AnkiDroid or AnkiMobile β tap Sync
Cards, audio, and styling all transfer correctly.
Requirements
requests
beautifulsoup4
Github repo link
Cambridge Dictionary Anki Add-on (English Focus Fork)
Credits
Based on Cambridge Dictionary Parser for Anki by the original author.