# WordAlchemy: A transformer-based Reverse Dictionary

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.10181 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.10181/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 7 of its 17 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Apr 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Exploring the Limits of Transfer Learning with a Unified Text-to-Text Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10683/) (2019)
- [Unsupervised Cross-lingual Representation Learning at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.02116/) (2019)
- [mT5: A massively multilingual pre-trained text-to-text transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11934/) (2020)
- [Learning to Understand Phrases by Embedding the Dictionary](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.00548/) (2015)
- [Multi-channel Reverse Dictionary Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.08441/) (2019)
- [BERT for Monolingual and Cross-Lingual Reverse Dictionary](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.14790/) (2020)
- [Implementing a Reverse Dictionary, based on word definitions, using a Node-Graph Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.00025/) (2016)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [S~onajaht: Definition Embeddings and Semantic Search for Reverse Dictionary Creation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.19430/) (2024)
- [Towards a Transformer-Based Reverse Dictionary Model for Quality Estimation of Definitions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.02985/) (2023)
- [GEAR: A Simple GENERATE, EMBED, AVERAGE AND RANK Approach for Unsupervised Reverse Dictionary](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06654/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

A reverse dictionary takes a target word's description as input and returns the words that fit the description. Reverse Dictionaries are useful for new language learners, anomia patients, and for solving common tip-of-the-tongue problems (lethologica). Currently, there does not exist any Reverse Dictionary provider with support for any Indian Language. We present a novel open-source cross-lingual reverse dictionary system with support for Indian languages. In this paper, we propose a transformer-based deep learning approach to tackle the limitations faced by the existing systems using the mT5 model. This architecture uses the Translation Language Modeling (TLM) technique, rather than the conventional BERT's Masked Language Modeling (MLM) technique.