There are more than five crore Indians who speak Urdu, as per the last census, but this poetic language, which is one of the country’s official languages, experienced a 1.5 per cent drop since 2001. Among the groups that are working to reverse this trend is the Noida-based not-for-profit Rekhta Foundation, which hosts ‘Jashn-E-Rekhta’, an annual Urdu festival. Most recently, it launched a trilingual online dictionary for lovers of the language. 

The new Urdu-Hindi-English dictionary wants to be more than just a resource that helps with meanings and pronunciations. It goes beyond the common Urdu words we hear by having a word of the day, a proverb of the day, top searched, trending words, and quote of the day. Users can also explore the plural forms, homonyms and allusions. The repository further features Urdu words that publications have used in the recent past, all in an attempt to make people aware of the language and how it is used.