LAD

Default Search

  • Enter
    Opens the highlighted autocomplete suggestion (the first one unless you move the highlight with the arrow keys).
  • Ctrl + Enter
    Runs a full search across the whole database — lemmas, definitions, quotes, translations, notes, and AHw/CAD raw content (⌘ + Enter on a Mac; Ctrl + click on the Search button does the same, a plain click acts as Enter).
  • Akkadian:
    Lemmas and variants
  • English:
    Definitions and derived senses

Search Modes

  • saru
    Flexible: finds šarru, saru, šāru (ignores diacritics and gemination)
  • sarru
    Semi-flexible: finds šarru, ṣarru (respects gemination, ignores diacritics)
  • šarru
    Exact: finds only šarru (respects all diacritics)

Wildcards

  • paru
    Matches "paru" or words starting with "paru"
  • paru*
    Starts with: words starting with "paru"
  • *paru
    Ends with: words ending with "paru"
  • *paru*
    Contains: words containing "paru" anywhere
  • par?
    Single character: "par" + any one character
  • par@
    Consonant: "par" + any single consonant
  • par#
    Vowel: "par" + any single vowel

Field-specific Search

  • en:mule
    English definitions only
  • de:Maultier
    German definitions only
  • fr:mule
    French definitions only
  • ar:بغل
    Arabic definitions only
  • root:PRʾ
    Root search (supports wildcards)
  • pos:verb
    Part of speech
  • lemma:parû
    Lemma only (no variants)
  • variant:alamattu
    Variants only
  • log:ANŠE
    Logogram search
  • domain:
    Semantic domain — type the colon to list values
  • topic:
    Attestation topic — type the colon to list values
  • ANŠE.KUR.RA
    ALL CAPS triggers logogram search

Attestations search

  • att:bib:KAR 158
    Attestations that cite a text. Type att: and a reference: the list shows the attestations in the order of the text — the reference (for a field search, the matched words), the entry and its meaning. Enter opens the highlighted entry at that attestation; Ctrl+Enter lists them all and searches CAD and AHw for the plain reference.
  • att:akk:šarrum
    The Akkadian text of the attestation. Diacritics are ignored, so sarrum finds šarrum and ba-la-tu finds ba-la-ṭu.
  • att:tr:king
    The translation of the attestation.
  • att:mus:BM 34160
    Museum number. Spaces, dots and hyphens are ignored, so BM 34160, BM.34160 and BM34160 all match.
  • att:src:ebl
    The project a passage is linked to: ebl, seal, archibab, cal.
  • att:period:ob
    Attestations of a period, by the id of the period list: oakk, ob, mb, sb, nb, lb, oa, ma, na … A short id also takes its sub-periods (ob → ob_onwards, oblit, oblex).
  • att:lemma:šarrum
    Attestations belonging to one entry, by its lemma or its entry id.
  • att:bib:ARM period:ob
    Fields combine, each one narrowing the search further. This gives the Old Babylonian attestations from ARM; att:akk:šarrum period:nb the Neo-Babylonian ones containing šarrum.
  • att:KAR 158
    Without a field, every attestation field is searched at once.

Download LAD

1. The whole dictionary is available as one ZIP archive of TEI XML files, rebuilt on weekday nights. The newest build is always

api/v1/dump/lad-latest.zip

and the last five builds are kept under their date and listed in

api/v1/dump/manifest.json

so a citation can name a frozen one, for example

api/v1/dump/lad-2026-09-24.zip

A build is about 30 MB.

Contents

2. Inside the archive:

entries/LAD013308.xml
one file per entry, named by its persistent number
concordance.tsv
the LAD numbers with the corresponding entries of the AHw, the CAD and the eBL dictionary
README.txt
the contents and how to cite
LICENCE.txt
the licence
manifest.json
the build date, the entry count, the counts per editorial status and the filters applied

Each entry file is a TEI document (Lex-0 flavour) with its header: the number, the licence, the editorial status and the revision history.

Scope

3. Every LAD entry is included, whatever its editorial status, as it stands on the night of the build: the dictionary is work in progress, and an entry marked draft or review is unfinished. Every file says which status it has. Internal working notes and import warnings are removed from every file. The Akkadisches Handwörterbuch and the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary are not included: LAD displays them on the website with permission but does not redistribute them; the concordance gives the correspondences to their entries.

Licence

4. The archive is published under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0: you may copy and redistribute it, in whole or in part, for non-commercial purposes, with attribution, and you may not distribute a modified version of it. Reformatting for another medium is not a modification. To cite a build, give the date in its file name, for example: Leipzig Akkadian Dictionary, Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, dump of 2026-09-24,

https://lad.saw-leipzig.de/api/v1/dump/lad-2026-09-24.zip

Only the last five builds stay on the server: an older one is removed when a new one is made. Keep your own copy of the build you cite. To cite an entry, use its number:

https://lad.saw-leipzig.de/entry/LAD013308