Best French dictionaries for intermediate learners

Looking for French dictionaries aimed squarely at intermediate learners? These 4 picks, 3 of them free, are the ones worth your time — starting with Dico en ligne Le Robert, Larousse Dictionnaire de français and Wiktionary. Everything here is ordered free-first and hand-vetted for quality.

4 resources · 3 free

Le Robert's free monolingual dictionary with usage examples, etymology and conjugation.

DictionariesWebsitesTools Free IntermediateAdvanced B1–C2
vocabularywritingreading
Details

The main rival to Larousse and arguably better on nuance and register labels, with clear examples of how a word is actually used. It bundles a conjugator, a synonym dictionary and a spell-checker on the same site. Free; a paid Le Robert Correcteur exists but nothing essential sits behind it.

The classic monolingual French dictionary: 135,000 definitions, free online.

DictionariesWebsites Free IntermediateAdvanced B1–C2
vocabularyreadingwriting
Details

A proper French-to-French dictionary with 90,000 articles, plus synonym/antonym lists and a conjugator for 9,600+ verbs — the point at which you stop translating and start defining words in French. Free and no account needed. Not a beginner tool: definitions assume you already read French comfortably.

Wiktionary

Multi-language

Free multilingual dictionary with etymologies, IPA and full conjugation tables.

DictionariesWebsites Free BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced
vocabularygrammarpronunciation
Details

Over 100 language editions; the English edition alone has millions of entries covering hundreds of languages, with IPA, declension and conjugation tables, etymologies and usage notes that commercial apps usually paywall. The etymology sections are quietly one of the best vocabulary-retention tools available. Being crowd-sourced, coverage is uneven and rare entries can be wrong — cross-check anything unusual against a native-language dictionary.

Forvo

Multi-language

Crowd-sourced pronunciations of nearly any word by native speakers.

DictionariesTools Freemium BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced
pronunciationlistening
Details

Around 6 million words recorded by native speakers across 400+ languages, usually with several accents per word so you can hear regional variation. Free to search on the site; the paid tiers are aimed at API users and bulk audio downloads. Indispensable for names, place names and anything a TTS voice would mangle — many learners wire it directly into Anki for card audio.