Answers.Body: <p>No, you cannot.  </p>
  
  <p>Airplane mode just makes Kindle go to the Wikipedia panel to tell you to turn off airplane mode.  As Nemo XXX says, this happens when the the word is not in the dictionary.  </p>
  
  <p>If a word is not even in the dictionary, Wikipedia is unlikely to have an article on it!  But for now Kindle insists on letting the Wikipedia panel give you this bad news.  Only then will Kindle let you go to translate for the answer you actually wanted.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-12-04T15:36:32.243Z
Answers.Text: @Nemo  The metadata is working since my Kindle very often succeeds at looking up the Chinese words.  There is a problem changing the default dictionary, since my Kindle reports that is already on the Chinese-English dictionary when this happens (or the monolingual Chinese dictionary, sometimes, depending on which I set).  Nonetheless I have tried changing to the other Chinese dictionary which the Kindle duly reports I have done, yet it will not access that dictionary either when on airplane mode.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Colin McLarty
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-12-04T15:39:01.067Z
Answers.Text: @Nemo  Do you use Chinese dictionaries?  Or which ones do you use?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Colin McLarty
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-12-04T15:50:25.807Z
Answers.Text: @NemoXXX  I set the UI language as Chinese once, since some people reported this led to better updating of the Chinese font.  On my Kindle it seems to have made no lasting difference. Can you describe how to access the Metadata editor and what I should look for, or tell me where I can find instructions on line? Can it be done without using special software such as Sigil or Calibre?
Answers.UserDisplayName: Colin McLarty
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-12-04T15:59:02.007Z
Answers.Text: @NemoXXX  To avoid one misunderstanding, yes it only happens to me too when the word is not in the default dictionary.  My question all along has been, can I simply opt out of having it happen?  The answer is, no I cannot.  Accessing dictionaries in airplane mode is an interesting issue but really should be a new question
Answers.UserDisplayName: Colin McLarty
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-12-04T17:11:59.453Z
Answers.Text: @NemoXXX I made this a new question since I think others would benefit too if you post your answer there.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Colin McLarty
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2015-12-03T13:21:46.067Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2015-12-11T22:30:32.033Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2015-12-11T22:30:32.033Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Colin McLarty
Answers.Body: <p>I share your pain and although I don't have a solution (almost in 2020...) I do have a viable explanation why they keep it this way.</p>
  
  <p>Two factors, based on my thinking:
  - They don't want to show an empty card, so they switch to another source when a dictionary definition is not found. (to Wikipedia)
  - They have to pay for translations over a certain quota, so they avoid doing unnecessary queries, and therefore will never show the online translation card first.</p>
  
  <p>In addition, it seems likely that they don't pay for Wikipedia searches and don't care about the unnecessary, pointless, mindless load that they make on Wikipedia servers.</p>
  
  <p>In my opinion they should show the dictionary card first, regardless of whether a definition was found. Show the online translation second, and the Wikipedia one third. (Assuming that they would never pay extra and show the online translation first... which would actually be best for users). So I suggest that they ALWAYS show:</p>
  
  <p>Dictionary-Translation-Wikipedia</p>
  
  <p>Current behavior, as of Dec 2019:
  Regardless of whether the WiFi is turned on, they show:
  - Dictionary-Wikipedia-Translation when the term is found in the dictionary.
  - Wikipedia-Translation-Dictionary when the term is NOT found in the dictionary.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-12-29T14:17:13.963Z
Answers.Text: I long ago  gave up trying to read Chinese on the Kindle.  There are much better ways.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Colin McLarty
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2019-12-29T09:00:05.643Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2019-12-29T09:00:05.643Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Stan
Answers.Body: <p>I just found out the perfect method:</p>
  
  <p>Step 1: Choose your secondary dictionary (for me, it's Oxford Dictionary) in the settings of the device as the main dictionary. </p>
  
  <p>Step 2: When you start a new book, click on a word and choose your favorite (in my case: hungarian) dictionary instead of secondary.</p>
  
  <p>So, kindle will know that if your mother language dictionary can't find a word, it has to switch to the 2nd dictionary instead of Wikipedia.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2017-11-01T08:35:41.760Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2017-11-01T08:35:41.760Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: D Molnar
Body: <p>Reading Chinese on my Paperwhite I need to look up lots of characters.  Often the Kindle offers me the Wikipedia lookup first and I have to swipe over to the translation or dictionary.  Wikipedia is literally never the one I want. Is there a way to stop the Kindle from going to it, or at least stop the Kindle from offering it as the first choice? </p>
  
  <p>People not familiar with Chinese may not see why this is such a problem, so I'll explain.  Many (maybe most) words in modern Chinese are two characters long.  But sentences are written with no breaks between words.  So you often look up two-character combinations -- and you will often pick two characters that some given dictionary does not recognize as one word. In that case Bing translate will almost always get it right for you.  Wikipedia will almost never help at all. Wikipedia is great, but is not designed to help people read novels!</p>
  
  <p>Combined with other infelicities in the way Kindle handles Chinese characters, the frequent pointless detours through Wikipedia waste a lot of time.</p>
  
Tags: <kindle-paperwhite>
Title: Can I suppress Wikipedia lookup on a Kindle Paperwhite?
UserDisplayName: Colin McLarty
ThreadText: # Can I suppress Wikipedia lookup on a Kindle Paperwhite?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2015-12-01)
  
  Reading Chinese on my Paperwhite I need to look up lots of characters. Often the Kindle offers me the Wikipedia lookup first and I have to swipe over to the translation or dictionary. Wikipedia is literally never the one I want. Is there a way to stop the Kindle from going to it, or at least stop the Kindle from offering it as the first choice?
  
  People not familiar with Chinese may not see why this is such a problem, so I'll explain. Many (maybe most) words in modern Chinese are two characters long. But sentences are written with no breaks between words. So you often look up two-character combinations -- and you will often pick two characters that some given dictionary does not recognize as one word. In that case Bing translate will almost always get it right for you. Wikipedia will almost never help at all. Wikipedia is great, but is not designed to help people read novels!
  
  Combined with other infelicities in the way Kindle handles Chinese characters, the frequent pointless detours through Wikipedia waste a lot of time.
  
  **Tags:** kindle-paperwhite
  
  
  ---
  
  ## 3 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_0 on 2015-12-03. Score: 0 | Accepted answer
  
  No, you cannot.
  
  Airplane mode just makes Kindle go to the Wikipedia panel to tell you to turn off airplane mode. As Nemo XXX says, this happens when the the word is not in the dictionary.
  
  If a word is not even in the dictionary, Wikipedia is unlikely to have an article on it! But for now Kindle insists on letting the Wikipedia panel give you this bad news. Only then will Kindle let you go to translate for the answer you actually wanted.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: @Nemo  The metadata is working since my Kindle very often succeeds at looking up the Chinese words.  There is a problem changing the default dictionary, since my Kindle reports that is already on the Chinese-English dictionary when this happens (or the monolingual Chinese dictionary, sometimes, depending on which I set).  Nonetheless I have tried changing to the other Chinese dictionary which the Kindle duly reports I have done, yet it will not access that dictionary either when on airplane mode.  
  > **username_0**: @Nemo  Do you use Chinese dictionaries?  Or which ones do you use?  
  > **username_0**: @NemoXXX  I set the UI language as Chinese once, since some people reported this led to better updating of the Chinese font.  On my Kindle it seems to have made no lasting difference. Can you describe how to access the Metadata editor and what I should look for, or tell me where I can find instructions on line? Can it be done without using special software such as Sigil or Calibre?  
  > **username_0**: @NemoXXX  To avoid one misunderstanding, yes it only happens to me too when the word is not in the default dictionary.  My question all along has been, can I simply opt out of having it happen?  The answer is, no I cannot.  Accessing dictionaries in airplane mode is an interesting issue but really should be a new question  
  > **username_0**: @NemoXXX I made this a new question since I think others would benefit too if you post your answer there.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_1 on 2019-12-29. Score: 6
  
  I share your pain and although I don't have a solution (almost in 2020...) I do have a viable explanation why they keep it this way.
  
  Two factors, based on my thinking:
  - They don't want to show an empty card, so they switch to another source when a dictionary definition is not found. (to Wikipedia)
  - They have to pay for translations over a certain quota, so they avoid doing unnecessary queries, and therefore will never show the online translation card first.
  
  In addition, it seems likely that they don't pay for Wikipedia searches and don't care about the unnecessary, pointless, mindless load that they make on Wikipedia servers.
  
  In my opinion they should show the dictionary card first, regardless of whether a definition was found. Show the online translation second, and the Wikipedia one third. (Assuming that they would never pay extra and show the online translation first... which would actually be best for users). So I suggest that they ALWAYS show:
  
  Dictionary-Translation-Wikipedia
  
  Current behavior, as of Dec 2019:
  Regardless of whether the WiFi is turned on, they show:
  - Dictionary-Wikipedia-Translation when the term is found in the dictionary.
  - Wikipedia-Translation-Dictionary when the term is NOT found in the dictionary.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: I long ago  gave up trying to read Chinese on the Kindle.  There are much better ways.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2017-11-01. Score: 0
  
  I just found out the perfect method:
  
  Step 1: Choose your secondary dictionary (for me, it's Oxford Dictionary) in the settings of the device as the main dictionary.
  
  Step 2: When you start a new book, click on a word and choose your favorite (in my case: hungarian) dictionary instead of secondary.
  
  So, kindle will know that if your mother language dictionary can't find a word, it has to switch to the 2nd dictionary instead of Wikipedia.
  
  
  ---
  
  