Usherbrooke APIusito.usherbrooke.ca ↗
Access the USITO Québec French dictionary via API. Retrieve word definitions, phonetics, grammatical classes, and full verb conjugation tables across 6 endpoints.
What is the Usherbrooke API?
The USITO API exposes 6 endpoints covering the full USITO Québec French dictionary published by Université de Sherbrooke, including word definitions, phonetic transcriptions, grammatical classifications, and complete verb conjugation tables. The get_word_entry endpoint returns a structured object with phonetic, definition, and grammatical_class fields for any word slug, while get_verb_conjugation delivers a full HTML conjugation table for any verb.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/139b98c8-2ae5-4209-8cc5-3f398e60385e/get_word_index_by_letter?letter=a' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Typed, relational, agent-ready
A generated client with real types, enums, and the links between objects — the structure a flat JSON response can't carry. Autocompletes in your editor and reads cleanly to coding agents.
- Fully typed · autocompletes
- Objects link to objects
- Typed errors & pagination
Typed Python client. Set up the SDK in your uv project, then pull this API’s typed client:
uv add parse-sdk uv run parse init uv run parse add --marketplace usito-usherbrooke-ca-api
uv run parse add --marketplace pulls a pinned snapshot of this canonical API — it won’t change underneath you. To customize it, subscribe and swap to your own copy.
from parse_apis.usito_dictionary_api import Usito, SearchResult, Word, ConjugationModel, Conjugation, WordIndex, Section, Letter
usito = Usito()
# Search for a word and get its full definition
for result in usito.words.search(query="chat"):
print(result.word, result.slug, result.grammatical_class)
entry = result.details()
print(entry.word, entry.phonetic, entry.definition)
# Browse the dictionary by letter using the Letter enum
section_z = usito.section(letter=Letter.Z)
for word_idx in section_z.words():
print(word_idx.word, word_idx.slug, word_idx.grammatical_class, word_idx.gender)
# Get full definitions for words starting with a letter
for word in section_z.words_with_definitions():
print(word.word, word.phonetic, word.definition)
# List all conjugation models and get a conjugation table
for model in usito.conjugationmodels.list():
print(model.name, model.slug, model.verb_count)
conj = model.conjugation()
print(conj.slug, conj.html_table)
# Get a conjugation directly by slug
aimer_conj = usito.conjugations.get(slug="aimer")
print(aimer_conj.slug, aimer_conj.html_table)
Fetches all words/expressions starting with a given letter from the USITO dictionary index. Returns word entries with their slug, grammatical class, and gender. Pagination is handled internally — the full list for the letter is returned in one call.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| letterrequired | string | Single lowercase letter (a-z) to browse the dictionary index. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"items": "array of word index entries with id, slug, word, gender, lexie_id, grammatical_class"
},
"sample": {
"data": {
"items": [
{
"id": "d06c3Bd8d51111e1-DD8CaDBE53d2e136-f5fb09760Fd2e133-z",
"slug": "z_1",
"word": "z",
"gender": "m",
"lexie_id": "",
"grammatical_class": "nom"
}
]
},
"status": "success"
}
}About the Usherbrooke API
Word Lookup and Search
The search_words endpoint accepts a query string and returns an array of matching entries, each with a slug, type, word, and grammatical_class. Those slugs feed directly into get_word_entry, which returns the full dictionary article for a single word: id, url, word, phonetic (IPA transcription), definition, and grammatical_class. Slugs follow USITO conventions — disambiguated entries use suffixes like chat_1 or être_1 when multiple lexical entries share the same spelling.
Browsing by Letter
get_word_index_by_letter accepts a single lowercase letter parameter and returns every indexed word starting with that letter, with each entry carrying id, slug, word, gender, lexie_id, and grammatical_class. For bulk workflows, get_all_words_for_letter combines the index lookup with definition retrieval in one call and accepts an optional limit integer to cap how many full entries are fetched — useful when you only need the first N words of a given letter rather than the entire set.
Verb Conjugation
get_conjugation_models returns the full list of conjugation model names, slugs, and verb_count figures used by USITO. Each model slug can be passed to get_verb_conjugation, which returns an object containing slug and html_table — the complete conjugation table for that verb. The endpoint automatically retries with a _1 suffix when the base slug does not resolve to a conjugation table, handling USITO's disambiguation pattern transparently.
Coverage Scope
All six endpoints draw from the USITO dictionary, which specifically documents Québec French vocabulary and usage. The dictionary includes words with gender annotations, multiple grammatical classes, and a conjugation model system tied to standard French verb paradigms. Index entries expose lexie_id fields that map to individual lexical senses within a headword.
The Usherbrooke API is a managed, monitored endpoint for usito.usherbrooke.ca — not a raw scraper you maintain. Every endpoint is automatically health-checked on a schedule, and when usito.usherbrooke.ca changes and a check fails, the API is automatically queued for repair and re-verified. It is built to keep working as the site underneath it changes.
This isn't an official usito.usherbrooke.ca API — it's an independent, maintained REST wrapper over public data. Where the source has no official API (or only a limited one), Parse gives you a stable contract over a source that never promised one, and keeps it current. Need a new endpoint or field? You can revise it yourself in plain English and the agent rebuilds it against the live site in minutes — contributing the change back to the shared API is free.
Will this API break when the source site changes?+
Is this an official API from the source site?+
Can I fix or extend this API myself if I need a new endpoint or field?+
What happens if I call an endpoint that has an issue?+
- Build a Québec French vocabulary app that displays IPA phonetics and definitions from
get_word_entry - Generate a full offline word list by iterating
get_word_index_by_letteracross a–z - Render verb conjugation tables in a language-learning tool using
get_verb_conjugationHTML output - Implement an autocomplete feature backed by
search_wordsreturning slugs and grammatical classes - Audit vocabulary coverage by pulling
verb_countper model fromget_conjugation_models - Build a grammar reference tool that filters words by
grammatical_classacross a given letter's index - Populate a French-Canadian dictionary dataset with phonetic and definition fields via
get_all_words_for_letter
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 100 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does USITO (usherbrooke.ca) offer an official developer API?+
What does `get_word_entry` return, and how do I get the right slug?+
get_word_entry returns an object with id, url, word, phonetic (IPA), definition, and grammatical_class for the requested slug. Slugs follow USITO naming: plain form for unambiguous words (e.g. abaca) and a _1, _2 suffix pattern for disambiguated headwords (e.g. chat_1). Use search_words or get_word_index_by_letter first to obtain the correct slug before calling get_word_entry.Does the API expose example sentences or usage notes from dictionary articles?+
get_word_entry response covers definition, phonetic, and grammatical_class but does not separately surface example sentences or usage labels that may appear in the full article. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to extract those additional fields from the article data.Is the conjugation table returned as structured data or raw HTML?+
get_verb_conjugation returns the conjugation table as html_table — a raw HTML string — rather than a parsed tense-by-tense data structure. The slug field in the response confirms which verb was resolved. If your application needs tense and person as discrete fields, you can fork this API on Parse and revise it to parse the HTML table into structured rows.Does `get_word_index_by_letter` cover all letters in the French alphabet, including accented letters?+
letter parameter accepts a single lowercase Latin letter in the range a–z. Accented headwords (é, è, ê, etc.) are indexed under their base letter — so words beginning with é appear under e. There is no separate parameter for accented variants. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add accent-specific filtering if needed.