We may see a sizable sound-like free off/online dictionary in a couple years, if everyone helps.

26 - Why don't we have a sound-like dictionary (PSE)

We have been trying to read English words and we have difficulties reading them correctly. Because, we can't read them as they spell. For examples: to, too, and two all read the same; head and heat read different; you and eucalypt; evict and yvonne; and so on.

When we hear a word we don't know. How do we look it up in a dictionary? Suppose that word sounds like "โร เด โอ้". We can turn to pages with words starting with "R O D A/E/..." and soon enough we will find "redeo". Now suppose that word sounds like "ออ ดิ โอ". Where do we start? Pages with words starting with "O"? We may be looking for along time. Even when see 'audio' if we don't know how to read that 'au' as 'ออ' we will go pass it. How do we look up a dictionary for words we hear but not see?

All printed dictionaries arrange words by alphabet. So words with the letter 'A' come before words with the letter 'B' and so on. Some digital media dictionaries can read the words out loud, so we can hear how they read. But there is no dictionary that we can find a word by the sound of the word. That is we can't say 'พี' and the dictionary reponds with "pea = ถั่ว; pee = urine/ฉี่;...". Would we love to have a dictionary like that. A dictionary that arrange by 'sounds of words'.

[I have thought of collecting words by sound of Thai alphabet. By asking for contribution from English teachers who know how to say in Thai what English words read. So, can you help? Whatever and whenever you can. We like to have 'sound-like' in Thai, word in English, a little picture with caption to help us understand what the word means. Anything else?

We may see a sizable sound-like free off/online dictionary in a couple years, if everyone helps. ;-) ]

[Similarly, for most of us who want to know "what this plant is", we go look in botanic, plant name, plant- with-picture books and online databases. What do we find? Plants in alphabet/name order.
What we want is to be able to say: tell me what is this plant, it has dark green, serated 10 cm long leaves, tiny white flowers in bunches, small yellow egglike sweet fruits in bunches, white main trunk and branches, 6-7 m tall, ... and the look-like plant dictionary come back with a list of pictures with names and description. Again, this may be possible as a project on websites like GotoKnow ;-) ]