How can I retrieve Wiktionary word content?

Question

How may Wiktionary's API be used to determine whether or not a word exists?

Answer 1

The Wiktionary API can be used to query whether or not a word exists.

Examples for existing and non-existing pages:

http://en.wiktionary.org/w/api.php?action=query&titles=test http://en.wiktionary.org/w/api.php?action=query&titles=testx

The first link provides examples on other types of formats that might be easier to parse.

To retrieve the word's data in a small XHTML format (should more than existence be required), request the printable version of the page:

http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=test&printable=yes http://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=testx&printable=yes

These can then be parsed with any standard XML parser.