Jamshedpur, April 20: If you want to see the meaning of a word in one language, pick up any dictionary. But, if you want to see the meaning in seven languages, wait for the Rainbow Dictionary to hit the shelves.

More than 12 professors have put their heads together for two months to formulate this unique dictionary, which would give the meanings and pronunciation of a word in Santhali, Bengali, Oriya, Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit. The book, which uses English as the base and is scheduled for release in June, is the outcome of an initiative by Jamshedpur Women?s College (JWC).

Explaining the concept behind such a dictionary, JWC principal Shukla Mahanty said: ?It is often a problem for students to the comprehend the meaning of a word in different languages. Therefore such a dictionary would surely be of help to students and the general public.?

The reference book would have a compilation of 150 words in three volumes. ?It would have been very cumbersome if the entire dictionary comes out at one go, so we decided to do it in volumes,? explained Chandra.

JWC has appointed two teachers from its language departments concerned to formulate the guidebook. The professors working on it have chosen 25 to 30 words under each English letter and have compiled their respective meanings and pronunciation in the seven languages till F.

The faculties working on the project have taken the utmost care to choose words that could be used in the seven-language book.

?Our aim was to help students. Therefore, instead of going in for difficult words, we chose words that are commonly used in literature and in daily life,? said Mudita Chandra, a senior Hindi faculty at JWC and a member of the project.

And if you thought that was impressive dig this; the initial plan was to include Nagpuri too. But the plan had to be shelved because of a lack of adequate translators and teachers.