dictionaries under linux

[Thomas Blasejewicz]

Good morning
I am aware, that the following is a question / statement NOT to be
mentioned in this community,
but I take the risk.

I am working as a translator using English, German and Japanese.
Most work is related to technical materials.
That requires, that I have a lot of dictionaries available.
In the good old days I made it a hobby to "collect" (printed)
dictionaries, but today most of those are in the computer.
I am using the OS that must not be named (like the bad wizard in Harry
Potter).
A whole series of commercial dictionaries and a lot of free dictionaries
give me a small library on my HDD.
OFTEN the credibility of those dictionaries is a lot higher than the
stuff the internet gives you.

By now I am TRYING really hard to get friendly with Linux and am more or
less desperatey trying to switch to Linux as the OS for my work environment.
HOWEVER .. while I am after years of unbelievable trouble and spent
time/effort I have succeeded installing the OS and there is/are
wordprocessor(s),
what I lack are those dictionaries!

I tried to find dictionaries as such, dictionary readers, glossaries
etc. and am under the impression I tried just about ALL there are.
BUT .. either I could not make those things work at all, or I get a
performance (search results) that are at best
a poor excuse for a dictionary.
Like (don't remember the exact software): I look up the French "maison"
and get ONE WORD = house.
The rest of the screen is a vast, white desert.
Try to look up some common word like maison in ANY printed dictionary
(no chance for Windows being at fault here):
you get at least 2-2 pages of related results. And THAT is precisely
what I need.

Or proprietary software like Britannica, Brockhaus etc.
I googled myself silly to find out, whether there are native Linux
versions (either free or commercial), for ANY brand of Linux,
but came up practically nothing.

If there ARE no usuable dictionaries for Linux, the only solution I can
see, is install Windows via something like Virtualbox etc.,
install all those very good dictionaries I have under that "virtual
Windows" and manage somehow.
(provided that works)

That does not seem to be an elegant solution, and I expect the "work
load" of translation to increase due to constant switching.

So .. if there ARE good dictionary readers etc. out there -> I would
like to know where I am supposed to look.
(the "repositories" do not offer anything that I do not know already)

Sorry for the commotion and thank you in advance.
Thomas