Global Belonging CollaborativeObservatory
The Belonging Observatory.
Belonging is a human need everywhere, but every language and culture holds it differently. Spin the globe and hover over a country to read how belonging is defined in the dictionaries of the languages spoken there.
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Definitions of belonging.
Each definition comes from a published dictionary of a language spoken in that country. Where a place holds many languages, or more than one people calls it home, their entries sit side by side. New definitions are added as the Observatory grows.
How these definitions were gathered
The definitions in the Observatory were researched and populated by Claude Opus 5.5, an AI model made by Anthropic. Claude was asked to find, for each country, how belonging is defined in standard, authoritative dictionaries of the languages people there speak, giving priority to the dictionaries regarded as the main reference works for each language.
Many places hold many languages, and some places are home to more than one people. Where that is so, the entries sit side by side, and their order carries no ranking. The Observatory maps language communities. It takes no position on borders or sovereignty.
Each entry names its dictionary and links to the page consulted. Where a dictionary defines a word in its own language, the English wording is Claude’s translation and is marked as one, with the original alongside it. Where a dictionary gives its own English gloss, that gloss is quoted directly. In some cases, the only dictionaries available online were compiled more than a century ago, some during colonial rule, and their dates are shown so readers can judge them. Many languages live mainly in speech rather than in dictionaries. For Indigenous languages, the Observatory draws only on dictionaries made with their communities, such as Te Aka Māori Dictionary and Pukui and Elbert’s Hawaiian Dictionary, and other entries will be added only with community guidance.
Languages marked in progress are ones we have not yet been able to verify. We warmly welcome corrections and contributions from speakers and scholars of every language.
Help us map belonging.
The Observatory is built with researchers and communities around the world. If you can share how belonging is understood in your language or culture, we would love to include it.