| Urdu Dictionary Board | |
| Native Name: | اردو لغت بورڈ |
| Native Name Lang: | ur |
| Abbreviation: | UDB |
| Type: | Scientific and Literary Institute |
| Purpose: | Editing and publication of the comprehensive Urdu dictionary |
| Headquarters: | Street # 18/A, Block 5 Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan |
| Location Country: |  Pakistan |
| Staff: | 55 |
| Website: | http://www.udb.gov.pk/ |
The Urdu Dictionary Board is an academic and literary institution of Pakistan, administered by National History and Literary Heritage Division of the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. Its objective is to edit and publish a comprehensive dictionary of the Urdu language.
On June 14, 1958, through a resolution of the then Ministry of Education, the Government of Pakistan announced the creation of an institution called "Urdu Development Board" to prepare a comprehensive dictionary of Urdu on the same standards and principles as the Oxford English Dictionary. The Board initially had the following staff members:
On March 27, 1982, the institution's name was changed to "Urdu Dictionary Board".[1]
In 1960, the Board started publishing a quarterly magazine called Urdu Namah under the editorship of Shan-ul-Haq Haqqee. From then on to 1977, a total of 54 issues were released.
In 1977, the Board published the first edition of Urdu Lughat, a 22-volume comprehensive dictionary of the Urdu language.[2] The dictionary had 20,000 pages, including 220,000 words.[3]
In 2009, Pakistani feminist poet Fahmida Riaz was appointed as the Chief Editor of the Board.[4]
In 2010, the Board published one last edition Urdu Lughat.
In 2016, Aqeel Abbas Jafari was appointed as the Chief Editor of the Board.[5]
In 2017, the digital version of Urdu Lughat was released.[6] [7]
Since 2019, the Board was not assigned another Chief Editor, and 37 out of the total 55 staff seats were vacant due to lack of funding.[8]
The dictionary is available on institution's website, but there have been instances where the website has not worked properly, with link remaining down and info on website being old.