Building a Dictionary App with Next.js 13, Tailwind CSS, Tailblocks, and API Ninjas – Part 1

Are you ready to build a powerful dictionary app using cutting-edge web development tools? In this series, we will walk through the process of creating a dictionary app with Next.js 13, Tailwind CSS, Tailblocks, and API Ninjas. By the end of this series, you will have a fully functional and sleek-looking dictionary app that you can customize to your heart’s content. Let’s get started!

What you will need

Before we dig into the code, make sure you have the following tools installed on your computer:

• Node.js
• npm
• Next.js 13
• Tailwind CSS
• Tailblocks
• API Ninjas API key

Setting up the project

Once you have all the tools installed, you can start by setting up the project. Open a terminal and navigate to the directory where you want to create your dictionary app. Run the following commands to create a new Next.js project:


npx create-next-app@13 my-dictionary-app
cd my-dictionary-app


Next, install Tailwind CSS and Tailblocks. Run the following commands in the terminal:


npm install tailwindcss
npx tailwindcss init -p
npm install tailblocks


Finally, sign up for an API Ninjas API key to access the dictionary API. You can do this by visiting the API Ninjas website and following the instructions to create an account and get your API key.

In Conclusion

In this article, we’ve laid the groundwork for building a dictionary app with Next.js 13, Tailwind CSS, Tailblocks, and API Ninjas. In the next part of this series, we will start writing the code to fetch and display dictionary definitions using the API. Stay tuned for more!