To read a blended book on CrossPoint, copy the book's .epub and its dictionary onto the SD card by USB, select that dictionary once under Settings → Reader → Dictionary, then open the book and look up any underlined word the way your firmware does it. The whole thing takes about five minutes, works on any CrossPoint reader from firmware 1.6.0 onward, and needs neither a plugin nor a LingoBlend account.
What you're downloading#
Every book in LingoBlend's e-reader library comes in three editions, but only one needs a dictionary: the underlined edition, where blended words sit underlined and silent until you look them up. The download button on the e-reader page gives you this edition by default. If you'd rather have the original word printed above each blend instead of looking anything up, the glosses above edition needs no dictionary at all — see which blended edition to read for the trade-offs.
Next to the book's download button is a second file: the dictionary, a small zip. You need both. The book is an ordinary EPUB 3 file — it would open on any e-reader — but the dictionary is what turns a plain word lookup into a gloss built from the book's own translation, not a dictionary's most common sense for that word. The companion dictionary post covers what it actually shows and why that matters; this post is just the setup.
Step 1: Copy both files to the card over USB#
Connect the reader to your computer, then on the reader choose Home → File Transfer → USB Drive. The SD card shows up as a normal drive — no card reader needed.
| Where it goes | What to put there |
|---|---|
Books | the .epub file, exactly as downloaded |
dictionaries | the dictionary zip, unzipped, so you end up with one folder like dictionaries/lingoblend-…/ holding three files |
The folder name matters less than the fact that all three files from the zip land inside one folder, directly under dictionaries. Before you eject the card, check that the zip was fully extracted there rather than left zipped, and that none of the three files ended up nested in a subfolder of its own.
Once both are in place, eject the card and back out of File Transfer mode on the reader.
Step 2: Tell CrossPoint which dictionary to use#
Go to Settings → Reader → Dictionary and pick the lingoblend-… entry from the list. This is a one-time step per book — CrossPoint remembers which dictionary is active until you change it again.
If the entry isn't in the list, it's because the three files from the zip aren't sitting together in one folder under dictionaries. Reopen File Transfer and check the folder before you try re-downloading anything.
Step 3: Read, and look up a word#
Open the book from your library. Blended words are underlined; everything else reads normally. How you look one up depends on your firmware version.
| Firmware | Gesture |
|---|---|
| 1.6.x (current stable) | Reader Menu → Look Up, then tap the word |
| 1.7 and newer (Nightly) | Press and hold the word, dragging the handles across more words if needed, then choose Look Up |
| Button-controlled readers (X3, X4, X4 Classic) | Same actions, reached from the Reader Menu and confirmed with a button press |
A lookup shows the word it replaced and its base form together — tapping mantuvo shows "held · mantener", and tapping Despiértame shows "Wake me · despertar". That's the meaning the sentence actually used, not a dictionary's default sense for the word, because the dictionary was built from this exact blend. If a phrase or idiom was blended as a unit, looking it up shows the unit's meaning, not a word-by-word gloss.
On 1.6.x, lookups are one word at a time, so you can't select a whole phrase directly — but tapping any one word of a blended phrase usually still surfaces the phrase's meaning, and otherwise you see that single word's own meaning instead. 1.7 and newer removes this limit: drag across the whole phrase before choosing Look Up.
When "not found" is normal, not a bug#
CrossPoint uses one dictionary at a time, and while a LingoBlend dictionary is selected, it only knows the words that specific book blended — nothing else. So looking up an ordinary word you already know in the book's own language will say "not found." That's expected, not broken. When you finish the book, switch back to your usual dictionary in Settings → Reader → Dictionary before you start reading something else.
This is the one real constraint worth knowing going in: the setup is per book, not a standing feature that works everywhere once turned on. It's five minutes well spent, but it is a step, and it's a step you repeat for each new title.
Troubleshooting#
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Dictionary doesn't appear in Settings → Reader → Dictionary | The three files from the zip aren't together in one folder directly under dictionaries | Reopen USB Drive mode and check the folder holds all three files, nothing nested further or missing |
| "Not found" on a word you know | A LingoBlend dictionary only contains the words that book blended | Expected — look up blended (underlined) words only; switch dictionaries when you finish the book |
| Can't select a whole phrase to look up | Firmware 1.6.x selects one word at a time | Tap one word of the phrase (usually still works) or move to 1.7 / a Nightly build for multi-word selection |
| Look Up option isn't where you expect | 1.6.x and 1.7+ use different gestures | If it's not where the table says, you're on the other firmware branch — 1.6.x puts it in the Reader Menu, 1.7 and newer behind press-and-hold |
Two shortcuts, if USB isn't convenient#
Two things skip part of this walkthrough. The OPDS catalog lets you download a book straight onto the reader over WiFi with no computer at all, though the dictionary still needs to come over USB or through a plugin, since OPDS carries books only. On CrossPoint 1.7 or a Nightly build, you can also add our catalog URL https://www.lingoblend.app/crosspoint/catalog.json in the reader's File Transfer web UI under Plugin Store, then install LingoBlend Dictionaries — no account needed, it just fetches dictionaries — or LingoBlend, the account side: your own Pro-blended books to download, plus Sync clippings for words you clip back into spaced-repetition practice in the app. Blended books on your e-reader walks through all three paths side by side; pairing an e-reader with your account covers what the plugin can and can't touch.
Honestly, where this stops#
This whole loop — download, copy, select, look up — has been verified end to end on an X4 Pro. On the button-controlled models, the same functions exist through the Reader Menu, but we're describing them rather than claiming we've put them through the same testing. And firmware matters more than it should feel like it does: 1.6.0 is the floor — that's the release where dictionary lookup shipped, so on anything older the companion dictionary has nothing to plug into. If you're not sure which firmware you're running, crosspointreader.com has current flash tools if you want to update.
If you'd rather read the same book without a dictionary at all — on CrossPoint, or on a Kobo, phone app, or Kindle — the glosses-above edition prints the original word right above each blend, with no dictionary to install. Ruby rendering varies by reader, app and firmware version, so open the file and look: if the small labels aren't there, the linked edition works almost anywhere instead. It's a fair trade: less to configure, less practice at recalling the word on your own. How to read Kindle books in a foreign language covers the same question for the device you already have.
The takeaway#
The setup is short and repeats per book: two downloads, one USB copy, one menu selection. After that, every underlined word in that book is one lookup away from the word it replaced. If five minutes of file-copying isn't how you want to spend your time, the OPDS catalog and the LingoBlend plugins skip most of it — covered in full in blended books on your e-reader.