Reading and Writing MiscellanyWriter's References

Online References, Part 1: Dictionaries

There are a lot of online reference resources out there. In this short series, I'm going to highlight just some of them. Here are the primary types I'll take a look at:

  1. Dictionaries (this post)
  2. Thesauri
  3. Quotations
  4. Style & Grammar
  5. Word of the Day
  6. Fun With Words

The American Heritage Dictionary
Online but also available as an iOS or Android app.

Cambridge Dictionaries
Cambridge University Press publishes a range of dictionaries for learners of English all around the world.

Dictionary.com
The world's largest free online dictionary with definitions, spell check, word origins, example sentences, pronunciations, and a Word of the Day service.

Google
Type "define < your word goes here>" in any Google search box and Google will bring up the definition as the first search result.

Merriam-Webster.com
For more than 150 years, Merriam-Webster has been America's leading and most-trusted provider of language information. (Note from Scott: Or so says their About page)

OneLook.com
Pulls in definitions from multiple sources.

UrbanDictionary.com
Slang definitions. I guess some people out there actually use these words in sentences.

Wordnik.com
Beautifully done definition pages. Where my Word of the Day posts originate.

YourDictionary.com
It's YOUR dictionary, not mine.


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