Dictionaries and Thesauri
General Use Dictionaries
Specialized Dictionaries
Alternative Dictionaries
Thesauri
Other Reference Sources
General Use Dictionaries
| Onelook Dictionaries | Searches 261 different dictionaries on the Internet (more than 1.5 million words) |
| Dictionary.com | Searches a variety of dictionaries on the Internet including The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language and Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary. |
| American Heritage Dictionary, Fourth Edition | The American Heritage Dictionary, 4th Edition, On-line. |
| Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus | A dictionary of between 50 and 60 thousand words with a tightly integrated thesaurus |
| The DICT Development Group | Search several freely available dictionary databases, with over 300,000 total headwords |
| The Dictionary of American Regional English | Seeks to document the varieties of English that are not found everywhere in the United States--those words, pronunciations, and phrases that vary from one region to another |
| Lexical FreeNet | An interesting way to find connections between words |
| Merriam-Webster OnLine | Merriam-Webster's World Wide Web Dictionary. The standard dictionary. |
| ARTFL Project: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 Edition | Simple Headword Search Script: 109,562 entries |
| WordNet | English nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are organized into synonym sets, each representing one underlying lexical concept. Different relations link the synonym sets. |
Specialized Dictionaries
| Dictionary of Cell Biology | Contains the text of the Second edition of the Dictionary of Cell Biology, published in April 1995, together with enhancements, hypertext links and new entries which are destined for the third edition. |
| Online Medical and Science Dictionaries | This site provides useful links to medical, science and life science dictionaries. |
| Computing Dictionary | A searchable dictionary of acronyms, jargon, programming languages, tools, architecture, operating systems, networking, theory, conventions, standards, mathematics, telecommunications, electronics, institutions, companies, projects, products, history, in fact anything to do with computing. |
| Acronym and abbreviation list | This is the webbed list of acronyms and abbreviations in the Network Acronym and Abbreviation Server at bureau.ucc.ie |
| Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Table of Contents | The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a dynamic encyclopedia published by the Center for the Study of Language and Information (John Perry, Director) at Stanford University. An excellent resource! |
| The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy | A good bare-bones searchable database of philosophies and philosophical terms. |
| The Forest of Rhetoric: silva rhetoricae | A guide to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric. More than just a glossary or a list of figures of speech, this site is being carefully cross-referenced and edited to show relationships and groupings of terms within and across the various levels of the rhetorical curriculum. |
Alternative Dictionaries
| BritSpeak Dictionary | A dictionary of British English terms explained in American English |
| Polari | Polari is, mainly, a gay language. It was a theatrical language that was adopted by gay people as a secret language, in the period before gay civil rights. |
| A Dictionary of Slang | A reference guide to the many slang expressions heard in England, with a particular focus on the region of Greater Manchester |
| Larry's Aussie Slang and Phrase Dictionary | A glossary of Australian slang and phrases |
| The Totally Unofficial Rap Dictionary | A dictionary/encyclopedia of terms found in rap music, the players, and the places. |
| The Online Slang Dictionary | The Online Slang Dictionary is a collaborative project. The definitions and the words are submitted by visitors to the site. |
Thesauri
| Roget's Thesaurus Search Form | This is the public domain version of the old stand-by for those of us who want to find the perfect word . . . on-line! |
| NASA Thesaurus | A good thesaurus of scientific terms listed alphabetically with definitions |
| Thesaurus.com | This site allows you to search Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus |
| Merriam-Webster OnLine | Merriam-Webster's online thesaurus. Definitely ranks with Roget's |
Other Reference Sources
| Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1901 edition) | Quotations for all occasions and topics. Great for introductions intended to really capture the mood of the topic |
| The Semantic Rhyming Dictionary | What rhymes with "orange"? Find out here! |
| A Web of Online Dictionaries | This site provides links to specialized dictionaries you can acess online. Definitely useful. |
| Cliché Finder | This site allows you to find just the right cliché for the word you |