dictionary.com

...as a link to the Dictionary.com store, just in case you love the site so much that you want to walk around in a dictionary.com hat! (I know I'd take the p**s out of anyone wearing one of these - so you've been warned!). As far as the book recommendations go, in addition to title and author info, there is also a short description of each book, but all in all the bookstore section isn't really great as there's not a lot of content.

-Fun ...
...Or so it seems at first, until you realise that most of the content is restricted to those who sign up for premium membership of the site (currently $12.95 per year). The things that you can access are a crossword for the day and also a word search. If you shell out for the Premium Membership you can also get other games as well as a thirty day games archive. The funiest one, judging solely from the title as I'm a poor student and can't afford such ... more

With the spread of the 'harassment' challenge in the fiction section of Ciao, I thought it was about time to provide all the desperate Ciaoers out there - and also the rest of the world - with the ultimate online source of info when it comes to words - dictionary.com

LAYOUT

The layout of the site is simple enough. The Front page has a yahoo-esque look to it, although it's slightly less cluttered, consisting of several main headings (more on these later) with a few sub headings too. At the top of the page is an input text box where you type your words and out comes either the dictionary definition you're after (if you select the 'dictionary' switch) or a thesaurus entry (if you select the 'thesaurus' switch) - for many people this will be all the need from this site, but there's so much more if you really take a look. Let me explain....(feel free to skip it if all you're interested in is the dictionary part)

FEATURES

-Bookstore-

Here you'll find a list of book recommendations in several categories mostly concerned with the English language, as well as a link to the Dictionary.com store, just in case you love the site so much that you want to walk around in a dictionary.com hat! (I know I'd take the p**s out of anyone wearing one of these - so you've been warned!). As far as the book recommendations go, in addition to title and author info, there is also a short description of each book, but all in all the bookstore section isn't really great as there's not a lot of content.

-Fun & Games-

This is more like it. Or so it seems at first, until you realise that most of the content is restricted to those who sign up for premium membership of the site (currently $12.95 per year). The things that you can access are a crossword for the day and also a word search. If you shell out for the Premium Membership you can also get other games as well as a thirty day games archive. The funiest one, judging solely from the title as I'm a poor student and can't afford such luxuries as website subscriptions, has got to be 'phrase invanders' where according to it's desciption you have to 'solve the phrase by attacking aliens inthis arcade-like game' - It's almost worth $12.95 just to see how that works!

-Language Resources-

Now here's a really useful non-members bit although it's basically a collection of links, they are very good ones.

There's a language FAQ which some people who write here (including me I know!) could do with checking out from time to time. This is quite extensive and has some really interesting sections. I was dissapointed to see the etymology (use the site to look it up if you don't know!) section was so small. It also includes such random trivia as the word for 'to throw something out of a window' which is 'defenestrate' apparently - it's from the Latin don't you know. The more useful bits of this section are the question on grammar, style, and usage, and what is the word for __ ?

There is also a collection of links about styles of writing as well as more grammar and usage advice in the 'Writing Resources' section. There is even a discussion forum with some good threads - I personally liked the one on amusing typos. The other subsections are 'Classic Texts' where you can get info on classic texts (surprise, suprise!) that have been re-published on the internet. Some of these are really good - especially for classicists and ancient historians. I think it's safe to say Homer is out of copyright by now! The last subsection is a newspaper and magazine article archive.

-Other Dictionaries-

Here you'll find a massive list of other dictionaries including scientific, rhyming, and medical to name but three. There is also a translation dictionaries section which is VERY comprehensive. I haven't even heard of some of the languages here, 'Hmong' anybody? OK how about Tarahumara then? Don't worry, it's got ones you will have heard of too.

-Translator-

Tis section is closely linked to the translation dictionaries above. Basically you type in your text and select a language( it currently does French, German, Italian and Portuguese) click 'translate' and away you go. The basic sentences that I translated into French came out fine although I wouldn't trust it to be very stylish it could be a useful checking tool.

-Tools-

The best thing here is a nifty little program called Cleverkeys that lets you look up words from inside other programs as well as thesarus entries - there's a version for MacOS and Windows. There's also an option to add Dictionary and Thesaurus browser buttons to your web browser (could be very handy). This feature is available for Netscape 4 and above and Microsoft IE 4 and above.

-Word of the Day-

A fun section oft plundered by people issuing the 'harrassment challenge' on Ciao for good words to use. It's just a daily updated archive of slightly unusual words.

-Dictionary/Thesaurus-

So now down to the most useful bit, and how well it actually works. First I tried out the dictionary with some vague mispellings to see if it got the correct word I was looking for. During this little test it did quite well. I also discovered that some mispellings are actually real words too! When I tried 'krater' checking to see if it suggested 'crater' I was shocked to discover that a 'krater' was in fact 'A wide, two-handled bowl used in ancient Greece and Rome for mixing wine and water.' You learn something new every day. One useful feature only available to members again I'm afraid, is a recording of the correct pronunciation for all the words. The non members wil have to put up witht the usual odd looking phonetic spelling that appears in most dictionaries to get their pronunciation right.

As far as the thesaurus goes, I'm afraid it suffers from the overabundance I usually encounter with thesauri ( yes that is correct - I checked!) whereby you get a plethora of words some of which aren't really that connected to the word you looked up. At least I think so anyway, but I suppose it's better to have lots of options rahter than none.

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In summary I find this site to be an excellent resource, and at times an amusing diversion. Well worth a look.

Oh, and any mispellings contained in this op are, in light of the subject matter, present purely for ironic purposes.

 

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