My younger brother just start his writing classes and he is looking for the best online dictionary. Well, he has been using Microsoft’s encarta for a while. Curious to know whats your favorite online dictionary.. Thanks in advance for your input.
Dictionary.com isn't a bad one. And I sometimes use wiktionary, especially if I'm looking for translations of individual words (but as with any site with user-provided content, it should be treated with caution).
Dictionary.com is pretty good as Banzai says, though does come with annoying advertising wordreference.com is interesting too because of the forum add-ons for discussion (not bad for translation too (single words / idioms only)) Merriam Webster is pretty good too (although sometimes it indiscriminately seems to want you to sign up to premium to view - that aside good)
i use dictionary.com all the time and never notice any advertising, so if it's there, it's certainly not intrusive... and i find it to be the best dictionary/thesaurus available online... ok, i just pulled it up and see it does have ads both on the opening page and the definition/thesaurus entries pages... but since i only focus on the word i'm searching for and immediately scroll down to the items found, the ads on top don't even register... and since i keep my window minimized to only show the word search parts, i don't even see the side ads... try it!
Occasionally its ads pop up other windows, despite my popup blocker. But it does attribute the dictionaries it collects from, so I put up with it. If it weren't so darned useful, I'd kick it to the curb.
Dictionary.com / Wordreference.com / I use Thesaurus.com a lot if I cant think of a word but know what it means. I also use a Google shortcut often. If you type in "define:word" into the search box with no spaces between the colon, it will open up with a bunch of definitions and links to the sites which the definitions came from. This can sometimes be helpful.
I use a handy little program called Wordweb. It runs in your toolbar and to find the definition of a word you highlight it then click the icon in your toolbar. The best feature is it's free.
Dictionary.com - can't go wrong with it. It even has rare words like Demesne which always impresses me.
Dictionary.com for regular use. RhymeZone.com for rhymes, synonyms, autonyms, etc. Encarta's right-click context menu shortcut, too. When reading an article and stumbling over an unfamiliar word, I can get an instant definition of it in a pop-up. Great for lazy but inquisitive readers!
Depending on the school, you may be able to get access to the OED online. It's maybe a little harder to use casually, but for academic purposes there is no substitute.
I'm quite fond of the OneLook Reverse Dictionary, useful when you're in the "what's the word that means....?" mode. You type in a brief definition and it comes up with various results, with varying relevance... But I've been known to hang out there just for fun, lol. OneLook Reverse Dictionary
