English Language Links

I have put together a small collection of useful links, resources and other sources of glee related to English words and language. Feel free to contribute your own favourite site, as long as it's primarily non-commercial and of interest to a non-specialist audience.

Dictionaries

OneLook Dictionaries

An invaluable multiple dictionary search engine that enables you to find definitions for all sorts of words. I am very pleased that my own International House of Logorrhea is one of the dictionaries used (though I derive no commercial benefit from OneLook).

YourDictionary.com

A very useful dictionary site including multilingual dictionaries, dictionaries on specialized topics and various other language-related resources.

Dictionary.com

A searchable online dictionary site with wordplay and multilingual resources.

Webster's Unabridged Dictionary 1913

The Bibliomania searchable version of a copyright-expired dictionary.

Weird Words

Dictionary of Difficult Words

A searchable online dictionary with definitions taken from Robert H. Hill's text dictionary of the same name. Useful but rather outdated, and thus of greatest use when looking for obsolete terms from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

SKB's Dictionary

Not really a complete dictionary, but a very interesting collection of odd words accompanied by unusual quotes, stories, and etymological connections concerning many of them.

Word Oddities

Jeff Miller's list of words unique in some way, if you are interested in those sorts of things, as I am.

Grandiloquent Dictionary

A list of 1900 obscure words with definitions.

Luciferous Logolepsy

A compilation of over 9000 obscure words with definitions.

Funwords.com

Martha Barnette's site of weird words, including her own published books on the subject.

The Archive of Endangered, Special or Fun Words

A compilation of readers' submissions of unique or interesting words.

Reference

Rhyming Dictionary

Ever wonder what rhymes with orange? Check it out here.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Once again, an older version of a classic now in the public domain.

Poetic Terms Glossary

A useful glossary of terms. Not pretty, but pretty complete. I think that last sentence uses syllepsis.

Wordexplorations.com

A finely crafted site dedicated to studying Latin and Greek etymological connections with English, but also containing other very interesting linguistic resources. Very useful and user-friendly (paid members only).

Roots of English Dictionary

Free etymological dictionary software to allow you to find Greek and Latin word origins.

Lexical Freenet

A truly unique resource that defies easy description. A mega-meta-thesaurus that reveals the links and relationships between concepts, people and words. Try it!

Moby Project

A lexicon project that makes available dozens of word lists, including the world's largest raw English word list (without definitions).

Newsletters, E-zines, Mailing Lists

Word of the Day Page

Anu Garg's page supplementing his widely acclaimed word-a-day mailing list.

Word Detective

The online version of the syndicated newspaper column of the same name written by Evan Morris.

World Wide Words

The site for Michael Quinion's renowned and respected weekly newsletter on words and language.

Worthless Word for the Day

A word-a-day site and mailing list that has been active since the dawn of the Internet.

Logophilia Weekly

A now-defunct English words newsletter, but with over 100 essays archived for your edification and entertainment.

The Vocabula Review

A very professional monthly journal about the English language and word usage.

Amusements

Banished Words List

Each year, Lake Superior State University produces a "List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-Use, Over-Use or General Uselessness". End word abuse in our time!

Pseudodictionary

A 'dictionary of words that wouldn't make it into dictionaries' - now over 11,000 neologisms strong.

Strange and Unusual Dictionaries

Dictionaries of one-letter, all-consonant and all-vowel words. An amusing site, full of informative word-facts.

Apostrophe Protection Society

A site, only partly facetious, dedicated to the prevention of apostrophic catastrophe and misuse in the written English language.

Anagram Genius Server

A free service that lets you put in any word or phrase and have its anagrams sent to you by e-mail.

English as She is Spoke

A 19th century English phrasebook written by a non-English spaeking Portuguese writer using a Portuguese-French dictionary and a French-English phrasebook. These are the hilarious results.

The Dialectizer

Convert any web page into any number of English 'dialects': Redneck, Cockney, Elmer Fudd (!), etc.

Miscellaneous

Word Play

Judy Wolinsky's very interesting site has just about the largest collection of English language links I have ever seen.

Richard Lederer's Verbivore

Renowned author of many books on English words Richard Lederer's online presence; a useful and very interesting source.

Slanguage

Everything you always wanted to know about English language slangs (mostly US, unfortunately).

Phobia List

I'm not sure why we have so many words for fears of things, but here they all are.

Heteronyms

A compilation of heteronyms - such as lead (LEED) and lead (LED).

Antagonyms

Words which have two meanings which are antonyms; you put dust down when dusting for fingerprints, but pick it up when dusting the house.

alt.usage.english

The homepage for the ultimate newsgroup for those seeking knowledge of the English language. Just remember to spell-check your postings, and, for God's sake, don't ask anything involving "-gry".

I hope you have found this site to be useful. If you have any corrections, additions, or comments, please contact me. Please note that I am not able to respond to all requests. Please consult a major dictionary before e-mailing your query. All material on this page © 1996-2014 Stephen Chrisomalis. Links to this page may be made without permission.