3 Great Online Dictionaries for Writers
May 27, 2022
It’s no secret that we writers love good words. After all, putting words together in an elegant fashion is what we do. Given our affinity for the written language, it should come as no surprise that we frequently geek out over fun new dictionaries, thesauruses, and encyclopedias.
Recently, a few of our writers shared some awesome online dictionaries that they stumbled across, and we just had to share them with you. We hope you find them as helpful as we did!
The Free Dictionary
If you’re looking for a one-stop-shop, The Free Dictionary is the site for you. This great site gives you the option of choosing a dictionary, thesaurus, medical dictionary, legal dictionary, financial dictionary, acronyms, idioms, encyclopedia, and Wikipedia encyclopedia.
It also has options for dictionaries in 14 different languages, including:
- Spanish
- German
- French
- Italian
- Arabic
- Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese)
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Dutch
- Norwegian
- Greek
- Russian
- Turkish
- Hebrew
On top of its incredible dictionaries, The Free Dictionary also provides links to interesting articles, information on “this day in history,” a “word of the day,” and more.
In other words, it’s a writer’s paradise!
Describing Words
For those of you looking for great descriptive words, describingwords.io is a dream come true.
Just plug in the noun you want to describe, and the site will give you a ton of fantastic descriptive words to choose from.
For example, if you plug in the word “Summer,” you get a lengthy list of adjectives, ranging from “feverish and destructive” to “luminous, fragrant.”
Just think of all the fun you could have with these words!
OneLook
Like The Free Dictionary, OneLook Dictionary Search gives you a lot of bang for your buck.
This simple platform allows you to plug in whatever word you would like to search for, and then provides you with the dictionary definition(s) of the word. Additionally, it gives you the option to see the following:
- The word’s origin
- Similar words
- Related words
- Usage examples
- Popular adjectives describing your word
- Words that often appear near your word
- Rhyming words
- Invented words related to your word
And, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, you can find mentions of your word used in everything from pop music to quotes and Shakespearean plays.