On-Line Dictionaries

[CleverCat]

I'm hooked on the ninjaword FARR plugin! 

[longrun]

I like using ObjectGraph Dictionary http://www.objectgraph.com/dictionary/as a panel in Opera, particularly when I'm doing something that requires frequent searches. It's not as comprehensive as other dictionaries, but the search as you type feature is really cool and using it as a panel means you can view definitions and your work simultaneously.

[longrun]

Sorry folks, my images won't attach properly.

[Second Shadow]

Am I the only one who uses The Free Dictionary?

It's really good. I particularly like the included pronunciation (English not being my native language, that's a life saver), thesaurus and related words.

Plus, they have a handy browser add-on (for both IE and Firefox): http://www.thefreedi...onary.com/add2ie.htm

P.S.: they also have an idioms section, as well as specialized dictionaries (Medical, Legal, Financial), a decent encyclopedia, and a section that shows articles from Wikipedia embedded in their website, like this entry for Donation Coder

[housetier]

I like their little games for example "match up". It's a fun way to expand knowlede.

I wish there was something like this for German as well.

[Perry Mowbray]

I've actually just started using http://www.macmillandictionary.com/ which seems very nice 

[cyberdiva]

The dictionaries I use most often are those that translate from various languages into English and vice versa.  And far and away, the best online (or offline) set of dictionaries I know for this are those offered for free at WordReference.com.  The site offers dictionaries in a number of different languages, but I tend to use those for Spanish most often.  What I love about the WordReference dictionaries is that at the end of each entry, they include links to discussions of that word or phrase in the WordReference.com forums.  You thus get a much more nuanced idea of what the word means, how it's used, where it's used or not used, etc. etc.  It's an amazing resource!  

[Curt]

The poll seems to be missing an "OFF-Line dict's only"... I know the world is full of fantastic dictionaries etcetera, but it is so easy (and common) for me to merely Ctrl+RightClick and see the result at once in Babylon, that I almost never will search another place. Due to money, the best of the dictionaries are already a part of my Babylon: Merriam-Webster Thesaurus & Dictionary, Britannnica Concise Encyclopedia, and of course the free Wikipedia, hEnglish Advanced, etcetera etcetera.

Wikipedia is my favourite on-line thingy, but because I am using Firefox  I have some more on-line machines close at hand:

[cyberdiva]

I know the world is full of fantastic dictionaries etcetera, but it is so easy (and common) for me to merely Ctrl+RightClick and see the result at once in Babylon, that I almost never will search another place.

-Curt (May 20, 2010, 12:30 PM)

Curt, I almost started my message (right above yours) by saying that the first place I generally turn for translating to/from English is Babylon.  I didn't say that because 1) I interpreted the original message as asking about online resources, and 2) when I want to get an even better sense of which word to use and why, I'll turn to WordReference.com.  It covers many words and expressions that Babylon omits, and it often offers more nuanced information about usage.  But I agree that Babylon is terrific.

[Curt]

Yes, I agree with you, diva; the thread is about on-line solutions and not about off-liners like Babylon. Otherwise I  WOULD HAVE  displayed this picture from an old thread from year 2007:


On-Line Dictionaries

[adi_barb]

someone should mention babylon dictionary too 

[daddydave]

One vote for dictionary.com, and one for Google Define

Dictionary.com include a lot of etymology information helpful for understanding the deep meaning of a word.

Google Define is very useful when the dictionary definition doesn't tell the whole story, and the meaning of a word is a matter of opinion.

[Curt]

Did someone author a script for Firefox, for 'Google Define'? 

[daddydave]

Did someone author a script for Firefox, for 'Google Define'?  

-Curt (May 22, 2010, 12:18 PM)

You could just install Dennis Khong's Google Define search plugin. (And one of Firefox's most underhyped features since version 3.5 or so is that you can actually assign a keyword to a search plugin from the Manage Search Engines interface which does not require a keyword bookmark, so you get the best of both worlds). I installed it just now and assigned def.


By the way, the mycroft site, although it looks ancient now, still seems to be the best place to find/submit search plugins. I see some people submitting them to the Firefox addons site, but they are not made distinct from other search-related add-ons.

[Curt]

-thanks a lot, daddy! 

[housetier]

You can easily add a "search engine" to firefox for almost every site that has a search form: just right-click into the search field and select "Add a Keyword for this search...", give it a name and a (preferably short) keyword.

Now you can type "<keyword> <search query>" in the address bar and firefox will open the search results of that site. I use it frequently for dict.cc and wikipedia, where this approach works very well. Search forms that are submitted by POST are harder or impossible to use this way.

[daddydave]

You can easily add a "search engine" to firefox for almost every site that has a search form: just right-click into the search field and select "Add a Keyword for this search...", give it a name and a (preferably short) keyword.

Now you can type "<keyword> <search query>" in the address bar and firefox will open the search results of that site. I use it frequently for dict.cc and wikipedia, where this approach works very well. Search forms that are submitted by POST are harder or impossible to use this way.

-housetier (May 22, 2010, 05:14 PM)

True, that's quicker and I should have mentioned that. Lately I've had a preference for having each search available as both a search plugins and a keyword because of certain add-ons that work only with the search plugins. One disadvantage of this is that sometimes I have to create the search plugin myself, like I did for DonationCoder.