Helpful Web Resource

January 12, 2012

I have discovered another interesting web resource: the Merriam - Webster Unabridged Dictionary. 

You can use it as a dictionary, of course, but it also has many other interesting features. There is a style guide that shows how to use punctuation marks, a medical dictionary, Spanish/English and French/English dictionaries, a thesaurus, an encyclopedia, and an atlas.

When you choose the dictionary, there is a drop down box that lets you look for a word in different ways. If you know the spelling of the word, you can just look up the definition or you can choose "etymology" for the source of the word. If you don't know the spelling, you can choose "begins with" or "ends in" and type in the first or last part of the word. You can also look for rhyming words. For those who enjoy tackling jumble or crossword puzzles, this database is a handy little help. When working a jumble and crossword puzzle, if you become stumped and you have part of a word, you can type it in. It will give a list of words that you can choose from.

I never knew a dictionary could be so much fun.

Marcia C.
Raytown Branch