| Summary: The online dictionary can be a very useful tool, and many publishing houses now offer a free online dictionary over the Internet. Online dictionaries can take the form of a dictionary online over the Internet, or on your local computer or network. |
The online dictionary is a relatively new phenomena, a natural result of both the advent of the Internet, and the ongoing need to update the content of standard dictionaries. Many dictionary publishing houses now offer a free online dictionary, and even many other types of sites have a dictionary online.
A free online dictionary is of course very convenient - if you have access to a computer when you need a dictionary. On the other hand, there is just nothing like the feeling of hefting a large dictionary in your hand, riffling the thumbtabs, and finding not only the word for which you are looking, but the interesting, hitherto unknown words which surround it.
Online dictionaries come in two forms. There is the dictionary online which is accessible over the Internet, and then the online dictionary which is local to you only, installed on your home or business computer or network. The former is maintained by the dictionary publisher or their agent, and the latter is software which is installed from a CD.
Most online dictionaries, Internet or local, contain all of the same words as their print versions, sometimes even more as new words may be added to the online version before the next print version is published. What they may lack, however, is other sections, such as graphics and tables (some include them, some don’t) or sections with special symbols which may not be readily reproducible in HTML. Many online dictionaries also include an online thesaurus.
Software dictionaries are convenient, but they can take up a lot of space on your hard drive. If you choose to not load them onto your hard drive, than you will need to load the dictionary from CD whenever you want to look up a word, which can be time-consuming.
Some of the more popular online dictionaries on the Internet include the Merriam Webster online dictionary, at M-W.com, and Dictionary.com.
Popular software dictionaries include the Merriam Webster’s dictionary software, which is available for both the PC and MAC, and for the Palm.
Recommended software:
For PC and Mac:
For Palm PDAs:
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