Merriam Webster, m-w.com, has audible pronunciation, but has a lot of ads and tends to slow down the webpage load times. Are there any other online English dictionaries that anyone would recommend?
I use dictionary.com.
I like cambridge dictionary.
I use dictionary.com as well.
I use OneLook Dictionary Search. If the quick definition does no have what I want I then probably go most frequently to Onlook’s link to AHD or their link to Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Try Onelook a few times and you may decide that one of the suggestions above is adequate.
For online purposes, I have both Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com bookmarked, but most of the time I use a keyword search for Google’s definitions (you can search for word definitions in Google by prefacing the word with “define:”), which works well enough for a quick-and-dirty definition.
If I need more information, I have both the American Heritage and Oxford English Dictionaries installed on my hard drive (I used to collect dictionaries).
I just type “define ______” without the quotes and read through the definitions or the first couple of online dictionaries that pop up. I’m sure there are better ways to do things, but if I’m looking something up it’s usually because I don’t know what the word means, not because I’m trying to find the origin or the roots or when it was first used.
I see some folks copy and pasting from some version of OED – I have the hardcopy with (I think) the most recent supplement by Burchfield, but I wouldn’t mind selling it if I need some cash, but not if it meant giving up access to the content of the OED from my notebook computer.
Is there an actual, real dictionary (OED, American Heritage) online without subscription that can replace hard, actual copies? Can’t really be sure public libraries will even have basic print references in situ, at some formidably close time in the future.
You must have a lot of shelf space.
Sure; it’s been available on CD-ROM since 1988.
Wiktionary is good for a number of reasons, particularly because (1) it doesn’t cost anything to use, (2) it is free (in the sense that the content is provided under a permissive copyright licence which permits redistribution with modification), (3) there are no ads and you can customize the look and feel of it, (4) it has much better coverage of domain-specific terms and recent coinages than just about any other dictionary, and (5) it’s community-written and -edited, so you can participate as well.
No, it’s the compact version. I heard of a friend of a friend at St. J—'s who actually connived his parent(s) to buy the entire full-size thing. The micro-photographed edition is fine.
I know about the CD-ROM – that’s the only reason I have mine. My ex-Father-in-Law got the CD-ROM and gave his old OED to his daughter, who then gave it to me under duress of my extraction team of one.
In addition to Onelook’s quick definitions, another way to get fast simple definitions ***if ***you have Firefox is to get the answers.com extension. Just mouse-over the word and alt-click and a box with a brief simple definition comes up. It can also give some information about many place names and personal name.
I use wiktionary largely because it isn’t full of annoying ads.