Language Links

Print Dictionary Links

  • The New Oxford American Dictionary
  • The Oxford English Dictionary. Subscription required to search.
  • Cambridge University Press Dictionaries
  • Longman Dictionaries
  • American Heritage Dictionaries
  • Merriam-Webster Dictionaries

    Wordplay Sites

  • Judi Wolinsky’s Word Play Links Page. A very large list that overlaps with other categories on this page. Check it out!
  • Word Ways — a magazine of anagrams, puzzles, etc.
  • The Palindromist
  • Don Ricklin’s Polysemania links page
  • The Collective Nouns page
  • The Dialectizer. A fun device for translating webpages or blocks of text into “redneck,” Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, and other dialects.
  • Metaplasm — a journal of metaplastic words. (Odd blends of two other words, and their possible meanings.)

    Online Fun Dictionaries

  • Pseudodictionary.com — the dictionary for words that wouldn’t make it into dictionaries.
  • the Grandiloquent Dictionary of unusual words.
  • Roger’s Profanisaurus
  • The Dictionary Development Group: Online Dictionary Query. Includes Merriam-Webster 1913 and Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary.
  • Dictionary of Newfoundland English
  • YourDictionary.com

    Language-Related Sites and Blogs

  • Ask Oxford Language Site
  • Fury.com
  • Memepool Linguistics
  • The Willard R. Espy Literary Foundation for the Advancement of the Literary and Linguistic Arts

    Word-A-Day Sites and Other Mailing Lists

    most of the print dictionary sites also have their own word-a-day-lists

  • A Word A Day
  • Worthless Word For the Day
  • Michael Quinion’s World Wide Words. Highly Recommended!
  • The Word Spy, by Paul McFedries. The sleuthing of new words and old words used in new ways.
  • The Word Detective on the Web is the online version of The Word Detective, a newspaper column answering readers’ questions about words and language. The Word Detective is written by Evan Morris and appears in finer newspapers in the U.S., Mexico and Japan.
  • Neat New Stuff I Found This Week, by Marylaine Block, librarian and websurfer

    Grammar, Spelling, and Usage Sites

  • Human SpellCheck. Finds amusing errors in the press.
  • Common Errors In English, from Professor Paul Brians.

    Language and Dictionary Societies

  • The Dictionary Society of North America
  • The American Dialect Society
  • Euralex
  • SPELL: The Society for the Preservation of English Language and Literature
  • The English-Speaking Union
  • The Queen’s English Society
  • The Plain Language Association International
  • The Apostrophe Protection Society

    Names Sites

  • Medieval Names Archive: “This collection of articles on medieval and renaissance names is intended to help historical re-creators to
    choose authentic names.” There are sections on choosing a medieval name, names in specific cultures, and names of places, things, and animals.”
  • Popular Cat Names
  • Popular Dog Names

    For Kids

  • The Language Construction Kit. This site helps kids think
    through the process of creating sounds, grammar, lexicon, and alphabet.
  • VERBage: Where great verbs and nouns meet!” The site includes a list of verb-noun collocations for the purpose of producing a “complete” list to aid students of writing.

    Miscellaneous Sites

  • This free UK site searches many texts, including Tom McArthur’s Oxford Companion to the English Language and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics.
  • Omniglot.com. A Guide to Writing Systems.
  • November is National Novel Writing Month!
  • Glossaries for Insurance Agents. Check out the links to glossaries of crime and fraud.
  • Glossarist.com. A search tool for internet glossaries.

    Language in the Media

  • The BBC’s Routes of English programmes

    More links coming soon. Want your link included? Email the editor at editor@verbatimmag.com