What are your favorite English language tools?

Question

To prevent myself from asking an obvious, silly question multiple times: What are the English language tools you found most useful?

I found Corpus Concordance English extremely useful for looking up collocations.

Please, one tool per answer.

Mod note: This question exists because it has historical significance, but it is not considered a good, on-topic question for this site, so please do not use it as evidence that you can ask similar questions here. Ordinarily, we would lock such a question; however, because allowing the answers to be edited and voted on greatly enhances its value, we have chosen not to do so. Please do not vote to reopen or delete this question; such actions will be reversed. — waiwai933, Sep 17 '12 at 00:54
This chrome plugin is very useful. It's a good way to collect words. FlashRead : https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/flashread/ledjdgfkpniboodghppkjpifglndedoh — jack-london, Jan 26 '16 at 06:35
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it would have a good home on Meta but is much too old to migrate it there. — Kit Z. Fox, Aug 22 '16 at 22:25
@KitZ.Fox please take into account that other SE sites allowed one cw question to collect resources. This helps to disallow daily questions on resources. E.g: http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/1120/resources-for-learning-mandarin-chinese — stacker, Aug 23 '16 at 06:14

score 39 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 22 '22 at 08:16

The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)

This is a great tool for finding out how words are actually used in different registers of English, ranging from informal spoken English to formal academic written English. In this answer I used it to find out if the word prepone was used with any regularity in American English (it is not). In this answer, I used it to compare incidences of “an historic” with “a historic”, to see if one is used orders of magnitude more frequently than the other (almost four to one in favor of “a historic”).

It is also useful for researching collocates—which words frequently go with other words. For example, in this answer I used it to compare “on the bus” with “in the bus” (“in the bus” is used sometimes when the bus is stationary). In this answer I used it the part-of-speech searching ability to compare how frequently none was used with a singular and plural verb forms (two to one in favor of plural).

Overall, COCA is a very useful tool for researching how the language is actually used, not only for debunking myths about language, but also for learning something new about how the language works.

score 36 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

Language Log

Language Log is a collaborative blog about language, most of whose contributors are academic linguists. It is one of the most popular blogs about linguistics, and there are often posts that directly address questions asked here. For example, there were a number of informative posts on singular they I linked to in this answer, and Mark Liberman’s post about the mythical rule forbidding beginning sentences with conjunctions was informative in this answer to the question “Why is it bad to start a sentence with and?”

Noldorin · Answer 3 · 2010-08-20T16:34:17.580

34

Wiktionary

It's great for a lot more than just definitions. It's usually the first place I go for looking up etymology, pronunciation, and often derivations/cognates of words.

The cross-connectedness of information in Wiktionary is really what sets it apart and makes it an excellent (if sometimes imperfect) resource.

edited Aug 20 '10 at 16:34

answered Aug 20 '10 at 10:21

Noldorin

13,260

score 34 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:48

34

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is a very valuable and rich resource.

When you look up a word, for example, favorite, it provides a comprehensive account of use, history, synonyms, etc.

Note that unlike many free resources in this list, the OED requires a monthly or yearly subscription. However, your library may subscribe and this would allow you to access the OED for free.

edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:48

htoip

545

answered Dec 02 '10 at 15:25

David LeBauer

772
3
12
23

score 28 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 18 '11 at 00:16

28

Google Books NGram Viewer

Google Books NGram Viewer displays a graph showing how those phrases have occurred in a corpus of books over the selected years.

answered Feb 18 '11 at 00:16

apaderno

59,185

score 27 · Answer 6 · edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:49

27

Google

Not Google Books, Language Tools, or even word trends. I mean the search engine. If I am curious about a sentence or spelling, I search for it. If the search returns interesting results similar to what I'm writing about, the sentence was good. If it returns badly-spelled pages about unrelated topics, the sentence is no good.

edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:49

htoip

545

answered Jan 05 '11 at 04:58

Dour High Arch

1,373

score 25 · Answer 7 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage

This book, which can be read for free using Google Books, has a lot of useful usage information that is based on research into how words are actually used (as opposed to how some usage writer would like them to be used). Their commentary was helpful to me in this answer regarding less vs. fewer. It was also useful during my research for this answer regarding usage of the word myself in non-reflexive contexts.

score 21 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

21

OneLook Reverse Dictionary

If you are looking for a word to express a given meaning, this is the place to go. For example, searching for "soul guide afterlife" returns "psychopomp", and searching for "fear long words" returns "hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia".

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:38

Community

1

answered Feb 17 '11 at 08:39

RegDwigнt

97,231

score 21 · Answer 9 · edited Jun 22 '22 at 08:16

21

British National Corpus

The British National Corpus (BNC) is a 100 million word collection of samples of written and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent a wide cross-section of current British English, both spoken and written.

Also searchable with a less elaborate interface here.

edited Jun 22 '22 at 08:16

Community

1

answered Sep 05 '10 at 10:24

stacker

3,793

score 21 · Answer 10 · edited May 24 '13 at 19:25

21

Etymonline is an online Etymological dictionary, very handy for tracing the origins of words. Unfortunately it tends to be very terse, sometimes to the point of ambiguity.

edited May 24 '13 at 19:25

Sam

836

answered Jul 05 '11 at 13:10

score 20 · Answer 11 · edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:49

20

Urban Dictionary

An invaluable and up-to-date resource for looking up slang and other words that are often absent in conventional dictionaries.

edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:49

htoip

545

answered Feb 18 '11 at 18:32

Adam

743

Urban Dictionary can be quite valuable, especially in deciphering colloquial English, but I would like to mention 2 things: (1) I'm a native speaker of American English, and on occasion I've found it difficult to find an answer that makes a lot of sense. This is not surprising as English is highly colloquial, but I can only imagine how difficult it may be at times for non-native speakers. Also, I've seen excellent answers that have tons of downvotes—unlike the SE sites where you see the net score, this may confuse. (2) Urban Dictionary should be considered NSFW. – Andy Aug 29 '12 at 16:00

score 20 · Answer 12 · edited Sep 08 '10 at 22:55

20

Forvo

This is a site for hearing pronunciations of words recorded by “ordinary” people. Many words have multiple recordings in different dialects, and each recording has votes on whether others think it is good or correct.

edited Sep 08 '10 at 22:55

nohat

68,560

answered Aug 20 '10 at 14:37

user706

389

score 18 · Answer 13 · edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:50

18

Chicago Manual of Style is really useful, especially looking at the example sentences of correctly-typeset English.

edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:50

htoip

545

answered Sep 09 '10 at 01:51

6

Only if you're being paid to follow it. – John Lawler May 18 '12 at 18:48

score 12 · Answer 14 · edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:58

12

Well, the companion to Dictionary.com is Thesaurus.com.

edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:58

htoip

545

answered Aug 20 '10 at 14:40

warren

529

score 12 · Answer 15 · edited Jan 06 '13 at 13:44

12

Fowler's Modern English Usage (original book or the second edition edited by Sir Ernest Gowers) is fun to read and educational.

I don't recommend the new edition.

edited Jan 06 '13 at 13:44

Peter Mortensen

3,566

answered Sep 09 '10 at 01:55

Easily my favorite book on my book shelf. – Karl May 26 '12 at 16:37
I've been reading the original edition; it's not only authoritative (for early 20th century), Fowler pulls no punches; if it's wrong he clearly says so, and often colorfully. Much very understated humour too. – Steve Smith Aug 01 '18 at 16:15

score 12 · Answer 16 · edited Apr 03 '11 at 01:42

Word Net

It's a lexical database of English. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are grouped into sets of cognitive synonyms (synsets), each expressing a distinct concept. These "synsets" are interlinked. It's more rigorous than a normal Thesaurus, in that it tries to "pin down" every unique meaning of a word rather than just listing a bunch of synonyms with different shades of meaning.

It's a fascinating project. It's an attempt to be thorough and methodical about categorizing semantic meaning in English for use in computational linguistics and natural language processing.

score 11 · Answer 17 · edited Jan 06 '13 at 13:41

11

Practical English Usage by Michael Swan is very handy if you need to justify edits to a non-native speaker.

edited Jan 06 '13 at 13:41

Peter Mortensen

3,566

answered Sep 09 '10 at 01:52

score 10 · Answer 18 · edited Dec 20 '13 at 10:32

10

Wordnik

Wordnik.com is an online dictionary and language resource that provides dictionary and thesaurus content, some of it based on print dictionaries such as the Century Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, WordNet, and GCIDE. Wordnik has collected a corpus of billions of words which it uses to display example sentences, allowing it to provide information on a much larger set of words than a typical dictionary.
_{[Source: Wikipedia]}

edited Dec 20 '13 at 10:32

answered Sep 11 '10 at 13:55

knight17

76

I am very happy that I found wordnik; I find it substantially more useful and easier to navigate than OED. – David LeBauer Dec 02 '10 at 15:14

score 8 · Answer 19 · edited Jul 05 '11 at 10:36

8

Google word translation

The translation is displayed in a tooltip after you position the mouse pointer over a word. The Google Toolbar includes this feature.

edited Jul 05 '11 at 10:36

Peter Mortensen

3,566

answered Sep 10 '10 at 22:06

stacker

3,793

mvark · Answer 20 · 2014-07-31T17:15:15.867

TheFreeDictionary.com used with the print layout is currently the fastest online dictionary.

It is easy to configure it to be your word search engine in Chrome & Opera so that you don't have to type the entire URL every time you want to search the meaning of a word or phrase.

Update: The dictionary service provided by Vocabulary.com is blazing fast too. It is easy to configure the service to search for word meanings right from the Chrome address bar

score 8 · Answer 21 · edited Dec 18 '13 at 18:47

8

I find WordWeb invaluable

The software has a full dictionary and thesaurus for American, British, Canadian, Australian, Indian, and global English. It also provides synonyms, antonyms, related words, text & audio pronunciations for words you look up.

edited Dec 18 '13 at 18:47

SF.

11,386

answered Nov 25 '10 at 11:03

mvark

189

score 7 · Answer 22 · edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:53

7

Merriam-Webster Online, ask the editor

edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:53

htoip

545

answered Aug 20 '10 at 10:21

lprsd

383

score 7 · Answer 23 · edited Dec 11 '16 at 08:30

7

Just

edited Dec 11 '16 at 08:30

answered Oct 01 '10 at 12:30

igor

1,297

Looking for the meaning of a phrase or idiom? OneLook will return the results from several on-line dictionaries in just one search. It's been an oft-visited website on my Favorites list for a long time. – J.R. Mar 19 '12 at 07:00
2

OneLook also has handy search features. For example you can search for words beginning with ver and containing speech in their definition by entering ver*:speech. – donothingsuccessfully May 05 '12 at 17:09

score 6 · Answer 24 · edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:55

6

English Grammar in Use by Raymond Murphy is very nice for ESL.

edited Apr 04 '12 at 01:55

htoip

545

answered Sep 09 '10 at 01:54

score 6 · Answer 25 · answered Feb 28 '12 at 13:41

6

Project Gutenberg has tens of thousands of free ebooks. Useful for looking up old and classic texts.

answered Feb 28 '12 at 13:41

Hugo

67,535

score 5 · Answer 26 · answered Apr 22 '11 at 20:28

5

Phrases in English

This site allows searching of two- to eight-word phrases from the British National Corpus.

answered Apr 22 '11 at 20:28

mgkrebbs

6,927

score 5 · Answer 27 · edited Dec 23 '13 at 12:03

Google Dictionary by Google is a Chrome browser extension that allows you to look up the definition of a word by just double-clicking it. (There is a similar plugin for Firefox as well.)

After double-clicking any word you get a quick pop-up definition with an icon to hear the word pronounced. It also translates foreign words and supports the following dictionaries:

Chinese, Simplified
Chinese, Traditional
Czech
Dutch
English
French
German
Greek
Italian
Klingon
Korean
Latin
Russian
Spanish

score 5 · Answer 28 · edited Dec 11 '16 at 06:56

The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, from the publishers of the OED, is one of my favorite dictionaries.

It has entries written using the Oxford 3000 keywords, so they're easy to understand, suitable for learners and experts alike. Each entry includes British and American English audio and an IPA pronunciation key. The example sentences and usage notes are great.

For focusing on American English, the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary is also now available, which includes essentially the same information and features as the American English parts of the OALD entries.

score 5 · Answer 29 · edited Apr 04 '12 at 02:00

5

This thread has some really good online resources. It would be convenient if one could reference the bulk of them in just one place: a page of favorite links ~ an online wordsmithery of sorts.

The Wordsmithery

edited Apr 04 '12 at 02:00

htoip

545

answered Mar 20 '12 at 03:00

J.R.

58,828
5
95
196

score 4 · Answer 30 · answered Feb 12 '11 at 07:05

4

I have an old, well-worn, pocket-sized copy of Roget's Thesaurus on my desk at work (I'm a software engineer) that I find invaluable when writing documentation and emails.

answered Feb 12 '11 at 07:05

oosterwal

7,391

score 4 · Answer 31 · answered Feb 28 '12 at 13:24

Google Books is useful for searching for real usage and etymology of words and phrases, and for antecedents.

However, care must be taken with metadata, especially when only a snippet is shown: occasionally the book was published later than the the year Google claims it was, and sometimes they accidentally include multiple books for each record.

Therefore it's important to double check the date: scroll up to confirm the real date for "full view" books, and for preview/"snippet view" verify with another source (such as the Internet Archive or Project Gutenberg).

score 4 · Answer 32 · edited Feb 18 '11 at 00:07

4

Acronym finder

A website that provides the definitions of acronyms.

edited Feb 18 '11 at 00:07

apaderno

59,185

answered Jan 04 '11 at 01:16

David LeBauer

772
3
12
23

score 3 · Answer 33 · edited Dec 11 '16 at 07:09

3

Chambers Dictionary, famous for its humorous definitions.

edited Dec 11 '16 at 07:09

Mori

80

answered Sep 09 '10 at 02:01

score 3 · Answer 34 · edited Dec 17 '13 at 20:58

I'm an English as a Second/Foreign Language teacher, and I like to use the Cambridge Dictionaries Online.

It has different levels of definitions from Learner's (which used to be basic or beginner) to Advanced Learner's.

I find it's not only helpful for me when I need to find a way to define a word for a student, but it also helps me understand words I may have never seen before or don't often use. They also have some mobile apps for English students, and a blog that posts about new words in English like lactivism and lets you comment about them.

score 2 · Answer 35 · edited Feb 18 '11 at 00:08

2

Acrogen

An acronym generator generates acronyms from sets of words.

edited Feb 18 '11 at 00:08

apaderno

59,185

answered Feb 11 '11 at 19:12

David LeBauer

772
3
12
23

score 2 · Answer 36 · edited Dec 16 '13 at 12:46

2

Microsoft Word's spelling checker

But be careful with its grammar checker: it’s often wrong.

edited Dec 16 '13 at 12:46

tchrist

134,759

answered Sep 09 '10 at 01:50

3

I don't know how many times this has saved me from writing "teh..." – kitukwfyer Sep 11 '10 at 14:15
11

Being from a field of science with specialized language, it is a challenge to use, even if I train it on my own computer – David LeBauer Dec 02 '10 at 15:12
3

Be careful! The grammar checker is a useful tool to spot slips, but do not treat it as an authority. – Pitarou Feb 06 '12 at 15:18

score 2 · Answer 37 · answered Feb 28 '12 at 13:44

2

The Internet Archive's Text Archive has old books and journals in many formats, including plain text and scanned. Useful for confirming things only available as snippets in Google Books.

answered Feb 28 '12 at 13:44

Hugo

67,535

score 2 · Answer 38 · answered May 01 '12 at 19:59

2

The Economist's Style Guide.

answered May 01 '12 at 19:59

Brad

3,018

score 2 · Answer 39 · edited Jan 06 '13 at 13:56

2

manythings.org is an online "dictionary" which can help you memorize words which are listed according to their frequency.

edited Jan 06 '13 at 13:56

Peter Mortensen

3,566

answered May 05 '12 at 16:50

Paola

3,129

score 1 · Answer 40 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

1

Word Dynamo

Word Dynamo from Dictionary.com is a nice way to learn new vocabulary. It has flashcard sets of a variety of different topics.

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

1

answered Feb 06 '12 at 15:09

Alk

49

score 1 · Answer 41 · edited Jan 06 '13 at 13:52

1

The Usenet archive at Google Groups is useful for searching for Internet slang dating back to 1981.

Be careful as there's no way to search only Usenet, and some of the non-Usenet results are misdated, but it can sometimes be useful.

edited Jan 06 '13 at 13:52

Peter Mortensen

3,566

answered Feb 28 '12 at 13:50

Hugo

67,535

If you can't search 'only' Usenet, then how can you use it as a resource except through google, and then only if you're lucky enough to get results from Usenet? – Mitch Feb 28 '12 at 14:09
@Mitch: Most of the older results are only Usenet, and you can tell from the summary page if the results are from alt.fan.this or comp.that. – Hugo Feb 28 '12 at 14:27

What are your favorite English language tools?

41 Answers41

The Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA)

Wiktionary

British National Corpus

Forvo

Linked

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