Focus Also see: Dictionary, Languages
Quizlet This is one of the best flash card sites on the Internet. If you had a chapter in your text which had 20 words in one section, 30 words in the next section, 25 words in the next section; you could be tested on all of the words in each section individually and then at the end you could combine all three sections into one test. The words are chosen randomly and after the test whenever words you missed the program will retest you want. In addition, to that the words that you are studying will be put into a game form, and you can practice your skills on them.
Tip of My Tongue find that word that you been thinking about all day but just can't remember.
Crossword Solver Stumped? Search answers from over two million clues.
50 Coolest Online Tools for Word Nerds Learning and using new words can be one of the great pleasures of language. While university courses can help you to build your vocabulary, seeking out words, wordplay, and information is essential to becoming a true word nerd. These online tools can help you along, making it simple to learn new words, find out where they came from and just plain play with words.
Multi-Dictionaries
- Dictionaries Voycabulary
- Dictionary Onelook On this site you'll find definitions, translations, and you can search all dictionaries. Of particular interest is the Reverse Dictionary because it is very similar to a thesaurus. When you're looking for that particular word and you can't find exactly what you're looking for the reverse dictionary is exactly what you need. One nice feature about this dictionaries that you can customize your results. ( In one word that I looked up " insouciance" I found the definition in 29 different dictionaries.
- SuperKids Vocabulary Builder Looking for an easy way to improve your students' (or your own) vocabulary? SuperKids has compiled a set of word-of-the-day lists that should help. Make this your browser's home page and get a new word every day!
- WordPlay Come play with puns, palindromes, anagrams, tongue twisters, rhymes, limericks, oxymorons, and other verbal nonsense. Name your phobias, look up words that mean their opposites, and laugh at absurd quotes.
- Word A Day Have you ever opened a dictionary to look up a word, only to find yourself distracted by another word on the page? The definition of that word steers you to yet another, some two hundred pages ahead, and before you know it your fingers are cavorting as if in a random dance on the leaves of the lexicon.
- AmeriSpeak Here’s a place to record those phrases that have beenpassed down through the generations in your family!
- Create your Own Test
- Cliche Finder Have you been searching for just the right cliché to use? Are you searching for a cliché using the word "cat" or "day" but haven't been able to come up with one? Just enter any words in the form below, and this search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase..
- Confusing Words Some words sound so similar, it's easy to confuse or misuse them when writing. Computer spell check won't catch these mistakes! Use this list as a reference whenever you're unsure about which word fits in the context.
- affect / effect
- Effect is usually a noun that means a result or the power to produce a result: “The sound of the falling rain had a calming effect, nearly putting me to sleep.” Affect is usually a verb that means to have an influence on: “His loud humming was affecting my ability to concentrate.” Note thateffect can also be a verb meaning to bring about or execute: “The speaker's somber tone effected a dampening in the general mood of the audience.”
- Word Puzzle Help Having trouble getting the last word in that crossword puzzle? Having trouble getting the first? See if our search engine can help! Unlike pure pattern dictionary searches, we actually analyze the clue as well. According to Will Shortz, editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, perhaps as many as 50 million people do crosswords just in America. Whether this is your first puzzle ever or your fourth today, if you get stuck, OneAcross can help
- Linquist Ask A Linguist is a place where anyone interested in language or linguistics can ask a question and, if approved, get responses from a panel of professional linguists, all of whom have volunteered to help provide this free service.
- Eponyms An eponym is a general term used to describe from what or whom something derived its name. Therefore, a proprietary eponym could be considered a brand name (trademark or service mark) which has fallen into general use.
- Quizlet This is one of the best flash card sites on the Internet. If you had a chapter in your text which had 20 words in one section, 30 words in the next section, 25 words in the next section; you could be tested on all of the words in each section individually and then at the end you could combine all three sections into one test. The words are chosen randomly and after the test whenever words you missed the program will retest you want. In addition, to that the words that you are studying will be put into a game form, and you can practice your skills on them.
- Tip of My Tongue find that word that you been thinking about all day but just can't remember.
- Crossword Solver Stumped? Search answers from over two million clues.
- Pronounce all words, all languages Forvo is the largest pronunciation guide in the world, the place where you´ll find millions of words pronounced in their original languages. Cool, isn´t it? Be a part of this cultural phenomenon now!
- Howjsay A free online Talking Dictionary of English Pronunciation
- Study Stack StudyStack.com strives to help people learn what they want to learn. The StudyStackTM concept was designed to help people memorize information about various subjects. Using the StudyStack web site, you use your computer to display a stack of "virtual cards" which contain information about a certain subject. Just like flashcards, you can review the information at your own pace discarding the cards you've learned and keeping the ones you still need to review. When you enter data on studystack, the data can be studied using many different activities such as flashcards, a matching game, a word search puzzle, and a hangman game. You can also export the data to your cellphone or PDA so you can review it when you are away from the computer. Click on one of the categories below to display a list of existing studystacks.
- Etymologic In this etymology game you'll be presented with 10 randomly selected etymology (word origin) or word definition puzzles to solve; in each case the word or phrase is highlighted in bold, and a number of possible answers will be presented. You need to choose the correct answer to score a point for that question. Beware! The false answers will often also seem quite plausible, and some of the true answers are hard to believe, but we have documentation!
- Oh, and in case you're wondering, the word etymology comes from the Greek word 'etymos', which means real, or true, and the -ology ending indicates that it's the study of, or science of. Put them together and you get the study or science of the real or true. Impressive, eh?
- Crickler Cricklers are a new type of word puzzle. We set out to totally re-invent the crossword puzzle for the computer age. Traditional crossword puzzles are incredibly successful but they have several serious drawbacks: (1) They are difficult to construct, (2) Most words are short and often silly -- chosen only because they fit, (3) Matching clues to numbers is a distraction, and (4) A given puzzle is usually either too easy or too hard
- Word Search A word search (also known as "word find") is a grid filled with letters. A number of words are hidden in this grid. The words may have been placed horizontally, vertically or diagonally. They may have been written backwards or not.
- The object is to find the words and mark them. You can mark words by clicking on the first letter, holding the mouse button down and dragging the pointer to the last letter of the word. If you start with the last letter and end with the first, it also works.
- You'll see a line that indicates your path. If your selection is correct, the line will change to an encirclement and the corresponding word in the list will change color.
- Hangman Welcome to Hangman.no - The Hangman where you can play existing games, play against a friend or make your own word lists for online distribution. All to a cool tune and slick animations. Note: This game uses Flash and is currently not compatible with iPhones and iPads.
- Hangman - Science Vocabulary Jefferson Lab The computer will randomly pick a term used in science. Discover the word the computer has picked by guessing which letters are in it. Each incorrect guess you make causes the atom man to decay. Solve the puzzle before the atom man completely decays!
- Hangman - ESL Students Flash hangman games for ESL students Try to Guess the Words before You Run Out Of Guesses
- Hangman Games there is always away a hangman game will please you.
- Mind Mapping Brainstorm your essays or your thoughts with this mind mapping online program.
- Lyrics Finder This is a search engine to find the lyrics above songs.
- Word Ahead Vocabulary Videos It's important for high school students planning to take the SAT test to start building their vocabulary early on, as this isn't something you can do overnight. One of the best ways to do this is to read, read, and read. Read fiction, non-fiction, newspapers, magazines, online, etc. When you run across words you don't know either look them up immediately or jot them down and look them up later. Spend some time on this EVERY DAY. Make it a habit. WordAhead is one of the best vocabulary-learning sites I’ve seen for advanced English Language Learners and mainstream students Watch Vocabulary Videos
- Exercises and Tests TESOL – ESL English language activities, exercises and tests
- Hot for Words My name is Marina and I am a philologist. I love to discuss the origins of words. Keep checking back for interesting stories behind words we use. If you have any suggestions, please send them my way! This podcast is found in Podcast Word Explorer
- TimesOnline Spelling Bee To play more games, play head-to-head, track scores, and win awards, register here to join. “I am delighted that The Times Spelling Bee Championship is back for a fourth year to help students improve their spelling and acquire lifelong skills. Our aim is to make spelling fun and I hope your school will take part in the 2012 Championship. Maybe your team will make the Grand Final in June and I’ll meet you there.”
- Wordle Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends
- Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.
- Spelling Practice Free English Lessons from the ESL Resource Center
- Free Rice This is a multiple choice question with four possible answers. If you get it right you get harder question. If you get it wrong you get an easier question. For each answer you get right the site donates 10 grains of rice to the United States world food program. Warning! Warning! Warning! this game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance, etc.
- Voice Thread One simple example is a "wiki" voice thread started byColette Cassinelli who started the Voicethread 4 Education wiki. Original site; voiceththread.com. Video on how to create "voicethread" Vocabulary
- Dictionary Ninjawords A really fast dictionary... fast like a ninja.
- Dictionary Worknik Wordnik is a new way to discover meaning. This page will give you a quick overview of what you can do, learn, and share with Wordnik. We try to show as many real examples as possible for each word. These examples are ranked by how useful we think they are in helping you understand the meaning of a particular word, especially words that may not have traditional dictionary definitions.
- VocabGrabber VocabGrabber analyzes any text you're interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just copy text from a document and paste it into the box, and then click on the "Grab Vocabulary!" button. VocabGrabber will automatically create a list of vocabulary from your text, which you can then sort, filter, and save.
- Dynamo Voabulary How any words do you know? Play the word dynamo challenge and turbo – charge your vocabulary. Learned words according to grade levels, academic subjects, test prep, and foreign-language which includes Latin and Spanish.
- 50 Coolest Online Tools for Word Nerds Learning and using new words can be one of the great pleasures of language. While university courses can help you to build your vocabulary, seeking out words, wordplay, and information is essential to becoming a true word nerd. These online tools can help you along, making it simple to learn new words, find out where they came from and just plain play with words.
- Also see "Dictionaries"