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Oxford English Dictionary - http://oed.com/cgi/display/wotd
Presents a word a day complete with pronunciation, spellings, etymology, quotations and date chart. |
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Word Spy - http://www.wordspy.com/
Collection of recently coined words, existing words that have enjoyed a recent Renaissance, and older words that are now being used in new ways. |
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American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org/
A scholarly association dedicated to the study of the English language in North America. |
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Online Etymology Dictionary - http://www.etymonline.com/
History and evolution of more than 30,000 words, including slang and technical terms. |
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World Wide Words - http://www.worldwidewords.org/
Michael Quinion writes about International English from a British viewpoint. Hundreds of pages on the history, origins, evolution and idiosyncrasies of English, with features on new words and words in the news. |
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languagehat.com - http://www.languagehat.com/
Erudite blog on word origins and definitions, with dozens of links to dictionaries, commentaries, linguistic reference sites, and personal favorites of the author. |
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A Comparative Dictionary of Indo-Aryan Languages - http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/soas/
Online version of the indexes of R.L. Turner's 1962-1985 dictionary from the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia. |
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The Word Detective - http://www.word-detective.com
Words and language in a humorous vein. The online version of The Word Detective, a newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language. Written by Evan Morris. |
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Focusing on Words - http://www.wordfocus.com/
An advanced Latin-Greek-English vocabulary source of etymologies with thematic units of roots, prefixes, and suffixes, and vocabulary quizzes. |
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Etymologic - http://www.etymologic.com/
The brain-twisting etymology game. |
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Word and Phrase Origins - http://www.ipl.org/div/pf/entry/48468
Directory. Part of the Internet Public Library. Describes books and web sites that might be helpful. Offers a hint on how to use an ordinary search engine when looking for etymology. |
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What's The Meaning of This? - http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genepool/meanings.htm
The origins of quirky English words and phrases like "In like Flynn" and "blackmail." |
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Word Quests for Word Seekers - http://www.wordquests.info
Searchable dictionary of word origins, organized in cross-referenced thematic lists by Latin and/or Greek roots. English entries are also defined. |
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New Words In English - http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling215/NewWords/index.html
Neologisms and novel uses of words in English collected by members of the class Linguistics/English 215, Words in English: Structure, History and Use, taught by Suzanne Kemmer at Rice University. |
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Exploring English Words - http://www.wordexplorations.info
Exploring English words that are derived from Latin and Greek sources with etymologies and vocabulary activities. |
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http://www.mootgame.com/ - http://www.mootgame.com/
The game of grammar, semantics, and etymology. Play online the game that investigates the history and meaning of English words. |
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Pandora's Word Box - http://pandorawordbox.com/
Relates medical terminology to the humanities, offering a weekly overview with references to classical etymology. |
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Sayings and Everyday Expressions - http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayindex.htm
Your online source for the sayings and expressions you use everyday. Search for their meaning, history and origin, find sayings, expressions, phrases, quotations, cliches, unusual words, and wordplay. |
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English Language Roots: The Meanings of Word Prefixes, Suffixes and Syllables - http://www.prefixsuffix.com
Reference chart for Greek, Latin, and other roots of the English language. Understanding such roots can help guessing the meaning of words and creating neologisms or brand names. |
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Word Sources - http://www.wordsources.info/
Includes a searchable database of Latin and Greek roots and affixes, a free newsletter, and links to other sites. |