Online Dictionaries: Online Resources
A list of both language dictionaries and subject-specific dictionaries available online.
About this guide
Guide content supports the teaching and research goals of multiple departments on campus. Content represents a non-exhaustive selection of essential resources and tools for engaging a wide range of backgrounds and viewpoints.
Online Dictionaries
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Combined Chemical Dictionary This link opens in a new windowIncludes descriptive and numerical data on chemical, physical and biological properties of compounds; systematic and common names of compounds; literature references; structure diagrams and their associated connection tables. Contains all those compounds published in: Dictionary of organic compounds (200,000 records), Dictionary of natural products (120,000 records), Dictionary of inorganic and organometallic compounds (90,000 records), Dictionary of pharmacological agents (30,000 records), Dictionary of analytical reagents (14,000 records).
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Oxford-French dictionary This link opens in a new window175,000 words and phrases, 270,000 translations. Completely updated to include the very latest vocabulary, the Concise Oxford-Hachette French Dictionary offers authoritative coverage. Brand-new features include cultural notes on life in the French-speaking world.
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Dictionary of Irish Biography This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive and authoritative biographical dictionary for Ireland. It contains over 9,000 signed biographical articles describing the careers of individuals in all fields of endeavour, including politics, law, religion, literature, journalism, architecture, painting, music, the stage, science, medicine, engineering, entertainment and sport.
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Dictionary of Literary Biography This link opens in a new windowProvides more than 16,000 biographical and critical essays on the lives, works, and careers of the world's most influential literary figures from all eras and genres.Comprised of Dictionary of literary biography series, Dictionary of literary biography yearbook, and Dictionary of literary biography. Documentary series.
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Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism in C19 This link opens in a new windowThe Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism is a new reference work with over 1600 entries detailing British and Irish newspaper and periodical publishing in the nineteenth century.
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Dictionary of Old English, A to Le Online This link opens in a new windowProduced in part with the support of the Canada Foundation for Innovation through the TAPoR project, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Dictionary of Old English, Old English Corpus This link opens in a new windowContains all surviving Old English material (over 3000 texts), excluding some variant texts. Each text includes a reference to its genre, period and language; a unique text number; a Cameron number; and a short and expanded title used to identify the text in the Dictionary of Old English. Also includes "Latin word wheel".
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Digital dictionary of Buddhism This link opens in a new windowA compilation of Buddhist technical terminology texts, temples, schools, persons, etc. that are found in East Asian Buddhist canonical sources. Since much of what East Asian Buddhists have written about is the Buddhism of India, Central Asia, and Tibet, the content of this database/dictionary/encyclopedia/translation glossary is pan-Buddhist in character. Dictionaries and other reference sources are in many East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Pali, Sanskrit and Tibetan).
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Getty Thesaurus of Geographic NamesProduced by the Getty Information Institute, this thesaurus offers several approaches to identifying geographic-name synonyms.
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Green's Dictionary of Slang This link opens in a new windowA collection of this often reviled but endlessly fascinating area of the English language, these volumes cover slang from the past five centuries right up to the present day, from all the different English-speaking countries and regions.
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Grove Art Online This link opens in a new windowA scholarly art encyclopedia covering all aspects of Western and non-Western visual art
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Grove Music Online This link opens in a new window
Part of Oxford Music Online.
Limited to eight (8) simultaneious users.
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Merriam-Webster OnlineLook up a definition, pronunciation, etymology, spelling, or usage point in the WWWebster Dictionary.
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Middle English Compendium This link opens in a new windowThe Middle English Compendium has been designed to offer easy access to and interconnectivity between three major Middle English electronic resources: an electronic version of the Middle English Dictionary, a HyperBibliography of Middle English prose and verse, based on the MED bibliographies, and an associated network of electronic resources.
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New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics Online This link opens in a new windowThe New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd edition, edited by Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume, contains over 1,850 articles by more than 1,500 of the world's leading economists.
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Ojibwe People's DictionarySome entries have spoken examples.
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Oxford Art Online This link opens in a new windowProvides access to Grove Art Online, Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms.
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Oxford Classical Dictionary This link opens in a new windowContains over 6,200 entries. The Oxford Classical Dictionary has been regarded as the unrivalled one-volume reference work on all aspects of the Graeco-Roman world. It provides both scholars and non-specialists with a comprehensive source of reference which aims to answer all their questions about the classical world. The Dictionary provides coverage of Greek and Roman history, literature, myth, religion, linguistics, philosophy, law, science, art and archaeology, and topics in near eastern studies and late antiquity. The approach is interdisciplinary: all areas, regions, and cultures are represented beyond the core areas of Greece and Rome. As well as providing factual information, the Dictionary contains many thematic entries on subjects relevant to the 21st century such as nationalism, race, and ecology. The text is written in an accessible style and all Latin and Greek words have been translated.
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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography This link opens in a new windowOxford DNB is a collection of 55,000 specially written biographies, which describe the lives of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond.
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Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History This link opens in a new windowThe Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History, edited by Bonnie G. Smith, captures the experiences of women throughout history in a far-reaching, four-volume work. With over 650 biographies of influential women and over 600 topical articles covering topics such as geography and history, culture and society, organizations, movements, and gender studies, Women in World History is the definitive reference work in the field.
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Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
AUGUST 2023 : THERE IS A KNOWN ISSUE WITH THIS RESOURCE ON OXFORD'S PLATFORM. OXFORD IS ACTIVELY WORKING ON A SOLUTION. THE LIBRARIES RECOMMEND USING FIREFOX WHEN USING THIS RESOURCE TO MINIMIZE ACCESS ISSUES.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language, serving as a guide to the meaning, history, and usage of 500,000 words and phrases past and present, from across the English-speaking world.
Along with present-day meanings, users will also find the history of individual words and of the language—traced through 3.5 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts, song lyrics, and social media posts. -
Oxford Dictionaries This link opens in a new windowThe University of Iowa subscription includes: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Arabic
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Oxford Music Online This link opens in a new window
Includes the Oxford Dictionary of Music, Grove Music Online, and the Oxford Companion to Music.
Limited to eight (8) simultaneous users.
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Oxford Reference This link opens in a new windowMulti-part database of the online versions of seminal Oxford University Press texts. Each topical division contains the searchable version of the latest edition of published dictionaries and encyclopedias. Additionally, information about Oxford University Press is provided. Online texts will be updated after new editions of the print monographs are published.
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Oxford Spanish Dictionary This link opens in a new windowFully searchable, comprehensive Spanish-English, English-Spanish dictionary, part of Oxford Language Dictionaries Online.
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Oxford-German Dictionary This link opens in a new windowFully searchable, comprehensive German-English, English-German dictionary, part of Oxford Language Dictionaries Online.
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Oxford-Italian Dictionary This link opens in a new windowFully searchable, comprehensive Italian-English, English-Italian dictionary, part of Oxford Language Dictionaries Online.
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Pronouncing Dictionary of Music and MusiciansPronouncing the titles of classical music and the names of composers and performers is a daunting task for many Americans because so many of the words are foreign to us. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that some of the names that look familiar are not pronounced as we would pronounce them. This dictionary provides some help in the form of pronunciations by a phonetic system devised by E. Douglas Brown of the staff of WOI Radio at Iowa State University. Many of the pronunciations in the dictionary were derived from tape-recorded pronunciations made by foreign nationals who were speaking their respective native languages. Prepared primarily for the announcing staff of WOI, the dictionary has been found useful by them and is being made freely available to others who may find it of value. Although imperfect and far from complete, the dictionary, with its 30,000 entries, is the most extensive of its type now available.
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Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and PhrasesA straightforward, dictionary-style thesaurus, based on Roget's Thesaurus.
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Tresor de la Langue Francaise InformatiseTLFi. Online version of authoritative dictionary of 19th-20th century French language. Offers multiple searching levels: word entry, origin and association.
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WordnetFrom Princeton's Cognitive Science Laboratory, Wordnet is an online dictionary that you can explore in different directions, finding words that mean the same, mean the opposite, are more general or more specific, as well as getting a brief definition.
