Last month I published the post, What Are the “Best” WebSites for #Writers?
They were mostly about various aspects of the art and craft of writing.
The sites I’ll feature today are more closely concerned with the Words writers use and readers absorb…
The first is World Wide Words.
This from the site:
“The English language is forever changing. New words appear; old ones fall out of use or alter their meanings. World Wide Words tries to record at least a part of this shifting wordscape by featuring new words, word histories, words in the news, and the curiosities of native English speech.”
Next is Wordwizard.
From their site:
“At Wordwizard we’re interested in English, in particular the origins of English words or phrases, and English usage. But we’re also happy to discuss any interesting aspect of the English language with like-minded people, and try to help anyone with a tricky letter or other writing project.”
And, now, Word Spy:
“…this is the central premise of Word Spy — that you can understand the culture by examining its new words, by going out to what one linguist calls the “vibrant edges” of language. There you see that new words both reflect and illuminate not only the subcultures that coin them, but also our culture as a whole. New words give us insight into the way things are even as they act as linguistic harbingers (or canaries in the cultural coal mine), giving us a glimpse of (or a warning about) what’s to come.”
And, one of my favorites, the Online Etymology Dictionary:
“This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they’re explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago.”
Next is Wordnik:
“Wordnik is the world’s biggest online English, by number of words….Wordnik shows definitions from multiple sources, so you can see as many different takes on a word’s meaning as possible….We try to show as many real examples as possible for each word….Our word relationships include synonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, words used in the same context, a reverse dictionary, and tags….There are more than 30,000 lists on Wordnik! Any logged-in Wordnik can make one (or more, or many, many more) lists.”
And, finally, The Sciolist—a links page (over 40) from the editor of the Online Etymology Dictionary.
ENJOY :-)
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