Translator
- AltaVista Babel Fish Translation – enables you to translate short passages of text or entire Web sites among 19 pairs of languages
Dictionaries
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition – over 90,000 entries feature 10,000 new words and senses, 70,000 audio word pronunciations, 900 full-page color illustrations, language notes and word-root appendixes
- Cambridge Dictionary of American English – search the full text of the Cambridge Dictionary of American English, which also provides full sentence examples
- Compact Oxford English Dictionary – contains 145,000 words, phrases, and definitions
- Dictionary.com – a multi-source dictionary search service of over 15 dictionaries
- The Free Dictionary – an expanded version of the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, with 200,000 entries, audio pronunciation feature, and etymologies
- Merriam-Webster Online - searchable; provides pronunciation, word function, and simple etymology
- Oxford English Dictionary - contains the complete text of the 20-volume Second Edition.
Requires USC ID and password for off campus access - Wiktionary - a collaborative project to produce a free, multilingual dictionary with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations. Wiktionary is the lexical companion to Wikipedia.
Multi-Language Dictionaries
- ARTFL PROJECT: French-English Dictionary – French - English dictionary containing about 75,000 terms.
- Dictionnaire Cambridge Klett Compact – French - English dictionary from Cambridge Dictionaries Online
- Diccionario Cambridge Klett Compact - Spanish - English dictionary from Cambridge Dictionaries Online
- Merriam-Webster Online – Merriam-Webster’s Spanish - English Dictionary online
Specialty Dictionaries
- A Basic Dictionary of ASL Terms – browsable dictionary of American Sign Language Terms that includes text and animated definitions
- Cambridge International Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs – dictionary of phrases that combine a verb with an adverb, preposition, or both that have a different meaning that the individual words
- Concise Dictionary of First Names – searchable dictionary of over 6,000 names
- Dictionary of Units – provides a summary of most of the units of measurement in use around the world today (and a few of historical interest), together with the appropriate conversion factors needed to change them into appropriate International System (SI) unit
- DOD (Department of Defense) Dictionary of Military Terms – browseable dictionary of approved U.S. military terminology
- The Free Dictionary – in addition to standard dictionary, includes access to computing, medical, financial, and legal dictionaries
- Little Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (second edition) – contains more than 4,000 quotations on over 250 subjects
- Middle English Dictionary – This electronic version of the MED preserves all the details of the print MED, but goes far beyond this, by converting its contents into an enormous database, searchable in ways impossible within the print dictionary
- Techterms – computer and technical terms defined and explained
Thesauri
- The Free Dictionary – contains color-coded additional definitions, synonyms, related words, and anonyms
- Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus – comprehensive vocabulary of nearly 120,000 terms for describing objects, textural materials, images, architecture and material culture from antiquity to the present
- Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names – structured vocabulary developed primarily for the field of art history, but with the potential for wide applications in related disciplines such as archeology, history and geography
- Merriam-Webster Online - provides word function and hot-linked synonyms
- Roget's II: The New Thesaurus – contains succinct definitions as well as 35,000 synonyms and over 250,000 cross-references
Abbreviations, Acronyms, & Idiom Guides
- Abbreviations.com – search from word to abbreviation and abbreviation to word or browse by category
- Acronym Finder – more than 560,000 acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms
- Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms – dictionary of phrases and colloquial expressions
- Joint Acronyms and Abbreviations Master Database – browsable dictionary of U.S. military acronyms and abbreviations
General Encyclopedias
- The Britannica Concise – searchable single-volume encyclopedia complete with 28,000 articles from the editors of Encyclopædia Britannica
- Columbia Encyclopedia – contains nearly 51,000 entries and more than 80,000 hypertext cross-references, among the most complete and up-to-date encyclopediæ ever produced
- Wikipedia - a multilingual, web-based, free content encyclopedia project written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. With rare exceptions, its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet.
Specialty Encyclopedias
- Cambridge History of English and American Literature – 303 chapters of literary history and criticism, with essay topics ranging from poetry and fiction to theology and political writing
- Encyclopedia Mythica – encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion
- How Stuff Works – find out how just about anything works
- Medline Plus: Medical Encyclopedia – includes over 4,000 articles about diseases, tests, symptoms, injuries and surgeries, as well as medical photographs and illustrations
- Symbols.com – contains more than 1,600 articles about 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics
- Webopedia – online dictionary and search engine for computer and Internet technology