Web Dictionary Plans to Outdo Print Cousins

New features and bigger capacity make Wordnik a revolution in lexicography
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 16, 2009 5:32 PM CDT
Web Dictionary Plans to Outdo Print Cousins
The word "ginormous" is framed by fingers after being added to a draft copy of the upcoming Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, in Springfield, Mass., Tuesday, July 3, 2007.   (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Ever stumbled across an unfamiliar word and wondered not only what it means, but what it looks and sounds like? Or what other words it appears alongside most often, and how many times it’s been used in print this year? The revolutionary new dictionary Wordnik, set to go online this week, provides the curious logophile with all these features and more, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

Harnessing the native capabilities of the Internet, Wordnik definitions include images scraped from Flickr, audio recordings of pronunciations, and ratings of definitions by other users. The project includes 4 billion words and offers sample sentences plucked at random from the web. Want to flip through the pages and learn a new word at random? Hit the serendipity button, of course.
(More dictionary stories.)

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