Reference Shelf

Dictionaries and Thesauri

This page lists dictionaries freely available on the Web. If you wish to translate a section of text into another language please use the Translation Services page.

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Dictionaries

Macquarie Dictionary
The Macquarie Dictionary is an Australian English dictionary, published by Macquarie Library Pty Ltd. It can be searched, for free, from this site.

Language Dictionaries
Part of the Yourdictionary.com site, this page is a collection of online dictionaries, in a variety of languages.

Life Science Dictionary
Published on the web by BioTech, University of Texas Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology, this site is a searchable dictionary focusing on terms used in biochemistry, biotechnology, botany, cell biology and genetics. Includes many illustrations.

Dictionary of Units
Compiled by Frank Tapson, from the Centre for Innovative Teaching in Mathematics, this site is a summary of most units of measure used around the world.

Online Medical Dictionary
Includes more than 46 000 definitions of medical terms; also some biological and other scientific terms. Distributed by CancerWeb.

PetEducation.com: Dictionary
Part of the PetEducation website created by veterinarians Dr Race Foster and Dr Marty Smith, this site provides a dictionary of veterinary terms, and links to a list of weights, measurements and conversions and a table of abbreviations and acronyms. A warning not to use the search function at the top of the page as this will search the entire PetEducation website for documents containing your keyword.

Equine Multilingual Dictionary
Jean-Claude Boulet, a graduate of the University of Quebec Trois-Rivieres has produced this equine multilingual (English, French, Spanish and German) dictionary that will be helpful to veterinarians and to all those involved in the horse industry. It gives an in-depth coverage of every aspect of the horse - including anatomy, coats, equipment, farriery, pathology, the major disciplines and training. There is a bibliography of works used in compiling the dictionary.

YourDictionary.com: Specialty Dictionaries
A large site that lists online dictionaries on specialised topic areas.

The Internet Language Dictionary
Offered by NetLingo.com, this site is an online dictionary of popular Internet words and definitions that describe the technology of the World Wide Web. The site is easily navigable, and users can access definitions by clicking on the terms of their choice, which are located in the left hand frame.

Glossarist.com
A directory of glossaries and subject directories. Includes glossaries for the veterinary and biological sciences.

MediLexicon
A dictionary of medical, pharmaceutical, biomedical & healthcare acronyms and abbreviations. This site also provides medical news and links to other online medical respurces.

Visionary
Visionary is an online dictionary of terminology used in the human and animal ophthalmology and vision studies. It is written and maintained by Dr. Lars Liden of the Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems, Boston University. The site is searched alphabetically and entries are well cross-referenced. There is also a page of links to other vision-related websites.

Thesauri

Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, 3rd Edition
Published by Houghton Mifflin, USA, this site is an online version of Roget's Thesaurus.

WorldNet: a Lexical Database for English
An on-line lexical reference system from the Cognitive Science Laboratory, Princeton University. English nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are organized into synonym sets.

Mirriam-Webster Online Thesaurus
Searchable online thesaurus from Merriam-Webster, USA.