Reference Shelf - Dictionaries

 All sites are free unless marked with WSU - these marked sites are available only to Worcester State University users. 

General Dictionaries:

• Oxford English Dictionary  (WSU)  
• Merriam-Webster - 11th edition of the Collegiate Dictionary; also includes a thesaurus  
• American Heritage Dictionary - 4th edition, 2006 
• Oxford American Dictionary of Current English - (WSU) click on "English Dictionaries"
• Oxford American Thesaurus of Current English - (WSU) click on "English Dictionaries"
• Visual Dictionary - site offers annotated images that identify each part of a given item. Created by lexicographers at Merriam-Webster.

Specialized Dictionaries:

• Acronym Finder - currently contains over 475,000 entries covering all fields of interest 
• Acronyms, Initialisms, and Abbreviations Dictionary - (WSU) 4 vols, 37th edition, 2006. In the Gale Virtual Reference Library - click under "general reference"
• Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable - hosted by Info Please. The 1894 edition, the last one  Brewer worked on himself; a classic reference book.  
• Oxford Reference Online - (WSU) many foreign language dictionaries [listed under Bilingual Dictionaries] and special subject dictionaries  
• American Sign Language Dictionary  
• Multi-language Dictionaries - links from Yahoo Directory page
• Webopedia - computer related terms
• For dictionaries in specific subjects (psychology, philosophy, medicine, literature, etc.) see our Subject Guides