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English to English

One Look Dictionary
Think of this web site as a search engine for words and phrases: If you have a word for which you'd like a definition or translation, OneLook will quickly shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define or translate that word. If you don't know how to spell the word, It will help you do that too. No word is too obscure: More than 5 million words in more than 900 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook® search engine. Accepts wildcards

Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
This dictionary has lots of examples for each word and gives you easy to understand definitions. Highly recommended for second language learners.

Cambridge

Cambridge dictionaries range from intermediate to proficiency level. They are clear, completely up-to-date and very easy to use. Try Dictionary of Idioms to find definitions and examples for those idioms you can't understand.

American Heritage

It has very good usage notes and etymology. You can also listen to the pronunciation of each word.

Merriam-Webster

Has etymology and pronunciation. Also accepts wildcards (*) so you can find all the words with a common suffix or stem.

Your Dictionary.com

Dictionary.com

These two also check the words in the other dictionaries that are available online.

Bilingual Dictionaries

All Languages

Use a dictionary that gives the definition in your language or translates words from your language into English.

Synonyms, Antonyms, Thesauri, etc.

Visual Dictionary

Amazing Visual Dictionary for finding synonyms fast and easily. An experiment in language and interface. By displaying the interrelationships between words and meanings as spatial maps, the Visual Thesaurus translates language into a visible architecture. You can use it online or download it.

Collins Collocation and Concordance

The Collins WordbanksOnline English corpus is composed of 56 million words of contemporary written and spoken text. Use the Concordance to see examples of how a word is used in today's English. Go down the page and use the Collocation Sampler box to see the collocation  (words that appear together with the word you have chosen). Very good tool for Advanced students and teachers of English.

Thesauri and Other Vocabulary Aids

Need something besides the definition of a word? A synonym or antonym? Or are you looking for an abbreviation of a phrase? Do you need your own lexical database? We have them all.

Picture Dictionaries

Online Picture Dictionary

See the pictures of the words you want to learn. Not perfect but perhaps the best free picture dictionary available online. You can download voice so that words are pronounced. It also has the words in Russian. Good for learning Russian.

The Internet Picture Dictionary

Brief but practical Picture dictionary in 5 languages: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish

Little Explorers English Picture Dictionary

Another picture dictionary mainly written for kids but also good for ESL learners.

Specialty (Technical) Dictionaries

All Subjects

Technical vocabulary is used only by specialists and so is not generally known by non-specialists. Here you will find dictionaries and glossaries of specialized words in the English language for all subjects such as accounting, chemistry, engineering, computers, etc.

Canadian Encyclopedia
The site contains the complete text of the acclaimed Canadian Encyclopedia in English and French, the text of the Junior Encyclopedia of Canada (in English only), numerous interactivities, feature articles, games, the Canucklehead Quiz, and an extensive timeline of Canadian and world events. The entire text can be searched via the simple search or advanced search and the user can switch languages at any time.

Columbia

Completely Free! Containing nearly 51,000 entries (marshalling six and one-half million words on a vast range of topics), and with more than 80,000 hypertext cross-references, the current Sixth Edition is among the most complete and up-to-date encyclopedia ever produced.

Britannica

The free part of the site only gives you one paragraph of each article. Full access fees are around $10 a month.

Quotationreference.com

A short but appealing dictionary of Quotations with subject and author indices. Very well designed.

Quotation Finder

A collection of links to most of the other Dictionaries of Quotations on the web.

World Newspapers

Search Online Newspapers

Search Online Magazines

Internet Public Library

Ottawa Area Libraries

Smart Library
Allows you to search several National Capital Library Catalogues at once. Libraries include: University of Ottawa, Carleton University, CISTI, Ottawa Public Library, Library and Archives Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilization, and Canadian War Musuem.

CMHC Catalogue

CCI (Canadian Conservation Institute)
Click on English then CCI Library then The CCI Library Web Catalogue.
 

Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI)

CNIB Library for the Blind
Search over 60,000 titles in the CNIB Library for the Blind's collection, including braille books, talking books, descriptive videos, and a wealth of electronic books and resources. You can also access their partner libraries from all over the world.

Ottawa Public Library

University of Ottawa
Carleton University
Pembroke Public Library
Universite St-Paul
National Capital Region Library Directory
This directory of reference and referral information services available in the National Capital Region (NCR) can be searched by subject or institution.

List of Ontario Libraries