Subscribe to our Best Free Dictionary / Thesaurus Utility
|
In a Hurry?
|
 Go straight to the Quick Selection Guide |
|
Introduction
|
|
Dictionary and thesaurus utility helps find the meanings of the words and suggest a list of words according to similarity of meaning on your computer screen. It is handy and helpful for daily use without the need to flip through a thick and heavy book of dictionary or thesaurus. |
|
Discussion
|
|
I've been using WordWeb for a while now and have seen enough to say this will be one of the rare utilities I review that ends up staying on my PC. WordWeb is an enhanced dictionary and thesaurus. I say "enhanced" because it does some tricky extra things like showing only the relevant synonyms and related words according to whether they are noun, verb, adjective or adverb. It can also find words by pattern match or dictionary adjacency. Usage is simple; just select a word in any document and click the WordWeb tray icon. Immediately you'll get a popup with the word's meaning and synonyms. Additional Features like "Wikipedia", "Wiktionary", "WordWeb Online" can be accessed if one is online. I recommend that it is best that you explore these amazing features yourself. Overall, it works efficiently and elegantly to help you find the just right word to use in your written reports. WordWeb is free for personal use and a Pro version with an enhanced dictionary costs a mere $29 and is well worth buying. An equally attractive alternative to WordWeb is TheSage from Sequence Publishing. Like WordWeb, it's a comprehensive dictionary with over 140,000 references together with a powerful thesaurus. It differs in that it is free even for commercial use and offers a couple of features missing from the free version of WordWeb such as anagram solving and wildcard word matches. On the minus side, WordWeb allows you to find meanings and synonyms in any application just by double clicking the word; with TheSage you have to cut and paste it into the application after you've launched it from its task bar icon. If you just want a thesaurus consider Mobysaurus. It's much more comprehensive than the thesaurus in either WordWeb and The Sage but lacks a separate dictionary. However for wordsmiths it's a must-have product. Mobysaurus is yet another outstanding free utility from the guys at DonationCoder. If you use Mobysaurus, do the right thing and support DonationCoder generously. Other freeware to be downloaded and reviewed:
|
|
Related Products and Links
|
|
You might want to check out these articles too: |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
5.52 
Private Freeware (not free for commercial use) 
Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
|
Editor
|
|
This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Nikita Kobrin |
|
Tags
|
|
dictionary, thesaurus, online dictionary, online thesaurus, free, freeware |
Back to the top of the article
Delicious
Digg
StumbleUpon
Please rate this article
Lingoes is the best , very powerful.
Has anyone tried '1-Click Answers'?
http://www.answers.com/main/download_answers_win.jsp
With it you also 'Alt-Click' on any word to retrieve the answer, and the program is under 1MB.
Lingoes is head and shoulders above the other apps listed in this article imho. It's basically a free version of the fantastic Babylon. It offers multiple online and offline dictionaries, thesaurus, encyclopedias, spell checkers, translators etc etc, all within one easy to use interface.
http://www.lingoes.net/
I could not more strongly agree.
If one downloads Lingoes and just the right additional dictionaries, and the puts them in the right order (this is key); and if one adds cool additional tools like spelling suggestions and others; and if one removes a couple of the "appendices" (as they're called in Lingoes) that are pointless; and if you configure its behavior just so (this, too, is key)...
...then it is just about the hottest thing of its type out there... especially among freebies... but even among some commercial products.
I even like it better than the commercial Babylon... especially when I saw what Babylon charged for the exact same dictionaries that I could get for free -- and MORE -- on the Lingoes site.
This thing is truly amazing... way, way more amazing than I realized even after using it for a while.
All you have to do, for example, is hover the mouse pointer above a word you're not sure is spelled correctly, or the definition of which you'd like, or the antonyms/synonyms to which you'd like...
...or the translation, or the spelling suggestions, or the pronunciation, or the word parts, or the word origins, or the slang, or the idioms, or the antonyms (and synonyms), or the translation, or...
[breathless]
...the list just goes on and on... just hover the mouse pointer above the word in question, then hit Ctrl-right-click (or any other keystroke/click combination you'd like instead) and an entire listing of ALL those things -- and more -- pops-up and can br scrolled up/down through easily.
Actually, the only thing it DOESN'T do is spell-check while one types, and lo and behold, the free version of TinySpell (linked to in "Best Free Spell Checker" under "Related Products and Links" on this page) handles that magnificently!
Together, they're a KILLER combination, the likes of which one would NEVER have expected to see in a pair of freebie.
One can also use Lingoes to look-up words on all of the biggest online dictionary/thesaurus web site while never leaving the Lingoes interface.
Same for all the big online translation sites.
It also has some extras in it like a currency converter, and weights and measures converter, and time zone converter, and international dialing codes, and the international phonetic alphabet, and the periodic table, and a scientific notation calculator, and a base-64 encoder/decoder, and an MD4/MD5/SHA-1 algorithm maker, and abbreviations, and irregular verbs, and domain name gTLD and ccTLD listings, and computer file types, and computer terms, and medical terms, and a mythology dictionary/encyclopedia, and a Shakespearian dictionary, and the CIA Word Fact Book, and essential vocabulary, and... and....
[breathless again]
...and that's just the stuff in ENGLISH. It translates back and forth between more than 80 languages, any 23 of which at a time into your own language.
It's UNBELIEVABLE!!!!
I've used WordWeb since its beginnings. The Sage, too.
I love them both. They're fantastic. (I slightly prefer The Sage, but I've used WordWeb longer than any of them.)
However, I'm now using Lingoes. And it's likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
It takes some downloading of dictionaries and add-ons, and some setting up, in order to get Lingoes tweaked to the point that it will do everything (and more) that I've herein listed, but once that's done: Oh. My. God.
And since it's free and sorta' pseudo open-source, one can create their own dictionaries, glossaries, lexicons and other references with no problem... the complete instructions are right on the sight.
This thing should not be underestimated.
Lingoes. And TinySpell. Mmmmmm.
__________________________
Gregg L. DesElms
gregg [at] greggdeselms.com
Napa, California
Many thanks for the good comments. I tried it on Firefox and it works fine, but it doesn't show up on Chrome. Anyone has an idea to make it work?
TheSage is total overkill for the average user, and it's option's configuration are bewildering. WordWeb is a much better choice for most people IMHO.
I tend to search from my browser and have found the Dictionary Tooltip extension for Firefox useful. However, I preferred earlier versions which searched multiple dictionaries by default - useful for technical terms that are context specific.
Similarly, Google now seems to restrict its 'define:someword' search function to just a few online sources.
A useful alternative for multidisciplinary work is Onelook: http://www.onelook.com/
I also find Foreignword useful to look for translations of specific terms between different languages: http://www.foreignword.com/Tools/dictsrch.htm
This site also offers a freeware program called Xanadu (http://www.foreignword.biz/software/Xanadu/default.aspx), but development seems to have stopped in 2002.
Bob
Great suggestions Bob,looking forward to more inputs from you :-)
Thanks Vazhavandan - On reflection, though, I'm concerned that my suggestions may be outside the scope of your review, especially if Gizmo's moving towards reviewing Online "Apps" separately. So perhaps it's best to take no notice!
None the less, I do feel good online dictionary and 'term translation' tools are highly relevant. I find that for day-to-day definitions I normally just enter 'define:word-of-interest' in Google and go to the most appropriate online source of information, which often satisfies my immediate needs.
But that doesn't help much if you find yourself having to translate a difficult technical term and you don't want to go to the trouble to register and post in a translators' forum (maybe the only way sometimes).
Anyway, here are a couple more links:
http://www.dicts.info/
http://ec.europa.eu/translation/language_aids/english_en.htm
Thank you for the Lingoes tip - It might be interesting to know -- for other non-conformists like me -- that Lingoes does not work with the Opera Browser nor with OpenOffice.
Sadly, I was so excited about the concept, that I fully loaded Lingoes up with all kinds of dictionaries, before I realized it. At first I thought it just wasn't working at all, but then I tested it on my notepad app (of course also not notepad, but editpad) - and there it worked. Now, I'm not going to change my fave progs because of its shortfalls. I guess I have to keep looking. Too bad. :-(
The new version of TheSage (3.1.0) is far superior to anything out there. Check it out and prove me wrong if you can!!
SO true, that program is amazing.
Everest Dictionary is a great free dictionary with more than 37 dictionaries, covering mainly all European languages.
Features:
It contains all international communication languages
The possibility to search words in many dictionaries
The possibility to search words using an index
The search of the words can be particularized
A double-click on a word will generate the automatic search of the word this command was acting on
Back button to the definition previously searched
The color of the found words can be particularized.
Instant translator: translate words using your mouse
Everest Game: good for testing your knowledge
Review: http://tr.im/1ley (Softpedia)
Download: http://www.free-soft.ro/download.html
Each application mentioned here has its own appeal and you will find them more than useful.
Hi
Any free dictionary for Arabic?
What should be added is that WordWeb is well suited for the minimalist PC user that values speed and low footprint (both disk + resident memory). This satisfies both. Sadly, I've retired my copy of WordWeb for Babylon (a somewhat bloated commercial offering) since I frequently have the need to look up words in multiple languages.
Simply, if an English-English dictionary+thesaurus is all you need, this is the software I also recommend. The dictionary is actually derived from the WordNet project at Princeton: an extremely comprehensive database of English language, examining relationships between words: synonyms, hypernyms, hyponyms, etc.
I used WordWeb for many years and have nothing but respect for its author. However, when I found TheSage I knew that I wasn't going back.
By the way, have you seen the latest version of TheSage? Wow, simply wow. That's a dictionary that is going beyond all else on the planet! You don't need to use it, you don't need to download it. Just go to the website, take a look at the screenshot, and then contact the author of your favorite dictionary and ask for the features that you are missing...
I was very happy with Wordweb. How ever I found Stardict here:
http://stardict.sourceforge.net/
And boy does Stardict rock! Thousands of free dictionaries/thesaurus'/encyclopedias/jargon lists/ are available.
Really you will stop using wordweb when you start using this. Note however you have to choose the dictionaries carefully. I could recommend wordnet, oxford advanced learner's dictionary and Britanica concise encyclopedia
As I experience on my xp, the stardict can not show all the chinese characters correctly. Besides that, it is my first choice on linux
It's GTK+'s bugs, not Stardict's. GTK on windows doesn't handle UTF-8 characters very well .
I have been using WordWeb for the last couple of years. I am more than happy with it...
i am using Lingoes and very happy with it. As a french and english learner it helps me so much. It is a great productivity tool that saves a big time.
I've used WordWeb for over a year now and it's one of those tools I couldn't live without.
If you already use Enzo Launcher, Enzo Word (http://www.humanized.com/enso/words) is a nice addition (dictionary/thsaurus/spell checker).
Metaglossary (http://www.metaglossary.com) is a different sort of dictionary/thesaurus. It searches the web and includes definitions from multiple sources... but it can be slow.
[4] Lingoes
Website: http://www.lingoes.net/
Download link: http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/download.htm
Author: Lingoes Project
Current Version: 2.2.0
Version Date: Mar 20, 2008
Download File size: 3.69MB
License: Freeware
Operating Systems supported: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista
Additional Software Required: None
64 Bit capable: Yes
Portable version available: No
Non-English languages supported: Yes
Other relevant information: Lingoes is an easy-to-use dictionary and text translation software, It offers lookup dictionaries, text translation, a cursor-driven translator, an index list and pronunciation of words in over 80 languages. These language are English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Arabic, Hebrew and more...
A portable version of Lingoes is now available.
Check the download link: http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/download.htm
Post new comment