Research Guides: Research Tools: Dictionaries

Facts & Figures Topics

Use these tools to find information about words, their forms, pronunciations, meanings, translations, etc.

[Compiled by Wil Frost, Librarian; updated July 2010]

UH Manoa Library Electronic Resources - Dictionaries
More than 300 dictionaries retrieved from a search of the Library's Electronic Resources Gateway. (UH Manoa Library)
Dictionary.com
Multi-source dictionary service including sections for: Words in general, Abbreviations, Cultural, Etymology, Financial, Idioms, Law, Medical, Science, Slang. Also includes these sections: Thesaurus, Quotes, Encyclopedia, and Translator. (Dictionary.com, LLC.)
Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names Online
Contains almost 900,000 records, including around 1,115,000 names, place types, coordinates, and descriptive notes. (J. Paul Getty Trust)
infoplease Dictionary
The dictionary component of the Information Please bundle that includes an almanac, thesaurus, encyclopedia, and atlas. (Pearson Education, publishing as Infoplease)
Merriam-Webster Online
This freely available (with advertising) version includes Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary and Thesaurus. (Merriam-Webster, Inc.)
Na Puke Wehewehe Olelo Hawaii / Hawaiian Dictionaries
Allows searches in Hawaiian or English of four well known sources. Hawaiian and English language interfaces. (ulukau, Hawaiian Electronic Library)

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Online
UHM login required. The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books. (Oxford University Press)

Roget's Thesaurus
Search the headwords or full text of Roget's Thesaurus, 1911, version 1.02 (supplemented: July 1991). Words that have come into use since the early 1990s are not included. (The ARTFL Project, Department of Romance Languages and Literature, The University of Chicago)
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Search the headwords of Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1828 and/or 1913 editions. Words that have come into use since the early 1900s are not included. (The ARTFL Project, Department of Romance Languages and Literature, The University of Chicago)