From the files of the What Can’t Dropbox Handle Dept: the web-based file syncing service makes it easy to keep custom dictionaries in Word, or most any other app, available and synchronised between computers, as reader caryo points out.
Google used to offer up an automatic definition from sources like Dictionary.com or Answers.com. Now there’s a little blue “definition” link on the right side of any word or phrase search, offering Google’s own homebrew definition answers.
Wolfram Alpha, the “computational knowledge engine” that’s steadily updating, has a good but hidden use as a word and language tool for use while writing. In other words, it can be a smart and snappy thesaurus/dictionary/translator/anagram tool.
Dictionaries and their online counterparts can give you the straight-up meaning, and maybe sentence context, of a word you’re fuzzy on. The Wordnik site wants to show you all the conversations, pictures and other talk about your word.
iPhone/iPod touch only: The Dictionary.com iPhone app does just what you might expect it to, but also offers spoken word pronunciations, words of the day, and similarly-spelled options when you’re connected to the net.
Macworld runs down the cheapest iPhone dictionary applications; sadly, the one free option doesn’t get the best review (though it’s unsurprisingly the most popular). What’s your favourite iPhone dictionary application? Let us know.
Mac OS X only: System preferences pane Dictionary Cleaner managers the words you add to your Mac’s built-in dictionary. Add and remove words using Dictionary Cleaner’s simple interface, shown. It’s especially handy for removing misspelled words you added to the dictionary mistakenly, and it supports languages other than English, including French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Portugese, Polish, and Finnish. Dictionary Cleaner is a free download for Mac only. Dictionary Cleaner [Two AM Software via Macworld]
The Street Static weblog provides a detailed step-by-step tutorial for turning your Nintendo DS into a portable translation dictionary. The process requires a free DS application called NewDictS, then takes advantage of previously mentioned StarDict’s open-source dictionaries. When you’re done, your Nintendo DS can translate and define English, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, French, and more. We don’t have a DS at Lifehacker HQ, so let’s hear how it works for you if you give NewDictS a run. Turn your Nintendo DS into a Dictionary [Street Static]
Find yourself facing a web page loaded with words you’re a little uncertain about, whether they’re another language or a bit obscure? Web tool lingro offers two bookmarklet tools that make every word on a page able to pop up a definition or translation window when clicked on. There’s two flavors of bookmarkleta, quick (one tooltip at a time, no toolbar) and full-featured, and users can contribute their own definitions and translations if lingro’s Creative Commons-licensed sources can’t fine one. A good tool to keep tucked away for those over-wrought essays friends link you to.
lingro: bookmarklet [via Download Squad]When you need a word’s definition, translation, pronunciation, synonym, or antonym, you don’t have to haul an enormous tome from the bookshelf, dust it off, and ruffle through its delicate pages like your grandparents used to do—you can just hop on the internet. Beside the standard-issue dictionary and spellchecker offered by most word processors and operating systems, there are several web-based language tools at your disposal that can get you just the information you need. Let’s take a look at some of the best online language tools for word nerds and regular people who just want to say that word correctly in conversation.
