ImaginationBlue

Hello to all on writingforums.com. This is my first question here.

Tell me please, what is your favorite dictionary software? I am on Mac OS X, but some are available for both, so if you use Windows I am still interested in your suggestion.

Just a general dictionary, not medical or some other specialized kind.

It would be nice to find a dictionary that can interface with Microsoft Word (like, respond to a command and open if possible).

Thanks so much for any replies!

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Azmakna

i want to know that too!

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Mike C

Get a paper one. Pocket Oxford or whatever your local equivalent is.

And carry it everywhere in your pocket.

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killned3

There is one you can open in Microsoft Word. Go to the Tools menu and select Dictionary, unless prior versions don't support it. Macs come with a Dictionary application with the last two software updates. PCs may, as well, but I'm not very familiar with PCs and so I do not know this. Nothing really beats a standard dictionary, though (unless you're going quickly), so I'd advise picking up an Oxford college dictionary. They had a good deal on them not too long ago at the bookstore . . . maybe it's still going on and, if so, where you're located. I don't know. My opinion.

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mammamaia

i use and like dictionary/thesaurus.com... but keep a huge, hardcover unabridged 'american heritage dictionary of the english language' and a pb 'roget's college thesaurus' near at hand, as well...

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ImaginationBlue

Thank you, I own several dictionaries. I use the dictionary in Word all the time. There are more exhaustive ones though, available as software. These can be very useful if you compose on a computer.

Thanks again.

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“There’s only one institution in the world today more powerful than American government, and that is American civil society.”

Arundhati Roy

Ilan Bouchard

Mac OS X's Dictionary application usually does the trick.

Admittedly, it [OS X's] and Word's dictionaries are a bit lacking; I usually resort to thesaurus.com for synonyms, and just google words that aren't defined in either of the above dictionaries—where clicking 'definition' gets you a list of websites that can define the word.

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archer88iv

I stick to dictionary.com, google.com, and urbandictionary.com.

I'm too lazy for anything else and, more importantly, I can't expect my readers to do any more footwork than I do (I kinda figure they're lazy too. ).

P.S.

...er... Ok, google.com makes no sense as a dictionary, but I sometimes use it to check for context--that is, to see if other people sometimes use a word in the way I'm using it. For example, I googled "suffice it to say" to make sure the phrase I'd been hearing all my life was actually spelled like that.

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Mike C

Aren't those two phrases somewhat oxymoronic?

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Destroyer

Rely on paper dictionaries and your own judgement more than the computer. I still get annoyed at the obvious mistakes my dictionary and grammar software makes.

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Banzai

I use a combination between dictionary.com and a massive hardback Oxford English Dictionary that lives on my desk. I used to have a pocket OED, but some unscrupulous vagabond made of with it, and I am yet to replace it.

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