More Language Fun
- Abbreviations
and Acronyms of the U.S. Government
- The name says it all.
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/gov/docs_abbrev.html
- Acronym Database
- A searchable database of acronyms and abbreviations and their expansions.
http://www.ucc.ie/info/net/acronyms/index.html
- Acronym Finder
- A database of acronyms and their meanings. Contains acronyms about:
general topics, computers, technology, government, telecommunications, and
the military including Department of Defense, Air Force, Army, Navy, and
Coast Guard acronyms.
http://www.AcronymFinder.com/
- Action Verbs
- A list of verbs to help you brag about your accomplishments on a
resume.You can choose to view the list alphabetically or by skill
categories.
http://www.earlham.edu/~career/resume/verbs.html
- Alan Cooper's
Homonym List
- Words, like "caret" and "carrot" that are pronounced
the same, but are spelled differently, and that have different meanings.
This list was compiled with a true appreciation for "the prime numbers
of the English language."
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html
- Alta Vista
Translation Service
- You provide either plain text or the address (URL) of a Web page to
translate from English into French, Spanish, Portuguese, German or Italian
or vice versa. For real fun, try translating something into a second
language and then back again into the original language.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn
- Amanda's Mnemonics
Page
- A mnemonic is a device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in
remembering. Amanda collects them and has organized them into handy
categories. To spell arithmetic correctly remember "A Rat In The House
May Eat The Ice Cream."
http://www.frii.com/~geomanda/mnemonics.html
- Amerispeak
- Expressions of our American ancestors. This page is a collection of
phrases that have been passed down through the generations in contributor's
families. Contribute your own or read through the categories. The site also
features "Ye Olde English Sayings."
http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/amerispeak.htm
- Ambigram.Com
- Ambigrams are a word or words that can be read in more than one way or
from more than a single vantage point, such as both right side up and upside
down.
http://Ambigram.Com/
- The Anagram Genius
Server
- Did you know that rearranging the letters of "George Bush" gives
"He bugs Gore," Madonna Louise Ciccone" gives
"Occasional nude income" and "William Shakespeare,"
"I am a weakish speller"??! With The Anagram Genius you can find
out what lurks within the letters of YOUR name, or that of your boss,
employer or anything else that you choose." You supply the name or
phrase, tone, gender, context, use (or not) of vulgar words, and number of
requested responses. Submit this information with your email address and
your anagrams arrive promptly in your inbox. Awesome!
http://www.anagramgenius.com/server.html
- Anagram Hall of Fame
- Here you'll find a list of the best and the brightest anagrams of all
time, such as "The Morse Code = Here Come Dots," "Slot
Machines = Cash Lost in'em" and "Dormitory = Dirty Room."
http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/hof.html
- Antagonyms
- An antagonym (a term the author coined) is single word that has meanings
that contradict each other. For example: Cleave, which means to adhere
tightly and also to cut apart. Antagonyms are also known as "contronyms."
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.html
- Apostrophe Protection Society
- Homepage of the Apostrophe Protection Society, started in 2001 by John
Richards, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this
currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the
English language.
http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
- Archive of Engandered, Special or
Fun Words
- Readers submit words they describe as either Endangered (at risk of
falling eternally out of use), Special (quite unique, either in meaning or
in composition), or Fun (a delight to the senses), or some combination
thereof. If a word is worthy of being described as Endangered, Special and
Fun, then it gets the status of the ever elusive and highly coveted E.S.o.F.
Hat Trick.
http://www.13d.org/esofword/
- Automatic WWW
Text Borkifier
- Enter your English text and press "Borkify" and it is instantly
translated into Mock Swedish (as spoken by the Muppet's Swedish Chef). As
they say in Mock Swedish, "Cuul."
http://www.astro.queensu.ca/~dursi/borker.html
- BABEL: A
Glossary of Computer Related Abbreviations and Acronyms
- This glossary was compiled because the author became frustrated while
reading magazine articles, help wanted ads and equipment for sale
brochures....all pertaining to computers....where the listed Abbreviations
and Acronyms were used and their meanings were either not known or were not
immediately available.
http://www.geocities.com/ikind_babel/babel/babel.html
- Banished
- The list of words and phrases chosen annually by Lake Superior State
University as banished from the Queen's English for mis-use, over-use or
general uselessness. Lists from previous years are available in their
archive to view or to print as a poster.
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/
- Behind the Name: The Etymology and
History of First Names
- This site looks into the meaning and history of common first names.
http://www.behindthename.com/
- Bilingual Vocabulary Quizzes
- Interactives quizzes to help you learn and review vocabulary in a variety
of foreign languages.
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/v/
- The Book
of Cliches: Phrases to Say in Times of Trouble
- Cliches for those troubled moments, neatly arranged by category. Includes
cliches for: when life is hard, when you are afraid, when you think you are
ugly, when you are looking for something and you don't know for what and
many more.
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/sybev/cliche/cliche.htm
- Brain Food: Puzzles For the
Brain To Gnaw On
- Give your mind a work out with devious collection of puzzles. There are
hundreds, ranging from word games to logic problems to riddles. Some are
tricky. Some require innovation. All require thinking power. Good luck.
http://www.rinkworks.com/brainfood/
- Brendan's Amazing
Anagram Generator
- This amazing program will take an English name, phrase, and so on, and
rearrange the letters to form other English words. Submitting "word
play" yielded 48 anagrams, including "yap world," "pal
rowdy," and "wary plod."
http://mmm.mbhs.edu/~bconnell/anagrams.html
- Brendan's Phone
Anagram Generator
- This program finds the letter equivalents of a phone number. For example,
"439-2665" is equivalent to dialing "HEY-COOL." Most of
the results you generate will probably be meaningless, but there might be a
couple or so that are real or semi-real phrases.
http://mmm.mbhs.edu/~bconnell/phoneagrams.html
- Broken Rules Page
- Here you will find some background on the "never end a sentence with
a preposition" rule as well as lists of words that violate the "i
before e" rule.
http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/broken.rules.html
- The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest
Home Page
- Where "WWW" means Wretched Writers Welcome. Sponsored by the
English Department at San Jose State University since 1982, the
Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is a whimsical literary competition that
challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all
possible novels.
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
- Burma
Shave Signs
- This is an archive, arranged by year, of the Burma Shave signs that used
to appear alongside the highway. Pause between each line you read and
imagine yourself rumbling down an old two-lane road, top down on the Chevy
convertible, watching America roll by.
http://www.nidlink.com/~dgookin/burma_shave/index.html
- Canadian Aptonym
Centre
- A collection of real people whose names strongly suggest their occupation
or pastime, e.g. the hairdresser Sonia Shears and hockey coach Jim Playfair.
http://www.accesscable.net/~chapmand/aptonyms/
- Candy is Dandy But Liquor Is
Quicker: Ogden Nash Online
- I've loved Odgen Nash's poetry since I was a child. This site boasts it is
the largest and most popular online collection of poetry by Ogden Nash. And
it's searchable.
http://www.westegg.com/nash/
- Canonical
Abbreviations/Acronyms List
- Some of these will have you ROFLASTC (Rolling On the Floor Laughing And
Scaring The Cat).
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/abbrev.html
- Casey's Snow Day Reverse
Dictionary (and Guru)
- Finally, the remedy for that tip-of-the-tongue feeling. You type in a
definition, and Casey's dictionary will tell you which word you are trying
to think of. If you aren't sure what to type, try a definition example: a
word that is spelled the same backwards as it is forwards Or, to ask the
Guru, try: What is the meaning of life?
http://www.c3.lanl.gov/revdict/
- Chiasmus.com
- Chiasmus is when you reverse the order of words in two otherwise parallel
phrases. Like Mae West's famous line, "It's not the men in my life,
it's the life in my men.
http://www.chiasmus.com/
- Christine Lavin Home Page
- Not only does Christine know how to have fun with words, she's funny,
clever, hip and sings like an angel. (And she twirls a mean baton!) Now
featuring her new album "Shining My Flashlight On The Moon," which
has many wonderful new songs including "Planet X." This cut,
Christine's tribute to the planet Pluto, features a sung URL for Pluto's
homepage.
http://www.christinelavin.com/
- Cliche Finder
- Have you been searching for just the right cliche; to use? Are you
searching for a cliche using the word "cat" or "day" but
haven't been able to come up with one? Enter any words in the textbox and
the search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase. Over 3,300
cliches indexed!
http://www.westegg.com/cliche/
- A Collection of Word
Oddities and Trivia
- A collection of word facts which includes such oddities as "BEIJING
has three dotted letters in a row (in lower case)," and "OCEANIA
crams five syllables into only seven letters."
http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words.html
- The Collective Noun
Homepage
- This page as much fun as an exaltation of larks and an ostentation of
peacocks.
http://www.ojohaven.com/collectives/
- The College
Slang Page
- They've got the 411 on the hip talk in the hallowed halls. Check it out!
http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~jasanders/slang/
- Common Errors in
English
- Huge A to Z listing of common errors as well as a collection of links to
related resources.
http://www.wsu.edu/%7Ebrians/errors/errors.html
- Complex
Statements for the Simple-Minded
- A collection of statements that make you ask the musical question
"huh?" My favorite: "There are only three kinds of people;
people who can count and people who can't."
http://home.earthlink.net/~getwild/jokes/misuses.html
- Country Western Song
Generator
- Like the name says, this site generates country western songs. When I went
there the song included the lyrics: "I met her in Sheboygan at
McDonald's; I can still recall that creepy smile she wore; She was weighted
down with Twinkies when she shot me, and I knew no guy would ever love her
more..." It doesn't get much better than that!
http://www.outofservice.com/country/
- Crazy English
- Richard Lederer's wonderful essay in which he reminds us, "Let’s
face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant or ham in
hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple..."
http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/crazy.html
- Crazy Libs
- Read brief original stories or excerpts from classic literature with your
words strategically inserted to produce whacky results.
http://www.rinkworks.com/crazylibs/
- Create Your Own
Shakespearean Insults
- Combine one word from each of three columns, preface with "Thou and
thus shalt thou have the perfect insult. Let thyself go -- mix and match to
find a barb worthy of the Bard.
ftp://ftp.cirr.com/pub/SCRIBE/Stage/Toinsult.Txt
- Crossword Solver (Sorta)
- Select the length of the answer you're looking for, supply the letters you
do know, click on the "What is it?" button, and get your answer.
http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/crossword.html
- Crypto Cracker
- Crypto Cracker is a tool for cracking word ciphers, also known as
cryptograms or cryptoquotes, a puzzle where one letter in the puzzle is
substituted with another. Will also encrypt a phrase.
http://www.wordplays.com/crypto.html
- Daily Word Search
- Every day a new interactive word search puzzle with an interesting theme.
Choose from 5 different versions that range from easy to difficult
http://www.dailywordsearch.com/
- The Darmok
Dictionary
- Remember the "Darmok" episode from the fifth season of Star
Trek: The Next Generation? Of course you do. It's the one in which the
Enterprise encounters an alien race, the Children of Tama, whose language
has so far eluded human comprehension. Here's a site, complete with sound
bites, devoted to understanding the language.
http://www.chaparraltree.com/sflang/darmok.shtmll
- Demented Lyrics
![[UPDATE]](update.gif)
- An archive of lyrics to wacky songs by such artists as "Weird
Al" Yankovic, Tom Lehrer, Allan Sherman, and Stan Freberg. There are
even a few Monty Python songs at this site. You can look for a song by
artist and by title. [New URL]
http://mypage.iu.edu/~jbmorris/
- The Dictionary of
Mountain Bike Slang
- This dictionary had its origins in a message posted to the
rec.bicycles.off-road newsgroup that said, in part: "Offroading needs
more lore. More culture. More vernacular. [...] Let us use the 'net for
something really valuable -- let's compile a list of bikey slang. Biff, face
plant, gravity check, endo; those are pretty good terms, but let's get some
of the really clever ones." This is the result.
http://world.std.com/~jimf/biking/slang.html
- The Dialectizer
- Translate whole web pages or passages of text into the following comic
dialects: Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, or Pig
Latin.
http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/
- Do-It-Yourself
Country and Western Song
- Fill in the blanks using number-coded word lists and you'll be singing in
no time!
http://webpages.marshall.edu/~hartwel1/humor/misc/do_it_yourself_cw.html
- The Doctor's (and
Other Health Care Practitioners) Names List
- Collection of real doctor names that are funny, weird, and strangely
appropriate. For instance, Dr. Aikenhead, the allergist.
http://educ.ahsl.arizona.edu/mla/doctor.htm
- eLibs
- Just like the Madlibs you did as a kid. Read the eLibs that others have
come up with or supply your own nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. to create
wacky stories.
http://www.elibs.com/
- Empty Trash Talk
- "A Mis-users Guide and Litter-It-Tour of computer language for the
rest of us. The main purpose of this site is to demystify and unlock the
complex, strange sounding, mystical language of computerspeak."
http://home.earthlink.net/~emttrashtalk/
- English Is Tough Stuff
- "Multi-national personnel at North Atlantic Treaty Organization
headquarters near Paris found English to be an easy language... until they
tried to pronounce it. To help them discard an array of accents, these
verses were devised. After trying them, a Frenchman said he'd prefer six
months at hard labor to reading six lines aloud. Try them yourself. "
http://www.unique.cc/ron/estuff.htm
- English
Signs from Around the World
- Actual signs in English seen 'round the world. A sampling: "Belgrade
Hotel Elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk." and
"Athens Hotel: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between
the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. daily."
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/nagorski/engsigns.htm
- The Enigma Device
- A word game where you swap letter pairs in scrambled well-known or
humorous quotations until the original message is restored. Great fun!
http://wordzap.com/enigma/
- English to Pig
Latin Translator
- Enter the text you wish translated in the box and click the translate
button. It'sway asway easyway asway atthay!
http://www.snowcrest.net/donnelly/piglatin.html
- Eponyms
- An eponym is a word derived from someone's name. For example, bloomers are
named after Amelia Bloomer. This site presents the author's personal
collection of eponyms, collected from books, webpages, teacher worksheets,
and brainstorming on his own or with literate friends.
http://members.tripod.com/~foxdreamer/index.html
- Etymologic
- Calling itself the "toughest word game on the web," in this game
you're presented with 10 randomly selected word origin or word definition
puzzles to solve.
http://www.etymologic.com/
- An Evening
(Wasted) with Tom Lehrer -- Lyrics
- If you enjoy such ditties as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,"
The Element Song," and "Oedipus Rex" (as I do!), you'll be
thrilled to find the lyrics to this album (remember vinyl?) and to other
Lehrer masterpieces at this site. [New URL]
http://mypage.iu.edu/~jbmorris/LYRICS/lehrer.wasted
- Fake Out! The
Definition Guessing Game
- Choose a level and a word and see if you can guess its definition.
http://www.hmco.com/hmco/school/dictionary/
- Foreign Languages for
Travelers
- Select the language that you speak, then select the language that you want
to learn and up will pop seven categories of travel-related words to learn
plus additional information and links to help you on your way.
http://www.travlang.com/languages/
- Free Online Word
Search Puzzles
- A large collection of printable word search puzzles arranged in a variety
of categories. Most contain a hidden message formed by the letters remaining
when the word search is solved. For instance, in the Music category there's
a Beatles puzzle. After you find the song titles that have been hidden in
the grid, what's left is the first lines of one of the Beatles songs.
http://www.free-online-word-search-puzzles.com/
- FreeTranslation.com
- Free automatic computer translation in 8 language directions. Translate
FROM English to French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norweigian, and Portuguese
and translate TO English from French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.
http://www.freetranslation.com/
- German Words in
English
- List of German words that have found their way into the English language.
http://www.daube.ch/opinions/sprache06.html
- Get Lyrical
- Here's a site to help you identify that bit of a song that you just can't
get out of your head. If you only know the chorus or one lyric from a
particular track you can search here and get a list of possible song titles
and artist matches.
http://www.getlyrical.com/index.html
- Goonerisms Spalore
(Spoonerisms Galore)
- He's been proudly "meducating the asses since 1997." Check out
this page dedicated to the listing of assorted, random & fun
spoonerisms.
http://www.matthewgoldman.com/spoon/
- Gourmet World
-- Cooking Glossaries
- Gourmet World presents links to more than twenty specialized glossaries
for cooking terms. Included are glossaries for cheesemaking, sushi, Italian
cooking, wine tasting, and spices, herbs and seasonings.
http://www.gourmetworld.com/library/gw000645.htm
- Grandiloquent
- This dictionary is the result of an ongoing project to collect and
distribute the most obscure and rare words in the English language. It also
contains a few words which do not have equivalent words in English
http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/dict.htm
- Greek
and Latin Roots
- Vocabulary help is here! This site helps you decode Greek and Latin bases,
prefixes and suffixes.
http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/MA/resources/greek_and_latin_roots/transition.html
- Haiku
Writer: Computer Generated Haiku
- Computer-generated poetry. Click reload to see a new collection.
http://www.familygames.com/features/humor/haiku.html
- Hangman
- Interactive game where you have to figure out the letters in a word before
the stick figure swings.
http://www.better-english.com/hangman/hangone.htm
- The
Heteronym Homepage
- Heteronyms are words that are spelled identically but have different
meanings when pronounced differently. For example: Lead, pronounced LEED,
means to guide. However, lead, pronounced LED, means a metallic element.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/heteronym.html
- Homographs
- Homographs are words that have identical spellings but different
pronunciations and different meanings.
http://www.marlodge.supanet.com/wordlist/homogrph.html
- Horsename-O-Matic
- Create magnificent names for all kinds of horses - equestrian, trotting,
galloping by just pushing the button. [New URL]
http://www.etdomenenavnkanmaksimaltinneholdesekstitrebokstaversliksomdette.com/indexenglish.html
- How To Write Your Name in
Mayan Glyphs
- This page will lead you on a guided tour in steps to show you how you can
put together your own name glyph, and finishes with an example.
http://www.halfmoon.org/names.html
- I'd Like To Have a
"Word" With You!
- An attractive page in which the author shares with us a few of her
favorite obscure words including: Hapax Legomenon, Logomachy and Clavus.
http://www.psnw.com/~grammaj/words.html
- Instant Online Crossword Puzzle
Maker
- Customize a puzzle to meet your needs. You supply the words, the clues and
a title. Great fun!
http://www.varietygames.com/CW/
- InvestorWords
- "The biggest, best investing glossary on the Web" with over
6,000 investing terms and 20,000 links between related words.
http://www.investorwords.com/
- Jennifer's Language Page
- Wondering how to say "hello" in Danish or "thank you"
in Kurdish? Jennifer has a great collection of how to say common words and
phrases in different languages with an extensive list of links to similar
pages.
http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/
- John's Word Search
Puzzles
- John's busy making four new puzzles a month for you to print out and
solve. Me, I'm working on the one about chocolate ('natch!).
http://www.thepotters.com/puzzles.html
- Jumble and Crossword
Solver
- You enter scrambled letters and it returns the unscrambled word. It also
lets you enter words with letters missing and it tells you all the words
that fit the pattern.
http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/jumble.html
- Kiwi Words & Phrases
- Words and expressions commonly used in New Zealand with their equivalent
definition.
http://www.chemistry.co.nz/kiwi.htm
- The Klingon Language Institute
- Dedicated to the goal of promoting, fostering and developing the Klingon
language, the KLI offers this site from which you can both hear Klingon and
see the writing system (which the Klingons call <pIqaD>). You
can also learn about the KLI's ambitious projects, such as translating the
Bible and the works of Shakespeare into Klingon. The KLI publishes a peer
reviewed quarterly journal, HolQeD, and the world's first
Klingon literary magazine, <jatmey> or "Scattered
Tongues."
http://www.kli.org/
- Ladle
Rat Rotten Hut
- Ladle Rat Rotten Hut is a version of the story "Little Red Riding
Hood" written in 1940 by H.L Chace, a French professor, to show his
students how integral intonation is to the meaning of language. For the full
effect, read this aloud.
http://www.exploratorium.edu/xref/exhibits/ladle_rat_rotten_hut.html
- Language Games.org
- Solve word search puzzles, crossword puzzles and play hangman in English,
Spanish, French, German and Italian. Great way to have fun while learning a
language.
http://www.languagegames.org/la/
- Letterbox
Word Game
- A simple but addictive online word game. You place letters one at a time
into the left-hand grid to make as many words as you can. You play alongside
the computer and see if you can beat the computer's score.
http://www.netspace.net.au/~bostwalk/letterbox.html
- Linguistic
Phenomena/Devices
- This is a list of some of the lesser-known linguistic phenomena and
devices used in English writing. You actually know what most of these are,
you just didn't know what they were called.
http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~kbarker/ling-devices.html
- Little
Explorers
- A multi-lingual (English; English to Spanish; English to French) picture
dictionary with wonderful graphic and links.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Dictionary.html
- Longest Place
Name in the World
- You'll need a giant envelope to send them mail!
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rbeard/name.html
- Lost In Translation
- This site answers the question "What happens when an English phrase
is translated (by computer) back and forth between 5 different
languages?" Some pretty strange stuff!
http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/
- Mag's Word Finder
- Ever wondered how many words you could make out of the letters in your
name? or "Merry Christmas?" or ... ? This is the place to find
out. Choose a dictionary, type in a word or phrase, and fire away!
http://magswordfinder.com/
- Majstro
- A multilingual translation dictionary with a wide range of languages.
http://www.majstro.com/
- Malapropisms
- Named after the character Miss Malaprop in Sheridan's comedy The Rivals,
a malapropism is any well-intended saying that takes on a different and
often ludicrous meaning when a similar yet utterly inappropriate word is
used. To wit: "He is the very pineapple of politeness."
http://www.nidlink.com/~dgookin/malaprop.htm
- Marriage
Names
- "If Yoko Ono married Sonny Bono, she'd be Yoko Ono Bono" and
other such "related" nonsense!
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/3456/h_marriage.html
- Medspeak
-- The Dictionary of ER
- Find out what it means when Dr. Benton says "Get me a thoracotomy
tray, stat!" or when Dr. Green orders a "CBC, Chem-7, lytes"
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/5196/index.html
- The Monthly Idiom
- Every month the Comenius Group provides a new idiom to assist students of
English. They provide a definition as well as audio files of the idiom
itself and the idiom used in context. In other words, they bend over
backward to help.
http://www.comenius.com/idioms/
- Names for Pets
- Wondering what to name your new pet? Heres an A to Z listing of names.
http://gladpet.com/names/
- Native
Tongue -- Discover the Hawaiian Language
- Learn the lingo of the original surfers! Audio clips help you talk like a
native.
http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii_magazine/hawaiian/index.shtml
- Nautical
Expressions in the Vernacular
- Collection of nautical expressions found in the works of author Patrick
O'Brian, some with explanations showing the connection between a familiar
phrase in everyday language to its marine heritage.
http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/words.words.words.html
- Never Say Neverisms
- William Safire's illustrative hints of what not do when writing. Example:
"Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read."
http://www.mapping.com/never2.html
- The New Hacker's
Dictionary
- A collection of slang terms used by various subcultures of computer
hackers. Though some technical material is included for background and
flavor, it is not a technical dictionary. What is described here is the
language hackers use among themselves for fun, social communication, and
technical debate.
http://www.jargon.8hz.com/jargon_toc.html
- New
Words in English
- Neologisms and novel uses of words in English collected by members of the
class Linguistics/English 215, Words in English: Structure, History and Use,
taught by Suzanne Kemmer at Rice University.
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling215/NewWords/index.html
- ODLIS: Online Dictionary
of Library and Information Science
- Learn to talk like a librarian.
http://www.wcsu.edu/library/odlis.html
- OED Online: Word of the Day
- The Oxford English Dictionary presents a word a day complete with
pronunciation, spellings, etymology, quotations and date chart.
http://oed.com/cgi/display/wotd
- Official
Ten Codes
- Everybody knows 10-4 means OK, but here's a site that will teach you the
others. Hope you don't 10-22 this site.
http://spiffy.cso.uiuc.edu/~kline/Stuff/ten-codes.html
- Ohwejagehka: Ha`degaenage:
Iroquois Language + Songs
- Words and songs of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and
Tuscarora. Includes sound.
http://www.ohwejagehka.com/index.html
- Oly-hay Ible-bay
- The Bible in Pig Latin. Genesis, Job and John currently available. [Ewnay
URLay]
http://www.MuseumOfConceptualArt.com/ible-bay.html
- On Finally
Achieving Perfect Copy
- An ode on the perils of computer spell-checkers by Marylaine Block. This
is one in a series of her delightful columns, called "My Word's
Worth," all of which are worth checking out.
http://www.qconline.com/myword/perfectc.html
- On-line Chinese Tools
- Tools to assist learning and using the Chinese language include Character
Flashcards, a Chinese/English dictionary, a Chinese Namer, and a
Western/Chinese Calendar Converter.
http://www.mandarintools.com/
- Once Upon a
Palindrome
- A story and a word game in one. You come up with a palindrome that
logically finishes each section.
http://members.cox.net/jjschnebel/palin.html
- Online Crosswords
- If you like to solve and/or construct crossword puzzles and would like to
try one online or generate puzzles for your own homepage, this is the site
for you. Puzzles come in three flavors: standard, party and image versions.
http://www.clearlight.com/~vivi/xw/index.html
- Online Hieroglyphics
Translator
- Enter text and have it translated into hieroglyphics.
http://www.quizland.com/hiero.htm
- Oxymorons
- A collection of phrases like "jumbo shrimp" and "small
crowd" which in their pairing create irony.
http://www.specsci.com/donspage/htmldocs/oxymoron.htm
- The Periodic Table of
Poetry
- Chemistry and poetry together as never before. Click on your favorite
element for a poem.
http://www.superdeluxe.com/elemental/
- Phobia List
- It's enough to give you hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long
words). Now featuring a reverse phobia list where you can look things up the
thing feared.
http://phobialist.com/
- PhoneSpell
- Enter a 6 to 10 digit phone number and find out what words and phrases
your phone number spells.
http://www.phoneSpell.org/phoneSpell.html
- Phonetic
Alphabets (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta...)
- There is a widely known alphabet Alpha Bravo ... Yankee Zulu. Such
alphabets are variously known as phonetic/radio/spelling/telephone
alphabets, and the term analogy alphabet is also used. This is a collection
such alphabets from a variety of languages.
http://www.columbia.edu/~fuat/cuarc/phonetic.html
- Phrase Finder
- Browse or search this phrase thesaurus. Includes meanings and/or
derivations.
http://www.shu.ac.uk/web-admin/phrases/go.html
- Puns Galore
- This attractive, easy-to-navigate site includes puns of the day, puns you
can browse by category (such as shaggy dog, one-liners, groaners, and
spoonerisms) or search for in a number of ways.
http://www.punsgalore.com/index.html
- Puzzlemaker
- A site that lets you create customized puzzles. Includes word search,
criss-cross, cryptograms, fallen phrases and much more.
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
- Quis vocaris? Your
Name in Latin
- To find your name in Latin, enter your first name, last name, and the
country (US, Canada, Mexico), state or major city where you live.
http://www.latin.org/english/name-lookup.html
- Rap Dictionary
- This one is for serious rappers. Parental advisory included.
http://www.rapdict.org/dictionary_0.html
- Rhetorical
Figures
- From alliteration to zeugma, and everything in between, all the figures of
speech are here.
http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/rhetoric.html
- RhymeZone: The Rhyming Dictionary and
Thesaurus
- Enter a word in the space provided and hit "Submit." The
computer will provide a list of rhyming words, each of which is linked to
its definition and thesaurus entry.
http://www.rhymezone.com/
- Richard Lederer's Verbivore Page
- The web site woven for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores where we are
reminded that "ours is the only language in which you drive in a
parkway and park in a driveway and night falls but never breaks and day
breaks but never falls."
http://www.pobox.com/~verbivore
- Rosie's Ringers
- Rosie presents lots of those picture word puzzle I love. She even includes
a section to practice on if this type of puzzle is new to you. Great
graphics, too!
http://www.rozies.com/Zzzz/Ringers/R-index.html
- Sarangworld Word Morphing
- Word morphing is changing one word into another by changing one letter at
a time with each change resulting in a valid word. You enter a target and a
source word, click the Morph Words button and see if morphing is possible.
http://www.sarangworld.com/WORDMORPH/
- Sayings and
Everyday Expressions
- Discover the meanings and origins of popular sayings.
http://geocities.com/PicketFence/7608/index.html
- Scott
Pakin's Automatic Complaint Letter Generator
- You supply basic information regarding the person you wish to complain
about and the number of paragraphs the complaint is to contain. Then push
the complain button. Amazingly satisfying!
http://www-csag.ucsd.edu/individual/pakin/complaint
- Scrabble Helper
- Helps you figure out how to best use those tiles in your Scrabble rack.
[New URL]
http://68.38.162.231/fcgi-bin/scrabble.pl
- A Seattle Lexicon
- Lingo from the Far Corner. An interpretive guide for non-Northwesterners
who want to get the inside line on the local lingo.
http://www.callihan.com/seattle/lexicon.htm
- Signs
International
- Signs and notices written in English that were discovered throughout the
world. Seen in a Swiss mountain inn. "Special today - no ice
cream."
http://www-smi.stanford.edu/people/felciano/humor/signs.html
- SignWriting
- Learn how to read, write and type signed languages.
http://www.signwriting.org/read.html
- Silva Rhetorica:
The Forest of Rhetoric
- Using the metaphor of a forest as a guide to navigation, this site an
online reference and primer to the terms of classical and renaissance
rhetoric, with over 800 terms defined with examples and references.
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm
- Sniglets
- A collection of sniglets -- words that don't appear in the dictionary, but
should -- arranged conveniently by category.
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/maddog/stuff/sniglets.html
- Slanguage.com: The Hick-to-Hip
Translation Guide
- Choose a city and learn to talk like the locals.
http://www.slanguage.com/
- Sounds of
the World's Animals
- "Animals make much the same sounds around the world, but each
language expresses them differently. English and French cows sound the same,
but not in English and French! Explore the sounds of the world's languages
through the sounds of the world's animals."
http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/animals/animals.html
- Southern Word
Homepage
- A dictionary of how to speak Southern.
http://www.netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html
- Speak Jamaican
- This Jamaican glossary will have you talking like a native in no time.
Includes stories, recipes and photos.
http://www.jamaicans.com/speakja/glossary.htm
- Spelling Test
- An interactive spelling test which features fifty commonly misspelled
words. Take the test and see how you score. At the bottom of the page are
tips for how to improve your spelling.
http://www.sentex.net/~mmcadams/spelling.html
- Sprechen
Sie Search Engines?
- Parlez vous motors de recheche? Learn how to say "search
engines" at those important international conferences with this quick
guide.
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/sprechen.html
- STANDS4.com
- Decode acronyms and abbreviations used in any of a huge variety of
categories.
http://www.stands4.com/
- Steven
Wright Quotes
- A plethora of wonderful Steven Wright quotes. My favorite: "I went to
a restaurant that serves `breakfast at any time'. So I ordered French Toast
during the Renaissance."
http://cyclone.weather.net/zarg/ZarPages/stevenWright.html
- Taglines
Galore!
- Featuring over 439,000 taglines. Not a blurb in the bunch.
http://www.taglinesgalore.com/tags/alphalist.html
- The
Testudine and the Leporine
- A collection of those ine words that turn animals into adjectives.
You know, like dog=canine, cat=feline, and tortoise=testudine.
http://www.m-w.com/mw/textonly/lighter/cool/testudin.htm
- Tom Swifties
- Excruciating adverbial puns some collected, some created, by Michael Curl
as part of his "thinks.com" site.
http://thinks.com/words/tomswift.htm
- Tongue
Twister Database
- This page was originally created to give a good group of tongue twisters
to people in speech therapy, to people who want to work on getting rid of an
accent, or to people who just plain like tongue twisters. Enjoy!
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8136/tonguetwisters.html
- travalang's Translating
Dictionaries
- On-line translating dictionaries for German, Dutch, French, Portuguese,
Spanish, Italian, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian, Frisian, Afrikaans,
Hungarian, Czech, Esperano and Latin.
http://dictionaries.travlang.com/
- Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A
Glossary of Hardboiled Slang
- With the help of this glossary you too can talk like Philip Marlowe, Sam
Spade, and Mike Hammer.
http://www.vex.net/~buff/slang.html
- Valley URL
- Nostalgic for the 80's? Here's a site that will translate the Web site of
your choice into, like, valleyspeak. Oh, my gawd!
http://www.80s.com/Entertainment/ValleyURL/
- Vanity License
Plates
- A site honoring how creative people can be when they're limited to
expressing themselves to 6 or 8 characters. Links here include help if you
need to brush up on license plate basics and a retelling of the story of Oedipus
the King told entirely with vanity plates, called Oedipus the King
(Of the Road).
http://www-chaos.umd.edu/misc/origplates.html
- VoyCabulary
- VoyCabulary transforms any webpage into links to dictionary or thesaurus
lookups. Enter the URL to your favorite website or type in a sentence. Once
you're at the page, click on any word to look it up in the dictionary of
your choice.
http://www.voycabulary.com/
- Wacky World of Words
- If you love word games, you'll love this page. Try your hand at such games
as "Compound Clues," "Numbletters,"
"Alpha-Spells," and "Rhyming Buddies." Great fun!
http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/teachwell/
- The Wicked Good Guide
to Boston English
- There's more to "Boston English" than pahking cahs in Hahvuhd
Yahd, the author of this site explains. They have their own way of
pronouncing other words, their own vocabulary, even a unique grammatical
construct. This is the just the guide you need to help understand the
locals.
http://www.boston-online.com/glossary.html
- A Word A Day
- This is the web-page for the mailing list A.Word.A.Day (AWAD), which mails
out a vocabulary word and its definition (with occasional commentary) to the
subscribers every day.
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/index.html
- The Word Detective
- This web page features highlights from "Words, Wit and Wisdom,"
a humorous syndicated newspaper column which has been answering readers'
questions about words and language since 1953.
http://www.word-detective.com/
- Word Finder
- When you know some or all of the letters that have to be in a word, but
you don't know the exact order of those letters in the word, Word Finder can
help. It's great to help solve anagrams and crossword puzzles and to cheat
at Scrabble.
http://www.vainokodas.com/wordplay/findword.html
- Word
Frequency Indexer
- Create a frequency index, or 'word list', of any text. Just paste or type
in your text and select the sort order you'd like.
http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/webtools/web_freqs.html
- Word Jumbles
- Helps you unscramble words with up to 25 characters. [New URL]
http://68.38.162.231/fcgi-bin/jumble.pl
- Word Morphs
- You enter a word and the computer will come up with a list of words
differing from the original word by one letter. [New URL]
http://68.38.162.231/fcgi-bin/offbyone.pl
- Word Slide Applet
- Remember those puzzle games you had as a kid, where you slid letter tiles
around in a square to form words? Here's an online version to try.
http://www.clearlight.com/~vivi/xw/slide.html
- A Word With You
- A daily column on word or phrase origins with a fun interactive
hangman-like game called Dunceinstein.
http://www.accessone.com/~lparos/
- The Word Wizard
- This site takes you on a round trip across the language, answering your
questions, offering a selection of new words, snappy quotes and elegant
insults, not to mention amazing competitions, Public Scribe Service, Fancy
Word Parties and the Lexicographer's Club.
http://wordwizard.com/
- Wordies On the Web
- You translate an arrangements of letters, numbers and/or symbols into a
familiar phrase, saying or cliché. Hard to explain, but lots of fun to do.
I love these things!
http://www.cyg.net/~ddoctor/
- Wordles: Home of Word Fun, Word Games,
Word Puzzles and Word Play!
- "If you're one of those folks who can't resist turning words inside
out, trying them backwards, or transposing them in your mind, then you'll
enjoy Wordles." Cryptograms, word search, word in a word, links, and
more.
http://www.wordles.com/
- Wordly Wise WordGames
- An unusual and challenging collection of great word games.
http://www.hoadworks.com/gamemenu.htm
- Wordplays
- Play against the clock to test your word knowledge with the interactive
active games Boggle and Crossword Challenge. The site also features an
interactive mostly English dictionary and seven interactive tools to help
you solve word puzzles.
http://www.wordplays.com/
- Words & Stuff
- Jed Hartman's weekly column on words and wordplay.
http://kith.org/logos/words/words.html
- Words
Commonly Confused
- This site has groups of words commonly confused and some info to help
figure out when to use which one.
http://homepage.smc.edu/reading_lab/words_commonly_confused.htm
- Words Ending with
-GRY
- For me, the definitive page on the riddle that never seems to die,
"There are three words in the English language that end with "gry."
One is hungry and the other is angry. What is the third word?"
http://www.tempe.gov/library/netsites/gry.htm
- Words in a Word
- Helps you solve those "How many words can you find in a word?"
puzzles. You put in your starting word, indicate the minimum number of
letters a word can have, and the computer will do the rest. [New URL]
http://68.38.162.231/fcgi-bin/jumble.pl
- World Wide Words
- World Wide Words takes a regular sideways glance at the English language,
what makes it special and how it has got the way it is. This site features
"Articles on Aspects of English," "Turns of Phrase,"
"The Word Hoard," and "Usage Notes."
http://www.worldwidewords.org/
- Worthless Word For The Day (wwftd)
- When I visited this site, the worthless word for the day was scumble
1) a: to make (as color or a painting) less brilliant by covering with a
thin coat of opaque or semiopaque color
b: to apply (a color) in this manner
2) to soften the lines or colors of (a drawing) by rubbing lightly
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
- Ye Olde English
Sayings
- English sayings and customs that we have grown up with and taken for
granted were explained during the web page author's tour of the Anne
Hathaway house in Victoria, British Columbia.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/sayings.htm
- Yiddishkeit
- A gallery of Yiddish expressions transliterated and arranged A-Z. Gai
gezunterhait!
http://www.pass.to/glossary/Default.htm
- Your
Dictionary.com
- Here you'll find on-line dictionaries for over 280 languages, glossaries
for over 50 areas, grammar resources and loads more.
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rbeard/diction.html