Ready Reference Desk
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
It provides over 90,000 entries. It also features about 10,000 new words, 70,000 audio word pronunciations, 900 full-page color illustrations, language notes and word-root appendixes.
American Sign Language Browser
This site provides videos on sign language.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable contains over 18,000 entries. It also offers etymologies, trace the origins and catalog “words with a tale to tell.”
Cambridge Dictionaries online
It provides learner's and bilingual dictionaries. It also contains materials, ranging from intermediate to proficiency level.
Contains about 51,000 entries with more than 80,000 hypertext cross-references.
Columbia Gazetteer of North America
Provides geographical information about places in the United States and Canada.
This site provides dictionaries, thesaurus and encyclopedias, etc. It provides links to other subject-specific dictionaries.
DOD Dictionary of Military Terms
This site provide military terms. It also has links to Acronyms and abbreviations and Nato terms.
It provides general information, including links to career training, online homework, etc...
This site provides food terms. It also has an A-Z index.
Provides information on travel, shopping, health, finance, insurance, etc.
This site provides legal terms and definitions. It also has an A-Z index to legal terms and definitions.
It contains the Merriam Webster's online dictionary.
This site provides medical information. It has an A-Z index to medical terms.
It provides about 6,152,632 words in 981 dictionaries, including word translations.
Roget's Thesauri
It contains about 35,000 synonyms. It offers in an easy-to-use format, word definitions and hyperlinked category index.
It provides signs arranged by characters.
WordNet is a lexical database for English language. It is an online dictionary.
This is an online free English dictionary. It provides definitions, thesaurus, glossaries, etc.
Specialized Encyclopedias
It contains an index of every artist represented in several museum sites, image archives. It also has an index to about 700 leading arts sites, and offers more than 24,000 links directly to an estimated 80,000 works by 7,000 different artists."
This encyclopedia provides about 51,000 words, covering several subject areas.
This is the beta version of High Beam encyclopedia. It also provides links to articles.
Encyclopedia of Graphic Symbols
This encyclopedia contains symbols. It provides more than 2,500 Western signs, arranged into 54 groups according to their graphic characteristics. In 1,600 articles their histories, uses, and meanings are thoroughly discussed.
It provides information works of Celtic Literature; including works of mythology, legend, fiction and history, etc.
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
It provides an alphabetical index to information on Philosophy. It also includes timeline, table of contents, keyword searching, etc.
The is an on-line encyclopedia about mythology, folklore, legends, etc.
The Plants Database (Encyclopedic information)
It provides encyclopedic information about the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the U.S. and its territories. It also includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, plant links, references, crop information, and automated tools.
It provides an online dictionary and search engine for computer and Internet technology definitions.