Dictionaries for the Writer

/ Sheila McIntrye Good, Author

Day 4: 

Wikipedia.org

Don’t you hate it when the word you want to write escapes you? There’ve been times I’ve stared at my computer screen repeatedly saying the word aloud as if it would magically appear.

That sort of magic rarely happens, so I’ve collected a number of dictionaries at my disposal, and they have proven to be life savers.

My Top 20 Dictionaries for Writers:

  1. Merriam-Webster
  2. Your Dictionary
  3. The Dialect Dictionary
  4. Written Sound
  5. Urban Dictionary
  6. Net lingo
  7. Word Hippo
  8. Visual Words
  9. Idioms and Phrases Free Dictionary
  10. Words to Use
  11. Grammar Definitions
  12. Literature Glossary
  13. Glossary of Books
  14. Wordnik
  15. Cliché Finder
  16. Grimace Project.net
  17. Southernisms
  18. Nonverbal Dictionary
  19. 100 Words for Facial Expressions
  20. One Look Dictionary

Do you have a favorite dictionary you use? Feel free to add to my list and pass it on.

I’d love to hear your comments. Talk to me. Tell me your story. You can find me on Facebook at SheilaMGood,  Pinterest,  Bloglovin, Twitter@sheilagood, and Contently.

28 thoughts on “Dictionaries for the Writer”

  2. Found this on Chris the story reading ape. I have many reference books but it seems I’m sadly lacking. You have a wonderful list of reference books here. I’m going to be checking out a number of them. Thank you so much for sharing them.

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  8. Since I am living in Europe, I use the Oxford dictionary along with Merriam-Webster. I also use the AP Stylebook Online which has an excellent dictionary section. I also have the Emotional Thesarus and a Thesarus. Another tool that is helpful for me is Thesarus.com.

    I usually start exchanging words or looking for better ways to say something when I began revising because then I start styling my sentences.

    Shalom,
    Patricia @ EverythingMustChange

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  9. You have an awesome list of dictionaries. I don’t have any. I have several reference books that I use after my first draft, like the Emotional Thesaurus, The Ultimate Fiction Thesaurus Books 1 & 2, Get your Characters Moving, All of Rayne Hall’s Books, Jessica Bell’s books & Master Lists for Writers by Bryn Donovan. I try not to refer to any of these useful books until after I’ve written my first draft because I would never get through the draft if I stopped to look up words. Thanks for all the dictionaries. I’m adding them to my reference list.

    http://melissasugarwrites.com

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