Asterisks.com provides useful links to online dictionaries and other reference sources. We also answer some frequently asked questions about English usage and share some amusing blunders collected by editors.

Links to language resources on the Net

Power search OneLook Dictionaries allows you to look up words in 137 dictionaries at the same time. You also get an extensive list of specialist dictionaries on subjects including business, computers/Internet, medicine, religion, science, sports, slang and pronunciation.

Try out the following links to online dictionaries and other language resources on the Web:

• The Cutting Edge Glossary of British Business and Finance terms is a short list of British terms with their American equivalents. Where there is no equivalent, a brief definition is given.
• At Learn to Write Brian D Akers provides links to essential books, magazines and sites on being a writer.
• Jeremy Smith's Dictionary of American and British Usage. In addition to the dictionary, the site features an expansive list of links to other dictionaries and related topics.
• Eurocosm.com has developed a self-teaching program that enables you to learn or refresh up to five languages at the same time. This free on-line service is therefore particularly suitable for multi-linguists.
• The Dictionary of American Regional English seeks to document the varieties of English that are not found everywhere in the United States – words, pronunciations, and phrases learnt at home rather than at school, or that are part of the oral rather than written culture.
• At the Foreign Languages for Travelers site you can select from a large number of languages and look up basic words and phrases in their translating dictionaries. You can also listen to recordings of the entries.
• The GoItaly program helps you get the pronunciation of common Italian words and expressions right. This link takes you to a site from where you can download a demo version. The program can also be purchased for $36 from Professor Massimo Negrotti.
• The List of Dictionaries of the Universität-GH Paderborn provides links to a variety of multi-lingual dictionaries.
• Mark Glicksman's English (British) – American Dictionary focuses on common terms related to cars, driving and food.
• The Multilingual Glossary of Technical and Popular Medical Terms contains eight glossaries, in which you can find 1,830 technical and popular medical terms in eight of the nine official European languages: English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Danish.
• The Nasa Thesaurus provides synonyms and related terms in the aerospace field.
• Netlingo – A dictionary of Internet language. Find the definitions of the ever-increasing volume of Internet jargon.
• Roget's Thesaurus. Type a word and synonyms and related words are returned.
• Terry Gliedt's United Kingdom English for the American Novice, Sixth Edition, July 1983.
• Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 Edition. Simple headword searches can be done for 109,562 entries in this standard general dictionary.
• Words that could be confusing and embarrassing in the UK & US, a list with humorous explanations of usage differences. Could prevent some serious blunders.
• The WorldWideWeb Acronym and Abbreviation Server expands acronyms (abbreviations such as Nasa) when you type them in.

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