[Editors] Wordnik

[Robyn Fizz]

 From the TidBITS newsletter. I haven't had time to explore Wordnik  
very much, but it looks like fun.

Regards,
Robyn

------------------------------

Wordnik Encourages Word Exploration
-----------------------------------
  by Jeff Carlson <jeffc at tidbits.com>
  article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/10377>

  Despite being packed with information, dictionaries receive scant
  attention these days. You look up a word to check its spelling or
  definition, maybe skim its etymology, and then return to what you
  were doing. But if you consult the Wordnik Web site, you could
  easily find yourself embarking on a languorous exploration of the
  English language.

<http://www.wordnik.com/words/etymology>
<http://www.wordnik.com/>
<http://www.wordnik.com/words/languorous>

  Wordnik provides definitions from the American Heritage Dictionary
  of the English Language, Fourth Edition; the Century Dictionary;
  WordNet 3.0; and the GNU version of The Collaborative International
  Dictionary of English. Synonyms and antonyms are pulled from Roget's
  II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition, and Allen's Synonyms and
  Antonyms. Definitions from Webster's Unabridged 1913 edition also
  occasionally make appearances.

<http://www.global-language.com/CENTURY/>
<http://wordnet.princeton.edu/>
<http://www.ibiblio.org/webster/>

  There's much more to a word than its definition, of course, and
  Wordnik supplements the basic information in several additional
  ways. Most prominent are examples of the word in use, pulled from
  titles available from Project Gutenberg. Passages appear at the
  top-left corner of the page, providing the word in several contexts.
  I think this approach is a great idea, because a definition alone
  may not always give you a sense of how the word is used.

<http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page>

  Wordnik also includes audio pronunciations read by a deep-toned man
  from American Heritage. If you create a free Wordnik account, you
  can record your own pronunciations (as well as take other actions
  such as adding notes and suggesting related words). I noticed that
  kerfuffle didn't have a pronunciation, so I recorded one. (I also
  realized after consulting Wordnik that I'd always pronounced it
  "kerfluffle" with an extraneous L in the middle.)

<http://www.wordnik.com/words/kerfuffle>

  A Statistics graph, when available, displays the frequency a word
  has been used each year dating back to 1800, with an indication of
  how unusual its usage was for that year. Wordnik appears to be doing
  the calculating itself, but it's unclear where the source data is
  coming from.

<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-06/wordnik_stats.png>

  For a more modern take, Wordnik grabs real-time examples of the word
  from Twitter, as well as images from Flickr that contain the word as
  a tag. The site also tells you how many times a word has been looked
  up, which is a neat indication of which words people are using or
  exploring. And, no doubt because it's possible, some words include
  anagrams and their point values in Scrabble.

<http://www.tidbits.com/resources/2009-06/wordnik_twitter.png>

  Although Wordnik claims a database of 1.7 million words, many words
  are bound to not appear (or are not recognized as real words).
  Instead of putting up a generic "word not found" error page, Wordnik
  uses its tools to locate instances of the word online. Even if you
  can't suss out the precise definition, the additional context can be
  a ginormous help in determining its meaning. This approach can also
  apply to people: "jeff carlson" displays recent appearances of my
  name in Twitter plus two photos from Flickr.

<http://www.wordnik.com/words/suss>
<http://www.wordnik.com/words/ginormous>
<http://www.wordnik.com/words/jeff%20carlson>

  You also have to admire a service that openly discloses its plans
  for world domination in its FAQ: "We figure that once we have at
  least some information for every word in English, updated in real
  time, world domination will just fall in our laps." Somewhat oddly
  in light of their baldly stated plans for world domination, the
  Wordnik folks don't currently have specific plans to add languages
  other than English, though their PR representative said they were
  "excited to explore those options."

<http://www.wordnik.com/pages/faq>

  Wordnik proves you don't have to be a lexicographer or vocabulist to
  appreciate and play with language. But be careful, because you could
  find yourself happily absorbed in the site for hours.

<http://www.wordnik.com/words/lexicographer>
<http://www.wordnik.com/words/vocabulist>
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