resources
where words come from
Every page on this site is built from open sources. This page shows which ones, what each one gives us, and how many of our 31395 words it has helped with.
How a word gets here
- Somebody looks it up. Anyone can search for a word. If a dictionary knows it, it gets its own permanent page straight away.
- Or it's picked. Each day one rare, useful word becomes the word of the day, and each letter page gets its own letter of the day on its first visit. Candidates come from Wordnik and Datamuse, and we keep the ones that are uncommon but still found in books.
- It's defined. Its meanings, pronunciation and examples come from the Free Dictionary API or straight from Wiktionary, with Princeton's WordNet as a backup that never goes down. Its origin (where the word came from) comes from Wiktionary via Kaikki.org.
- It's sorted. WordNet tells us each word's topic (animals, feelings, places…), and how often the word appears in books tells us how rare it is. See every word category.
- It's connected. Datamuse finds related words. Click any of them and that word gets its own page too.
The sources
Free Dictionary API
Definitions, pronunciation, audio and example sentences. Used on 23 of our words.
A free, open-source dictionary API built and run by one developer, and used by millions of requests a month. It has no ads and no API keys, and runs on donations.
Wiktionary
Definitions and examples, directly and through the free dictionary api. Used on 16301 of our words.
The free-content dictionary written by volunteers, a sister project of Wikipedia. Its text is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence.
Kaikki.org
Word origins (etymology) and pronunciations. Used on 24683 of our words.
A machine-readable edition of Wiktionary built by Tatu Ylonen, which makes each word's history and pronunciation easy to reach. The text is Wiktionary's, under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike.
WordNet
The topic categories every word is sorted into, and definitions when other dictionaries can't help. Used on 15015 of our words.
A large lexical database of English built at Princeton University, grouping words by meaning. Its topic files are how we know a giraffe is an animal and a harbinger is a sign.
Datamuse API
Related words, spelling suggestions and word frequency. Used on 31257 of our words.
A word-finding engine for developers. It finds words with a similar meaning, sound or spelling, and reports how common each word is in published English.
Wordnik
Definitions and pronunciations while our main dictionary is unavailable, and candidate words for the daily pick. Used on 50 of our words.
A non-profit online dictionary with the mission of finding and sharing every word of English, including the ones traditional dictionaries leave out.
Wikipedia
The “on this day” events on the front page, and pages for characters, people, places and titles.
The free encyclopedia's editors pick notable events for every day of the year. Their text is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence.
wordoftheday.us
Hand-written definitions for the site's first words. Used on 20 of our words.
The first twenty words were written for this site by hand.
Licences
Dictionary text that comes from Wiktionary is shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence. Each definition links back to its source: look for the next to it.