Useful Links - Vocabulary & Dictionaries
| Idioms and Idiomatic Expressions | Any collection of idiomatic expressions is by nature incomplete - there are simply too many of them. Nevertheless - if you want to enrich your English you have got to start somewhere! |
| Famous Insults and Retorts |
When insults were an art... "The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it; if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't laugh at it, it's probably deserved." (J. Russel Lynes) |
| Dictionary of Useful Phrases | Here is a collection of excellent phrases and word combinations that you can use to add spice to your writings and speech. |
| The Phrase Finder |
The meanings and origins of over 1,200 English sayings, phrases and idioms. Whether you want to resolve a friendly argument over how a saying or phrase originated or whether you just enjoy words, you'll probably find something here to interest you. |
| Dictionary of English Idioms & Idiomatic Expressions | An idiom is a phrase where the words together have a meaning that is different from the dictionary definitions of the individual words, which can make idioms hard for ESL students and learners to understand. Here, we provide a dictionary of 1,876 English idiomatic expressions with definitions. |
| The Idiom Connection | The Idiom Connection is a
collection of idioms, phrasal verbs and proverbs. These expressions are
common expressions that one would generally expect to find in the average
home, family, workplace or community in most English speaking countries.
They can be found either in spoken English or in written English.
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| English Idioms and Proverbs | Nice idea - each idiom in this extensive list is represented by an illustration which might help memorize it. |
| The best idioms website for reference purposes I have found so far - entries are not only listed in alphabetical order, you can also look for idioms containing a specific word and for idioms explained by a specific word. | |
| Topical Vocabulary | |
| Describing charts and diagrams | Das Arbeitsblatt (PDF, 2,7 MB) erklärt wichtige Begriffe und Wendungen zum Beschreiben von Diagrammen und Schaubildern. Der Schwerpunkt liegt auf Linien- und Balkendiagrammen (line charts and bar charts), es werden aber auch allgemeine Begriffe und Kuchendiagramme (pie charts) behandelt. Ergänzt wird das Ganze durch 10 Diagramme, die zur Anwendung und Übung eingesetzt werden können. |
| Avocabo Vocabulary Series | AVOCABO is a dynamic vocabulary series for grade 11, 12 or 13 classes. The weekly exercise sheets are available in convenient PDF files. Choose from over 40 vocabulary units. Each unit highlights 20-22 vital words presented with a variety of challenging exercises. |
| The following units are highlights from Avocabo Vocabulary Series | |
| Words denoting swiftness and slowness | |
| Words denoting heaviness and lightness | |
| Words denoting pleasure and pain | |
| Words denoting fighting and conciliation | |
| Words denoting success and failure | |
| Words denoting confusion and clarity | |
| Words denoting loudness and faintness | |
| Words denoting strength and weakness | |
| Words denoting sight and blindness | |
| Begriffe der Berufsbildung deutsch-englisch | A German-English glossary of words pertaining to vocational education and training |
| Interactive Vocabulary Games | the fun way to increase your vocabulary power |
| Vocabulary Crossword-Puzzle | Create crossword-puzzles from newly learned vocabulary |
| Word Search Factory | Create word searches from newly learned vocabulary |
| BBC Wordmaster | Have you got what it
takes to be the BBC Word Master? Play the game to test your vocabulary skills. There are thousands of words to practise. |
| http://www.vocabulary.co.il | Play hangman, the match game, or take a quiz. Learning Vocabulary Can Be Fun! |
| Vocabulary University | Vocabulary University provides interactive vocabulary exercises including graphic word puzzles and games. |
| Vocabulary web games | Students can increase their vocabulary skills. Each quiz is a random selection of 20 words from the 720 most commonly tested words. Play an unlimited number of times. In addition, study computer or medical terminology. |
| Interactive vocabulary quizzes (BBC World Service) | With weekly updates and an archive of previous quizzes |
| Vocabulary Quizzes | Maybe not hundreds but dozens of interactive quizzes for students of all levels |
| A collection of games of the well-known "Scrabble"-type. | |
| Online-Dictionaries | |
| Vocabulary Differences between American and British English | |
| Etymology Dictionary | This is a map of the wheel-ruts of modern English. Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago. |
| an overwiew of available online-dictionaries | |
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bilingual (English - German / German - English) |
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| woerterbuch.info | In geradezu asketischem Design
kommt das kostenlose Deutsch-Englisch Englisch-Deutsch Online-Wörterbuch der
Agentur pagedesign (D) daher. Die äußerliche Aufgeräumtheit erinnert ein
wenig an den Google-Look und entspricht der benutzerfreundlichen Struktur.
Seit dem Launch Ende 2004
haben die findigen Macher dem Wörterbuch einige zusätzliche Services
verpasst. Mit einer Browser-Toolbar für Internet Explorer, Netscape,
Mozilla, Firefox und Maxthon,Synonymsuche, Sprachausgabe direkt im Browser
(ohne Media-Player) und anderen Raffinessen ist woerterbuch.info eine echte
Bereicherung für jeden Online-Wörterbuch-Nutzer. Der Datenbestand von woerterbuch.info beinhaltet augenblicklich über 600.000 Deutsch-Englisch Übersetzungen und über 127.000 Synonyme. Gefunden werden neben direkten Worttreffern auch zusammengesetzte Worte und Worte aus dem Umgangssprachgebrauch. |
| QuickDic - downloadable dictionary | Die aktuelle Version enthält über 250.000 Begriffe und Redewendungen in jeder Sprache und bietet Ihnen eine Reihe von interessanten und nützlichen Features |
The Dicdata Dictionary |
Why buy an expensive printed dictionary? Here, all the information is for free! |
| Why buy an expensive printed dictionary? Here, all the information is for free! | |
| monolingual (English - English) | |
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Cambridge International Dictionary of English Idioms
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What you need to know if you really want to sound English - and not like a German trying to do so! |
| Cambridge International Dictionary of English Phrasal Verbs | Ever wanted a comprehensive list of verbs that go together with prepositions? Here it is! |
| Roget’s II: New Thesaurus Online, 1995 edition | Roget’s II contains 35,000 synonyms, in an easy-to-use format as well as numerous cross-references and succinct word definitions—a classic for every reference shelf. |
| Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations Online | provides over 10,000 quotes from over 4000 sources, including 25 categories of quotes, and 60 sections, ranging from “love” to “criminology.” |
| Rhyming Dictionary | Looking for English rhyming words? |
| A Dictionary of Slang | If you want to impress your native speaker-friends with intimate knowledge of British slang - this is the site to turn to! |
| The Urban Dictionary |
Urban Dictionary is a slang dictionary with your
definitions. Define your world!
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| The Word Detective |
Puzzled by "Posh"? Confounded by "Cattycorner"? Baffled by "Balderdash"? Flummoxed by "Flabbergast"? Perplexed by "Pandemonium"? Nonplussed by "Nonplussed"? The "Word
Detective on the Web" is the online version of "The Word Detective", a
newspaper column answering readers' questions about words and language. |
|
Most Popular New Words of 2004 |
Thought you had a pretty good command of English vocabulary? Well, just have a look at these words that no one ever heard of before the year 2004! |
| Top 40 Most Popular New Words of 2005 |
| Vocabulary Training Programmes | |
| Teachmaster | "… ist der mit Abstand
beste KOSTENLOSE Vokabeltrainer, den ich kenne." (Jochen
Lüders) "Der klassische Vokabeltrainer ist keineswegs tot - das beweist Teachmaster." (c't) Das (Windows-)Programm ist Freeware und kann kostenlos
heruntergeladen und genutzt werden. |
| One-Word-A-Day | OWAD is the FREE e-mail service which systematically improves your professional English. Every weekday you receive an important word or idiom selected from the international press. An amusing mini-quiz allows you to immediately test yourself, you can check the German translation and listen to the pronunciation. |
| Vocabulix.com | Vokabel- und Konjugationstrainer, besonders für Klasse 7/8 geeignet |
| MyVoc.de | Training programme, free of charge, registration required |
| Online Vokabeltrainer | Training programme, free of charge, registration required |
| Vocabulary knowledge test for walking dictionaries | Looking for a challenge? |
| Avocabo Vocabulary Series | AVOCABO is a dynamic vocabulary series for grade 11, 12 or 13 classes. The weekly exercise sheets are available in convenient PDF files. Choose from over 40 vocabulary units. Each unit highlights 20-22 vital words presented with a variety of challenging exercises. |
| Collocations | You do your homework but your little sister makes a mess of her room. "do" and "homework" always go together, just like "make" and "mess". They form collocations. It is quite useful to learn and practice them - your English sounds much better if you know them well! |
| Funky Phrasals | Phrasal verbs (verbs followed
by a preposition) are very common and are a really good way to make yourself
sound more natural when speaking informal English. They can be difficult, but here you can find out how to use phrasal verbs to talk about different topics. |
| VOKABELORG | a vocabulary training programme containing more than 150,000 words and phrases. Free of charge! |
| Gerry's vocabulary teacher (trial version) | A superb new program for
teaching and learning language through exposure to vocabulary in context. It provides a list of keywords, each of which is linked to a number of sentences which illustrate how the word is used. The user can search and edit these sentences, and add more keywords or sentences of their own. And with a couple of mouse-clicks, users can choose a sequence of sentences, and build them into a complete language exercise. |
| VocProf Vocabulary Coach | free full version! |
| Belearn Vocabulary Coach | free download of trial version, full version at moderate cost - with the vocabulary coach you can practice according to your own learning speed! |