So. You don’t speak Russian, do you? Neither do I. The phrase you see in the subject line of this post is just a literary come-on. It’s my way of introducing a fine new online utility, Wordnik. It looks Russian, doesn’t it? You know, like Sputnik? Alright, alright!

Technically it is an online dictionary; yet so much more versatile than what you might expect. Yes, you can look up words; but Wordnik has one or two bells and whistles you might not find with other dictionaries. First, Wordnik polls a number of dictionaries when searching for a particular word. Once it has found that word it lists related words, and not just its synonyms.

You can choose to hear a recorded pronunciation of a word, and you can see how often the word is used. There’s even a feature for those of you who Twitter. But my favorite feature is the ability to view a word’s etymology, which is its history and evolution. But then I’m an exciting kind of guy!

Oh yeah, the subject line translates as “Where is my dictionary?” It’s at Wordnik.

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