Dictionary.com

Last updated

Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com new logo 2020.svg
Type of site
 Dictionary
Available in English
Owner Rock Ventures
Created by
  • Brian Kariger
  • Daniel Fierro
URL www.dictionary.com
CommercialYes
LaunchedMay 14, 1995;28 years ago (1995-05-14)

Dictionary.com is an online dictionary whose domain was first registered on May 14, 1995. [1] The primary content on Dictionary.com is a proprietary dictionary based on Random House Unabridged Dictionary , with editors for the site providing new and updated definitions. [2] [3] Supplementary content comes from the Collins English Dictionary , American Heritage Dictionary and others. [4]

Contents

History

Dictionary.com was founded by Brian Kariger and Daniel Fierro as part of Lexico Publishing, which also started Thesaurus.com and Reference.com. [5] At the time of its launch, it was one of the web's first in-depth reference sites. [6] In July 2008, Lexico Publishing Group, LLC, was acquired by Ask.com, an IAC company, [7] and renamed Dictionary.com, LLC. [8] In 2018, IAC sold Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com to Rock Holdings. [9] At the time of the sale, Dictionary.com was the 447th most trafficked website in the United States, according to the website tracking service SimilarWeb. [9] In 2015, they estimated that there are 5.5 billion word searches a year on its site. [10] In 2024, Rock Holdings sold Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com to IXL Learning. [11]

Features

Among its features, Dictionary.com offers a Word of the Day, [12] a crossword solver, [13] and a pop culture dictionary [14] that includes emoji and slang sections.

In 2010, Dictionary.com began a Word of the Year feature with the word change. [15] The selection is based on search trends on the site throughout the year and the news events that drive them. [16] Dictionary.com's words of the year have been: [15]

In April 2009, they launched an app on the Apple App Store allowing users to find definitions and synonyms. It also included audio pronunciations, alphabetical indexing, and synonym example sentences. [19] Since then, Dictionary.com released a standalone thesaurus app called Thesaurus Rex along with education apps, Dictionary.com Flashcards, Word Dynamo, and Learning to Read with Zoo Animals.

In early 2020, in response to COVID-19 quarantine home-schooling needs, Dictionary.com launched an interactive platform for learning at home, and an online tutoring service. [20] Later that year Dictionary.com's sister site, Thesaurus.com, launched a writing assistant and grammar checker called Grammar Coach. [21] The coronavirus outbreak led to the addition of novel words to the main dictionary (e.g., fomite ) and the slang dictionary (e.g., rona). [22]

See also

Related Research Articles

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WordWeb is an international English dictionary and thesaurus program for Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android and Mac OS X. It is partly based on the WordNet database.

<i>The Free Dictionary</i> American online dictionary and encyclopedia that gathers information from a variety of sources

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">IAC Inc.</span> American media and internet company

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Reference.com is an online encyclopedia that organizes content that uses a question-and-answer format. Articles are organized into hierarchical categories.

The word(s) of the year, sometimes capitalized as "Word(s) of the Year" and abbreviated "WOTY", refers to any of various assessments as to the most important word(s) or expression(s) in the public sphere during a specific year.

Answers.com, formerly known as WikiAnswers, is an Internet-based knowledge exchange. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by entrepreneurs Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard and subsequently sold to GuruNet and then AFCV Holdings. The website is now the primary product of the Answers Corporation. It has tens of millions of user-generated questions and answers, and provides a website where registered users can interact with one another.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic dictionary</span> Dictionary whose data exists in digital form and can be accessed through a number of different media

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Google Translate</span> Multilingual neural machine translation service

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<i>Lexico</i> Dictionary website

Lexico was a dictionary website that provided a collection of English and Spanish dictionaries produced by Oxford University Press (OUP), the publishing house of the University of Oxford. While the dictionary content on Lexico came from OUP, this website was operated by Dictionary.com, whose eponymous website hosts dictionaries by other publishers such as Random House. The website was closed and redirected to Dictionary.com on 26 August 2022.

Vimeo, Inc. is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as a service (SaaS). They derive revenue by providing subscription plans for businesses and content creators. Vimeo provides its subscribers with tools for video creation, editing, and broadcasting, enterprise software solutions, as well as the means for video professionals to connect with clients and other professionals. As of December 2021, the site has 260 million users, with around 1.6 million subscribers to its services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grant Barrett</span> American lexicographer

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Philip M. Parker is an American economist and academic, currently the INSEAD Chaired Professor of Management Science at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. He has patented a method to automatically produce a set of similar books from a template which is filled with data from database and Internet searches. He claims that his programs have written more than 200,000 books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lists of Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year</span>

Merriam-Webster's Words of the Year are words of the year lists published annually by the American dictionary-publishing company Merriam-Webster, Inc. The lists feature ten words from the English language. These word lists started in 2003 and have been published at the end of each year.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Leeds</span>

Doug Leeds, is the Chief Executive Officer of IAC Publishing, a digital media operating group launched on December 9, 2015, by media and Internet conglomerate IAC. The single digital media publisher reaches 100 million monthly uniques according to comScore October 2015 numbers and includes publishing brands About.com, The Daily Beast, Investopedia and Dictionary.com. Digital publishing is one of four key areas of strategic focus for IAC, as Leeds noted to the WSJ, saying that "bringing the sites under one umbrella will allow IAC to combine their strengths". Leeds previously held the title of Ask.com CEO since 2010.

David L. Hoyt is an American puzzle and game inventor and author. He is the most syndicated puzzle maker in America.

Wordle is a web-based word game created and developed by Welsh software engineer Josh Wardle. Players have six attempts to guess a five-letter word, with feedback given for each guess in the form of colored tiles indicating when letters match or occupy the correct position. The mechanics are similar to the 1955 pen-and-paper game Jotto and the television game show franchise Lingo. Wordle has a single daily solution, with all players attempting to guess the same word.

References

  1. ↑ "Dictionary.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". whois.domaintools.com. Archived from the original on November 8, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2016.
  2. ↑ Herman, Barbara (May 12, 2015). "Deep Web, Revenge Porn And Microaggression Are Just Some of Dictionary.com's Latest Additions". International Business Times. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved February 24, 2021.
  3. ↑ Treisman, Rachel (September 3, 2020). "Dictionary.com's Largest Update (Re)defines Thousands Of Words, Focusing On Identity". NPR . Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  4. ↑ Perlman, Merrill (April 29, 2019). "Dictionaries recently added more than 1,500 words. Here are some new entries". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  5. ↑ Kramer, Staci D. (May 15, 2008). "Lexico, Dictionary.com Being Acquired By Ask.com; Price In $100 Million Range". Gigacom. Archived from the original on November 17, 2021. Retrieved January 24, 2014.
  6. ↑ Alpert, Lukas (March 26, 2018). "Defining Moment for Dictionary.com - It's For Sale" . Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved March 17, 2020.
  7. ↑ Auchard, Eric (July 4, 2008). "Ask.com closes acquisition of Dictionary.com". Reuters. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Amended and Restated Operating Agreement of Dictionary.com, LLC". U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. July 17, 2008. Archived from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved October 14, 2019.
  9. 1 2 Reindl, JC (November 15, 2018). "Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert just dipped into the online dictionary, thesaurus business". WKYC Studios.
  10. ↑ Stevens, Heidi (November 11, 2015). "'Mx.' instead of 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.?' It's in the dictionary now". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  11. ↑ Learning, I. X. L. "IXL Learning Acquires Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com". www.prnewswire.com. Retrieved April 2, 2024.
  12. ↑ "Definition of emolument". dictionary.com. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved April 28, 2020.
  13. ↑ "15 crossword solvers for Android, iOS, and the web that actually work!". Android Authority. March 5, 2020. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  14. ↑ Steinmetz, Katy (February 12, 2020). "Terms Like 'OK Boomer' Are Hard to Define. This Dictionary Is Trying Anyway". Time. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  15. 1 2 Griggs, Brandon (December 15, 2018). "What Dictionary.com's words of the year say about us". CNN. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  16. 1 2 ""Existential' crowned word of the year by Dictionary.com". Click on Detroit. Archived from the original on April 25, 2022. Retrieved December 19, 2019.
  17. ↑ "The Dictionary.com Word Of The Year For 2020 Is ..." Dictionary.com. November 30, 2020. Archived from the original on December 4, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2021.
  18. ↑ "The Dictionary.com Word of the Year is hallucinate". Dictionary.com. December 12, 2023. Archived from the original on January 15, 2024. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
  19. ↑ Rao, Leena (April 8, 2009). "Dictionary.com Launches Free iPhone App". Tech Crunch. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved March 13, 2020.
  20. ↑ Lane, Ana (March 18, 2020). "41 totally free educational resources for kids stuck at home". USA TODAY. Archived from the original on April 8, 2022. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
  21. ↑ Magid, Anigah (October 28, 2020). "Dictionary.com Launches Tutoring and Learning Features to Combat Language Ambiguity and Learning Burnout in 2020". eLearningInside News. Archived from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved June 13, 2021.
  22. ↑ Camero, Katie (April 23, 2020). "Dictionary has been updated to cover COVID-19. These are the new words". Miami Herald . Archived from the original on October 6, 2021. Retrieved May 1, 2020.
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