OneLook Announces Reverse Dictionary Service

OneLook has announced a new reverse-dictionary service at http://www.onelook.com/reverse-dictionary.shtml . Their reverse dictionary allows you to enter a word or group of words describing a concept and get results consisting of related words.

I searched for the word "ennui" and got 100 results, ranging from the fairly standard "boredom" and "ho-hum" to the intriguing "principle of least astonishment." All the words are hyperlinked. Click on one and you'll get a list of links to dictionaries which have a definition for that word, with a "quick definition" on the right of the screen.

I tried a group of words, namely 'the disgust and disappointment one feels when they discover that the wheat bread has gone moldy when they want to have a sandwich.' I got 100 wierd results, including one work-unfriendly word. I limited the search to 'disgust and disappointment in moldy bread' and got slightly less weird results but still got the work-unfriendly word.

... and the lesson here is not to mess around with the beta release of the OneLook reverse dictionary service. Plainer searches for 'deep sorrow' found reasonable results, as did "deep blue-green." Interesting; might make a good brain nudger.

Posted to Reference-Dictionaries