Subject Guides: English: Dictionaries and Writing Resources

English-Language Dictionaries

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Merriam Webster Online Dictionary
The Historical Thesaurus of English
Online 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."
OneLook Dictionary Search
Links to more than 200 general and specialized language and subject dictionaries.
RhymeZone Rhyming Dictionary and Thesaurus
Search for perfect rhymes, match ending sounds, get definitions or related words, check spelling, or find homophones, semantic siblings, or synonyms.
The Acronym Server
Search for the meanings of abbreviations and acronyms, or find abbreviations and acronyms by typing in words. Includes a list of acronyms that have been searched for but not found.
Abbreviations.com
Search acronyms and abbreviation, or move from words in combination to their abbreviation. Browse by categories (e.g. government, computing, etc.).
Dictionary of American Regional English
Online updates

Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary
The Historical Thesaurus of English
Dictionary of Old English
"The Dictionary of Old English (DOE) defines the vocabulary of the first six centuries (C.E. 600-1150) of the English language, using twenty-first century technology. The DOE complements the Middle English Dictionary (which covers the period C.E. 1100-1500) and the Oxford English Dictionary, the three together providing a full description of the vocabulary of English.
Middle English Dictionary
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary (1755) Online
Green's Dictionary of Slang
"Five hundred years of the vulgar tongue."
Online 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."
Passing English of the Victorian Era (1909)
A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English (1905)

Grammar Resources (University of Chicago)
"An annotated collection of grammar and writing resources from around the web."
Elements of Style (Strunk, 1918)
A standard, if opinionated, guide to prose style.
University of Maine Writing Center
Set up an appointment! Includes links to a number of writing and language resources.
Writing and Presenting Your Thesis or Dissertation
Online guide to process of writing and defending a thesis or dissertation. Includes summary of key ideas covered in guide and selected list of links at the end.
Guide for Writing a Funding Proposal
Companion piece to Writing and Presenting Your Thesis or Dissertation. Covers each section in proposal with writing hints and examples.
Reading, Writing, and Researching for History
Part of a series of guides on the process of preparing papers in history prepared by the History Department at Bowdoin. The Writing guide includes sections devoted to structure, content, use of primary materials and formatting papers.
Writing Tutorial Services Guides (Indiana University)
A series of documents, each on a specific writing situation, including “How to Write a Thesis Statement", “Writing Book Reviews”, and “Personal Statements and Application Letters”.
How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography (Cornell University)
A guide to the preparation of annotated bibliographies with sections defining the annotated bibliography, comparisons to abstracting, citation information and examples.