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Online Reference Sources

These are resources that professional indexers may find useful in their daily work.

Thesauri will be found by subject on this page. For additional resources, consult ASI’s list of online thesauri.

And, as always, ASI does not endorse or promote products, companies, political parties, religious groups, advertising or information found in web sites we provide links for.

General Reference Sources Specific Reference Sources

General Reference Sources

 

  • Dictionaries, Thesauri, and Other Language Tools
      • German/English Translation Service. This isn’t a Web page; the LEO translation services is a translation-by-email service. Put words you want to have translated into the email message body and receive a translation in reply. (Note that the service translated individual words, not sentences.) Send your email message to translate@leo.org with no subject and the message body of your words-to-be-translated.
      • Language Dictionaries. List of language dictionaries.
      • Library of Congress Controlled Vocabularies. Includes link to CRS Legislative Subject Terms (formerly Legislative Indexing Vocabulary (LIV)).
      • Library of Congress Thesaurus for Graphic Material I and II. (NOTE there are two distinct and separate links: one for volume I and one for volume II.) If you are looking for a thesaurus of terms related to graphic materials, this is where you want to be exploring. For browsing and searching.
      • LookWayUp Dictionary. This dictionary and thesaurus site allows approximate spellings on look-up and combines a multilingual dictionary, thesaurus, translation, and other handy tools. The built-in thesaurus gives synonyms, antonyms, and up to 25 types of related terms.
      • Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Search only.
      • National Information Standards Organization (NISO) standards page includes access ANSI/NISO Z39.19 – 2005 Guidelines for the Construction, Format, and Management of Monolingual Controlled Vocabularies (Related international standard: ISO 2788). This standard presents guidelines and conventions for the contents, display, construction, testing, maintenance, and management of monolingual controlled vocabularies. It focuses on controlled vocabularies that are used for the representation of content objects in knowledge organization systems including lists, synonym rings, taxonomies, and thesauri. Available for a fee.
      • Onelook dictionary. Search only. (For browsing, see http://www.onelook.com/browse.shtml.) You can choose to look up your word in one dictionary or through all of the variety of specialized and general dictionaries available. A great source! Contains listings for over 200 searchable dictionaries.
      • Online Dictionary of Language Terminology. The ODLT is an online dictionary of language terminology that consists of concise, simply worded explanations of terms that English speakers use to talk about the English language.
      • Online English Grammar.
      • The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus. Search only. Search for words, close matches, synonyms, and so on. Much more than a dictionary.
      • The World Bank Thesaurus. Search or browse by letter.
      • Transportation Research Thesaurus. The Transportation Research Thesaurus was developed to provide a tool to improve the indexing and retrieval of transportation information. The thesaurus covers all modes and aspects of transportation. A primary use will be to provide a common and consistent language between producers and users of the Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database. The thesaurus is currently also used as an indexing tool for federal, state and university collections. The TRT Web site allows users to access terminology through Alphabetical, Hierarchical, Keyword In Context or Keyword Out of Context displays. The full display shows relationship of terms including SN (Scope Notes), UF (used for terms), BT (Broader Term), NT (Narrower Term), and RT (Related Term).
      • Dictionaries of computer terms.
      • Science glossaries.