Worldwide Dictionaries

Free Dictionaries

Worldwide Dictionaries offers the internet users help on their search for online dictionaries. It is not limited to any particular field. Worldwide Dictionaries offers information on online resources for any topic that you can think of. The subject matter and the content of the dictionaries have seen a dramatic change from the original forms of dictionaries. We try to list all possible online dictionaries both free online dictionary and paid online dictionary. We have organized the dictionaries in a systematic way under various categories. We also provide useful essays and useful articles on various topics to help our users to find the information they need. You can enjoy our services free at World Wide Dictionaries.

To start with, let us understand what a dictionary is and also its history.

What is Dictionary?

Dictionary is a compendium of words or terms that are systematically listed. This understanding of dictionary has changed. Initially dictionaries were available only for languages to find the meaning of words, but today that is not the case. We have dictionaries for everything under the sun. You can find online dictionaries and offline dictionaries for everything you can think of. So dictionary is now commonly understood as any systematically arranged list of words or terms. There are many free online dictionaries available today – for example Websters online dictionary. Online dictionaries make the search process easy – all that you have to do is to key in the word you are looking for and hit ‘go' you will have your results displayed in a matter of seconds. Online dictionary – Life made easy!!!

With the use of a dictionary you can learn new languages, you can increase your vocabulary and learn the pronunciation of words. Phonetic dictionaries are very helpful in learning the pronunciation of new words.

With the advent of the internet era and online dictionaries, you need not have to carry around the voluminous dictionary around you will be able to find the meaning of any word that you need in any language for that matter in a matter of seconds. There are also offline dictionaries that come in the form of CD ROMS. You can install these dictionaries in your computer and they can be used offline with a number of search tools available handy for your use.

When and were did dictionary originate?

We don't find easily all the information that we would like to know regarding the history of dictionaries. History of dictionary has no documentation available. To trace back the history of dictionaries we have to take hints from the general history or the history of literature.

We can talk of the first dictionary to have originated in the 7 th century BC. The king of Assyria, Nineveh - Ashurbanipal had in his library had this first dictionary. This dictionary resembled no way similar to today's Websters dictionary in paperback.- it was a clay tablet with letter's inscribed in them. The second earliest known dictionary belongs to 3 rd century BC. This dictionary was written by Verrius Flaccus.

The next known instance is the Sanskrit dictionaries of 5 th century AD. These dictionaries were multi language dictionaries – Sanskrit dictionary, Tibetan dictionary, Chinese dictionary and Mongolian dictionary. During this era itself the concept of dictionary has started changing from only language related works to botany dictionary, astronomical dictionary, medical dictionary etc. between 6 th to 8 th centuries AD we hear of Hebrew dictionaries.

The Greeks and Romans too had their own forms of dictionaries in the form of glossaries.

Eventually the need for multi language dictionary was realized with the increase in the movement of people from one country to the other. One of the factors that influenced was the increasing trade interests. The first multi lingual dictionary was developed by a monk named Ambrigio Calpeno in 1590.

With the advent of printing press in the 16 th century lead to the explosion of increased number of dictionaries worldwide. Today literally there are millions of dictionaries big and small, cheap and expensive – find them all here.