Onelook’s Reverse Dictionary. Have you ever struggled to find just the right, um, Word? This happens to Bossy whatchamacallit. Frequently. And the synonym dictionary doesn’t do any good because Bossy can’t even think of anything within the family of words she is looking searching hunting for.
OneLook’s Reverse Dictionary to the rescue. Type a brief concept into the allowed space and it will provide hundreds of possibilities. Which isn’t to say all of those possibilities will be appropriate. When searching for words to describe “a very small thing”, nestled among the diminutives and the miniatures is the USS Brandywine — a United States Navy 44-gun sailing frigate.
Or when looking for words associated with “inexperienced”, you’ll find among a larger list rookie, fresh, and the ever-popular sugar snap pea.
But mostly Bossy leaves the site feeling more informed than when she got there. For instance, Bossy not only knows this paragraph is lacking shape, she know it’s an amorphous dollop without daoloth.
kate says
October 17, 2008 at 5:59 pmshoot. now i’m going to lose the next 2 hours reversing the dictionary.
kate says
October 17, 2008 at 6:02 pmand waste of time?
hang about? dawdle? lollygag? loaf?
no. waste of time=roger of wendover.
yes way.