A good dictionary does more than define: it shows you how a word sounds, how it changes form, and how real writers use it. Type any English word into this free online dictionary and you get the full entry from Wiktionary — every meaning, numbered sense by sense, with IPA pronunciations, plurals and verb forms, example sentences, and lists of synonyms and antonyms so you can find the word next to the word. No account, no download, and it works for the everyday vocabulary and the obscure corners of English alike.
How to use this dictionary
Type a word and press “Look it up” (or hit Enter). If a word has several lives — “bright” the adjective, “bright” the noun — each part of speech gets its own section, with its own pronunciations and senses. Look up the base form of a word for the richest entry: “run” instead of “running”, “child” instead of “children”. The dictionary will still resolve many inflected forms through the forms list, but the headword entry is where the full detail lives.
What each part of the entry means
Pronunciation. The slashes show the IPA transcription — /ˈhæpi/ for “happy” — the standard alphabet dictionaries use to pin down sounds exactly. Where regional variants exist, they are tagged, so you can see that a Scots pronunciation differs from the standard one.
Senses. Meanings are numbered in order, most central first. Tags in brackets mark a sense as formal, informal, archaic, or restricted to a field or region — a sense tagged “obsolete” is real English, just English nobody alive uses unironically.
Examples. Each sense can carry example sentences, from everyday usage to quotations from real books. Reading one example teaches more about how a word behaves than the definition alone: it shows the company the word keeps.
Forms, synonyms, antonyms. The forms line lists plurals, comparatives and verb inflections. Synonyms and antonyms appear under individual senses and for the entry as a whole — sense-level lists are the precise ones, because “bright” meaning smart has different opposites from “bright” meaning shining.
Where the definitions come from
The entries are served from Wiktionary, the crowd-built companion to Wikipedia, through the Free Dictionary API. That makes this dictionary unusually broad — it covers slang, technical terms and rare words that commercial dictionaries skip — and occasionally uneven. Cross-check anything legally or medically critical against an official source.
Common questions
Why did my word not come up? Check the spelling, then try the base form. Proper nouns, very new slang and multi-word phrases often have no single-word entry.
Can I look up words in other languages? This tool covers English headwords. Spanish speakers: the twin of this page explains the English entry in Spanish — the definitions themselves remain in English, as Wiktionary publishes them.
How is this different from a translator? A translator swaps a word for its nearest equivalent in another language; a dictionary explains the word inside its own language — its senses, register and behaviour. For real understanding, you want the explanation, not just the swap.
Is it free for students and writers? Completely — look up as many words as you like.
Tips for learners and writers
Look up words you meet while reading, not lists of words in the abstract — the example sentences anchor the meaning to a real context, and the sense ordering tells you which meaning you most likely just met. When a synonym list tempts you toward a grander word, check that word’s own entry before using it: near-synonyms differ in register and company, and the tags on each sense will warn you when a word is formal, dated or rude. For spelling, the forms list is the quick authority on plurals and inflections — “phenomena”, not “phenomenas”; “went”, not “goed”.
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