Reference Resources: Dictionaries

Bilingual Dictionaries
This is a collection of bilingual dictionaries published by Oxford University Press, searcheable as a group or individually.
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Brewer's Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable
Over 18,000 identifications of historical/literary allusions. (1898 edition)
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Cambridge Dictionaries Online
Several English-language dictionaries.
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Concise Dictionary Of World Place Names
Published in 2005. Contains 8,000 entries on the history, meanings, and origin of an enormous range of country, region, island, city, and town names from around the world.
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Devil's Dictionary
Ambrose Bierce's famous collection.
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Dictionary Of Architecture And Landscape Architecture
Revised edition (2006) of James Stevens Curl's 1999 Dictionary of Architecture, now with over 6,000 entries.
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Dictionary Of Chinese Characters: Accessed By Phonetics
2008 volume arranges "frequently used characters under the phonetic element they have in common, rather than only under their radical," encouraging students to link characters according to their phonetic.
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Dictionary Of Psychology
Second edition (2006) contains over 11,000 entries, covering key areas including cognition, sensation and perception, emotion and motivation, learning and skills, language, mental disorder, and research methods, and such related disciplines as psychoanalysis, psychiatry, the neurosciences, and statistics.
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Dictionary Of Sociology
The 3rd revised edition (2009) "spans an international range of terms, methods, and concepts," including biographies, entries on topics ranging from environmental determinism to orientalism, and entries on related terms from psychology, economics, anthropology, philosophy, and political science.
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Dictionary Of Statistics
Second edition, revised (2008), with 2,000 entries, covers a broad range of statistical vocabulary, including terms used in computing, mathematics, operational research, and probability, as well as biographical information on over 200 key figures in the field.
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Dictionary Of World History
Second edition (2006) contains over 4,000 entries, covering pre-history to modern times, including biographies of key figures, historical summaries for each country, and entries on religious and political movements, international organizations, and key battles and places.
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English Dictionaries And Thesauruses
This is a collection of English-language dictionaries published by Oxford University Press, searchable as a group or individually.
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GIS Dictionary
Search or browse for terms collected from ESRI software documentation, course materials, and other ESRI documents. Many terms address GIS operations, uses, and contexts. Other terms stem from closely allied fields, or from major application areas of GIS.
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Lexicool
Links to over 3000 translation dictionaries and glossaries freely available on the Internet.
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MedTerms Medical Dictionary
The medical reference for MedicineNet.com, containing easy-to-understand explanations of over 16,000 medical terms. This online medical dictionary provides quick access to hard-to-spell and often misspelled medical definitions through an extensive alphabetical listing.
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Merriam-Webster Online
Dictionary and thesaurus.
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Middle English Compendium
The Compendium weaves together three separate resources: the Middle English Dictionary; the HyperBibliography; and the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse.
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Middle English Dictionary
"A comprehensive analysis of lexicon and usage for the period 1100-1500, based on the analysis of a collection of over three million citation slips."
The printed set is available in the library collection.
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New Dictionary Of Cultural Literacy
Compiled by E.D. Hirsch, this 3rd edition (2002) provides explanations of nearly 7,000 terms considered necessary for cultural literacy, including such subject areas as the Bible, geography, the English language, history, and more. Printed copy is available in our reference collection: REF E 169.1.H614 2002.
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OneLook Dictionaries
Search simultaneously for definitions of words and phrases in 700+ online dictionaries. Any of the individual dictionaries can also be searched separately.
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Oxford Dictionary Of Byzantium
This three-volume set (published in 1991) is a comprehensive dictionary of Byzantine civilization, including over 5,000 entries written by an international group of eminent scholars, covering all aspects of life in the Byzantine world. Major entries treat such topics as agriculture, art, literature, and politics, while shorter entries examine topics that relate to Byzantium such as the history of Kiev and personalities of ancient and biblical history.
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Oxford Dictionary Of Law
Sixth edition (2006) contains over 4,000 entries which define and explain major terms, concepts, processes, and organization of legal systems founded on English law (with some coverage of European law).
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Oxford Dictionary Of Philosophy
Written by Simon Blackburn, this 2008 edition contains over 500 biographies of famous and influential philosophers, in-depth analysis of philosophical terms and concepts, and coverage of themes from Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy.
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Oxford Dictionary Of Phrase And Fable
Wide-ranging dictionary which explores nearly 8,000 names and sayings found in classic and contemporary literature and other writings.
Also available in our printed collection.
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Oxford Dictionary Of Rhymes
First edition (2006) "contains rhymes for 45,000 words, including proper names, place names, and foreign terms used in English."
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Oxford Dictionary Of The Renaissance
This 2003 publication contains over 3,000 entries on the thought, culture, philosophy, painting and sculpture, and writing of Europe and the wider world from the early 14th century and continuing into the 15th and 16th centuries.
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Oxford English Dictionary (OED)
The OED is the accepted authority on the history of words in the English language. It is the most important guide to the meaning and history of over a half-million words, both past and present, tracing the meanings of these words through the use of over 2.5 million quotations, drawn from a wide range of sources. The database contains the Second Edition and additions, including quarterly updates of at least 1,000 new and revised entries.
The library also has the first and second editions in printed form.
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Oxford Reference Online
A fully-indexed, cross-searchable compilation of over 100 reference books -- large encyclopedias and subject-specific dictionaries -- published by Oxford University Press. You can search an entire category ("History") or one book at a time.
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Oxford Reference Online -- Economics And Business Dictionaries
Searchable collection of a half-dozen dictionaries.
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Real Life Dictionary Of The Law
Complete text of the 1995 edition of this work.
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus
3rd edition. Over 35,000 synonyms.
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Routledge Dictionary Of Literary Terms
This 2005 volume, containing over 200 entries, is a revision and expansion of Roger Flowler's Dictionary of Modern Critical Terms, first published in 1973.
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Science Reference Sources
A list of science specific dictionaries and encyclopedias. Updated as new resources are acquired.
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Webster's New World Law Dictionary
Definitions of over 4,000 legal terms. (Published 2006.)
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