Not just another dictionary

June 22, 2009 12:01 AM

Wordnik - An ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them. [via]
posted by tellurian (15 comments total)

I discovered this last week. It's a pretty damn amazing site.
posted by iamkimiam at 12:04 AM on June 22, 2009

First word I used was "profligate" as a test, figuring it probably didn't have all words. I was very surprised. Pretty amazing.
posted by miss lynnster at 12:07 AM on June 22, 2009

Great joerb! I mean jorb!

though they miss one important example (flash, homestarrunner).
posted by zippy at 12:09 AM on June 22, 2009

Wørd pRon!
posted by quadog at 12:20 AM on June 22, 2009

Hmm. No entry for "rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz."

I guess [in English] is implied.
posted by moonbiter at 1:05 AM on June 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

I dunno. The twitter and flickr bits are neat, I guess, but I prefer wordie.
posted by juv3nal at 1:12 AM on June 22, 2009 [1 favorite]

First word I used was "profligate" as a test, figuring it probably didn't have all words. I was very surprised. Pretty amazing.

Why wouldn't it have profligate?

It has Hapex Legomenon but not Flother (definition)
posted by delmoi at 1:17 AM on June 22, 2009

the bubble graph feature is pretty neat, or would be if it was anywhere near accurate...seems really weird for the 1920s-50s and 1980...try typing in really common words ('the', 'and' 'he' etc) seems like it's finding fewer occurrences for 1920-50 and a lot of words to be 'unusual' in 1980...probably a database issue. Also, some sort of spell check would be nice...most dictionaries if you type it in wrong it will find it for you...guess that kind of defeats the purpose at this point, though...
posted by sexyrobot at 2:28 AM on June 22, 2009

Interesting and accurate. I gave it a whirl with a word whose frequent misuse is one of my pet peeves, that word being "enormity."

wordnik knows its stuff. Thanks!
posted by mistersquid at 5:32 AM on June 22, 2009

"Antidisestablishmentarianism" too. I like the site and its presentation a lot.
posted by blucevalo at 7:47 AM on June 22, 2009

Great site! But did not have one of my favorite words (rediscovered after many years in "Vanity Fair"--for some reason, my roommates were not as excited as I), "Bragadocious."
posted by litterateur at 8:51 AM on June 22, 2009

I'm a word geek, so I loved this post. However, one entry frustrated me. I tried viral The definitions were all the standard "caused by a virus" but the examples were all viral in the context of information/ideas being quickly spread and one of a computer virus. None of the examples were of an old fashioned disease caused by a virus! I just found that interesting. I think the words with many layers of meanings and words that have been coopted by pop culture are going to be more difficult.
posted by Librarygeek at 10:31 AM on June 22, 2009

OK, they did well with "prestidigitation". I was surprised to see that "stylite" was so popular. But, given the last two, why was there no definition for "coruscating"?

Also, this is VERY cool. Why isn't there a button for "show me a word that no-one has looked up yet"?
posted by Wrinkled Stumpskin at 12:08 PM on June 22, 2009

Great site! But did not have one of my favorite words (rediscovered after many years in "Vanity Fair"--for some reason, my roommates were not as excited as I), "Bragadocious."

Never fear, it's there--you're just missing a g!
posted by Powerful Religious Baby at 4:43 PM on June 22, 2009

Me like. Thanks for sharing.
posted by zzazazz at 4:54 PM on June 22, 2009