Comments on: Not just another dictionary

Not just another dictionary

tellurian — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:01:24 -0800

Wordnik - An ongoing project devoted to discovering all the words and everything about them. [via]

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:04:06 -0800

I discovered this last week. It's a pretty damn amazing site.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:07:07 -0800

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

By: zippy

zippy — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:09:41 -0800

Great joerb! I mean jorb! though they miss one important example (flash, homestarrunner).

By: quadog

quadog — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 00:20:13 -0800

Wørd pRon!

By: moonbiter

moonbiter — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:05:58 -0800

Hmm. No entry for "rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz." I guess [in English] is implied.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:12:41 -0800

I dunno. The twitter and flickr bits are neat, I guess, but I prefer wordie.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 01:17:58 -0800

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)

By: sexyrobot

sexyrobot — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:28:25 -0800

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...

By: mistersquid

mistersquid — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 05:32:01 -0800

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!

By: blucevalo

blucevalo — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 07:47:17 -0800

"Antidisestablishmentarianism" too. I like the site and its presentation a lot.

By: litterateur

litterateur — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 08:51:07 -0800

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."

By: Librarygeek

Librarygeek — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:31:08 -0800

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.

By: Wrinkled Stumpskin

Wrinkled Stumpskin — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 12:08:46 -0800

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"?

By: Powerful Religious Baby

Powerful Religious Baby — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:43:17 -0800

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!

By: zzazazz

zzazazz — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 16:54:14 -0800

Me like. Thanks for sharing.