How does Wordnik work?

Wordnik is based on the principle that people learn words best by seeing them in context. We've collected more than 4 billion words of text (web pages, books, magazines, newspapers, etc.) and have mined them exhaustively to show you example sentences for any word you're interested in.

At Wordnik, we also believe that some information about a word is always better than no information, so we'll show you whatever we've found, for any word you look up.

How is Wordnik different from other online dictionaries?

At Wordnik, you get:

• real example sentences to show words in context


• meaningful information about your word's frequency and use patterns


• related words—not just synonyms and antonyms, but words that behave in similar ways


• the chance to contribute to our knowledge of English through recording pronunciations, pointing us towards new words, adding tags and related words, and leaving your notes

Is Wordnik free?

Yes! Wordnik is completely free. Use it as much as you like.

Who uses Wordnik?

Anyone who wants to know more about a word than they can find out in a traditional dictionary will want to use Wordnik. (It's faster, too!)

Can anyone join Wordnik?

Yes! Everyone can use Wordnik without signing up, but if you want to contribute (leave notes, record pronunciations, add tags, and suggest related words) you should sign up. Then you can log in and start contributing!

Can anyone contribute to Wordnik?

Absolutely! Once you've signed up and logged in, we welcome your contributions; please feel free to add citations, usage notes, or comments to any word or list.

Wordnik reserves the right to delete or disemvowel inappropriate contributions. (Remember, spelling counts!)

What dictionaries are included in Wordnik?

Right now, we're showing definitions from:

• The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright © 2008, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Updated in 2008. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
• The Century Dictionary
• WordNet® (WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.)
• The GNU version of The Collaborative International Dictionary of English, derived from the 1913 Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

We're also showing synonyms and antonyms from:

• Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage(r) Dictionary. Copyright (c) 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
• Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms, F. Sturges Allen, 1920 Harper & Brothers, New York

I have created a new word and I want to see it on Wordnik! How can I do this?

Great! Here at Wordnik, we LOVE new words. The easiest way for you to tell us about your new word is to look it up on Wordnik. So if your word is "ugfuzzies," enter it into the search box. When the page comes up, click on the "Comments" link under the word. Sign in or sign up to tell us all about your word. If you can, use your word in a sentence, or add a quote or citation where someone else has used it. (Here's a bad sentence: "I hate ugfuzzies." Here's a great sentence: "I hate ugfuzzies, you know, that sticky lint that won't brush off of your computer monitor." See the difference?)"

I looked up a word in Wordnik that I know isn't right, and you have tons of sentences for it. What gives?

Here at Wordnik, we show you what people actually do with language, not what we'd like them to do. We think it's important to show real information about every word—even the ones that aren't considered standard. However, just because a word is in Wordnik doesn't mean you have to use it!

I created a new word in my published book, and you don't show it! How can I get my word into Wordnik?

Fantastic! We'd love to show your work in Wordnik! Email us at feedback@wordnik.com and we'll work with you to include your work in our giant databank of English!

I found something wrong or broken on Wordnik. How can I tell you about it?

Send email to feedback@wordnik.com, and we'll try to make things right just as fast as we can.

However, if the mistake is in an example sentence, that (usually) means the mistake was in the original work. We can't go back and edit those, but we can use your information to change how we rank the sentences we show in the future.

I have a question that's not answered here! What do I do?

Send it to feedback@wordnik.com, and we'll try to answer it just as fast as we can.