How to use an online dictionary?

Online dictionaries are great tools for learning a language. These are based on a complex algorithm that make it easy to find the word you are searching for. In fact, looking up words in an online dictionary is easier than looking them up in a traditional printed dictionary.

An online dictionary gives reliable information at the click of a button. In this article we will explain some of the unique features of online dictionaries that make them great learning tools.

You can use an online dictionary to look up words whose exact spelling is not known to you. Just type in the letters you do know and then insert '?' symbol in places where you don't know what to type. For example, if you are unsure of the spelling of precious, you may type pre????s. The dictionary will return a list of words beginning in pre- and ending in -s.

An online dictionary can be used to look up words having related spellings. For example if you want to look up words ending in -ful, type in *ful. The online dictionary will return all words ending in -ful. Now what if you want to look up all words beginning with air? Well, just type in air* and the dictionary will return words such as airport, airman and aircraft.

Online dictionaries can be used to look up multiple word phrases such as walking stick and blotting paper. Type the + symbol between each word in the phrase. For example to look up mother in law, type mother + in + law.

Online dictionaries do not see any distinction between capital and small letters. For example beautiful is the same as BEAUTIFUL. Similarly gRaDuate is the same as GraduatE.

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