Dictionary Building Resources: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 08:05, 16 March 2026

Dictionary Craft Tools

A practical guide for lexicographers, wordsmiths, and neologism architects.

MorDictionary does not merely define words.

We build them. We preserve them. We refine them. We sometimes invent them.

This page collects tools, communities, and reference materials useful for crafting dictionary entries, mining example sentences, and coining neologisms.

Entry Construction Tools

Example Sentence Craft

Sentence Mining Communities

r/SentenceMiners (Reddit)
c/SentenceMiners (Lemmy)

Neologism Design

Neologism Communities

Reddit — r/NeologismsHelp
Lemmy — c/NeologismHelp
Linguistics forums and word-creation discussion groups

Communities Pairing Dictionary Entries with Music

Reddit — r/LexicalSoundtrack

Recommended Dictionaries & Glossaries

General Dictionaries

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) — oed.com
Merriam-Webster — merriam-webster.com
Wiktionary — wiktionary.org
Wordnik — wordnik.com

Specialized & Historical

Green’s Dictionary of Slang — greensdictofslang.com
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary — webstersdictionary1828.com
Phrontistery — phrontistery.info — Obscure and rare vocabulary collections
The Grandiloquent Dictionary — PDF edition — Unusual and sesquipedalian words
Oxford Reference — oxfordreference.com — Subject glossaries (legal, theological, technical, etc.)
A Bunch of Public Domain Dictionaries - Approved Public Domain Sources for Wiktionary

Corpus & Usage Research

Google Books Ngram Viewer — Google Ngram Viewer — Track historical frequency of words.
COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) — english-corpora.org/coca — Modern American English usage patterns.
British National Corpus — english-corpora.org/bnc — British English usage data.
Sketch Engine — sketchengine.eu — Advanced corpus querying tool.

Etymology Research

Online Etymology Dictionary — etymonline.com — Quick-reference etymology.
Wiktionary — wiktionary.org — Collaborative etymology chains.
Perseus Digital Library — perseus.tufts.edu — Classical Greek and Latin texts.
Oxford English Dictionary (OED) — oed.com — Historical English dictionary (subscription required).
Webster’s 1828 Dictionary — webstersdictionary1828.com — Early American English reference.

Pronunciation Tools

IPA Chart — ipa chart
Forvo — forvo.com — Crowdsourced pronunciation recordings.
Wiktionary Audio Archives — commons pronunciation files

Frequency & Register Checking

Word Frequency Lists — wordfrequency.info
Google Scholar — scholar.google.com — Academic register reference.
Project Gutenberg — gutenberg.org — Literary corpora for historical usage.

Collaborative Lexicography Philosophy

Dictionary-making is no longer confined to ivory towers, but maybe we should try to minimize the slop a smidge. I mean, I love Urban Dictionary, but sometimes it’s a bit much.

Let’s have fun, but let’s try to make a functional dictionary at the same time.

Philosophy

We oppose boring dictionaries.

A dictionary entry should:

Inform
Contextualize
Illuminate
Delight

A lexicon is not merely a record. It is a living archive of thought.

@@ Line 13: / Line 13: @@
 ----
-== 🛠 Entry Construction Tools ==
+== Entry Construction Tools ==
-=== Corpus & Usage Research ===
+== Example Sentence Craft ==
-* '''Google Books Ngram Viewer''' — Track historical frequency of words.
-* '''COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English)''' — Modern usage patterns.
+=== Sentence Mining Communities ===
-* '''British National Corpus''' — British English usage data.
-* '''Sketch Engine''' — Advanced corpus querying (professional tool).
-=== Etymology Research ===
+* [https://www.reddit.com/r/SentenceMiners/ r/SentenceMiners] (Reddit)
-* '''Online Etymology Dictionary''' — Quick-reference etymology.
+* [https://lemmy.world/c/SentenceMiners c/SentenceMiners] (Lemmy)
-* '''Wiktionary''' — Collaborative etymology chains.
-* '''Perseus Digital Library''' — Classical language references.
-* Historical dictionaries (OED, Webster 1828, etc.).
-=== Pronunciation Tools ===
+----
-* IPA Chart resources
-* Forvo (crowdsourced pronunciation)
-* Wiktionary audio archives
-=== Frequency & Register Checking ===
+== Neologism Design ==
-* Word frequency lists
-* Academic corpora
-* Literary corpora
-----
+=== Neologism Communities ===
-== ✍ Example Sentence Craft ==
+* '''Reddit''' — [https://www.reddit.com/r/NeologismsHelp/ r/NeologismsHelp]
+* '''Lemmy''' — [https://lemmy.world/c/NeologismHelp c/NeologismHelp]
+* Linguistics forums and word-creation discussion groups
-Example sentences are the living proof of a word’s habitat.
+----
+== Communities Pairing Dictionary Entries with Music ==
+* '''Reddit''' — [https://www.reddit.com/r/LexicalSoundtrack/ r/LexicalSoundtrack]
-=== Sentence Mining Communities ===
+== Recommended Dictionaries & Glossaries ==
-* '''Reddit''' — [https://www.reddit.com/r/SentenceMiners/ r/SentenceMiners]
+=== General Dictionaries ===
-* '''Lemmy''' — [https://lemmy.world/c/SentenceMiners c/SentenceMiners]
+* '''Oxford English Dictionary (OED)''' — [https://www.oed.com/ oed.com]
+* '''Merriam-Webster''' — [https://www.merriam-webster.com/ merriam-webster.com]
+* '''Wiktionary''' — [https://www.wiktionary.org/ wiktionary.org]
+* '''Wordnik''' — [https://www.wordnik.com/ wordnik.com]
 ----
-== 🧠 Neologism Design ==
+=== Specialized & Historical ===
-Coining new words requires discipline, not whimsy.
+* '''Green’s Dictionary of Slang''' — [https://greensdictofslang.com/ greensdictofslang.com]
+* '''Webster’s 1828 Dictionary''' — [https://webstersdictionary1828.com/ webstersdictionary1828.com]
+* '''Phrontistery''' — [https://phrontistery.info/ phrontistery.info] — Obscure and rare vocabulary collections
+* '''The Grandiloquent Dictionary''' — [https://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/words.pdf PDF edition] — Unusual and sesquipedalian words
+* '''Oxford Reference''' — [https://www.oxfordreference.com/ oxfordreference.com] — Subject glossaries (legal, theological, technical, etc.)
+* '''A Bunch of Public Domain Dictionaries''' - [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Public_domain_sources Approved Public Domain Sources for Wiktionary]
-=== Neologism Communities ===
+----
-* Reddit neologismhelp
-* Lemmy neologismhelp
-* Linguistics forums
-=== Principles of Sound Coinage ===
+=== Corpus & Usage Research ===
-* Morphological consistency
-* Transparent affix use
-* Etymological plausibility
-* Phonetic elegance
-* Semantic necessity
-A good neologism fills a gap.
+* '''Google Books Ngram Viewer''' — [https://books.google.com/ngrams Google Ngram Viewer] — Track historical frequency of words.
-A great neologism feels inevitable.
+* '''COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English)''' — [https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/ english-corpora.org/coca] — Modern American English usage patterns.
+* '''British National Corpus''' — [https://www.english-corpora.org/bnc/ english-corpora.org/bnc] — British English usage data.
+* '''Sketch Engine''' — [https://www.sketchengine.eu/ sketchengine.eu] — Advanced corpus querying tool.
 ----
-== 📚 Recommended Dictionaries & Glossaries ==
+=== Etymology Research ===
-MorDictionary respects tradition while refusing to be boring.
+* '''Online Etymology Dictionary''' — [https://www.etymonline.com/ etymonline.com] — Quick-reference etymology.
+* '''Wiktionary''' — [https://www.wiktionary.org/ wiktionary.org] — Collaborative etymology chains.
+* '''Perseus Digital Library''' — [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ perseus.tufts.edu] — Classical Greek and Latin texts.
+* '''Oxford English Dictionary (OED)''' — [https://www.oed.com/ oed.com] — Historical English dictionary (subscription required).
+* '''Webster’s 1828 Dictionary''' — [https://webstersdictionary1828.com/ webstersdictionary1828.com] — Early American English reference.
-=== General Dictionaries ===
+----
-* Oxford English Dictionary
-* Merriam-Webster
-* Wiktionary
-* Wordnik
-=== Specialized & Historical ===
+=== Pronunciation Tools ===
-* Green’s Dictionary of Slang
-* Webster’s 1828
-* Regional glossaries
-* Field-specific glossaries (legal, nautical, theological, technical)
-Each dictionary has a temperament.
+* '''IPA Chart''' — [https://www.internationalphoneticassociation.org/content/full-ipa-chart ipa chart]
-Study their strengths.
+* '''Forvo''' — [https://forvo.com/ forvo.com] — Crowdsourced pronunciation recordings.
-Observe their weaknesses.
+* '''Wiktionary Audio Archives''' — [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Pronunciation commons pronunciation files]
-Avoid their dullness.
 ----
-== 🏛 Collaborative Lexicography ==
+=== Frequency & Register Checking ===
+* '''Word Frequency Lists''' — [https://www.wordfrequency.info/ wordfrequency.info]
+* '''Google Scholar''' — [https://scholar.google.com/ scholar.google.com] — Academic register reference.
+* '''Project Gutenberg''' — [https://www.gutenberg.org/ gutenberg.org] — Literary corpora for historical usage.
-Dictionary-making is no longer confined to ivory towers.
+----
-It is communal.
+== Collaborative Lexicography Philosophy ==
-* Wiktionary (open lexicography)
+Dictionary-making is no longer confined to ivory towers, but maybe we should try to minimize the slop a smidge. I mean, I love [https://www.urbandictionary.com/ Urban Dictionary], but sometimes it’s a bit much.
-* Community glossaries
-* Language preservation projects
-* Personal lexicographic blogs
-MorDictionary encourages participation, experimentation, and preservation.
+Let’s have fun, but let’s try to make a functional dictionary at the same time.
 ----
-== 📜 Philosophy ==
+== Philosophy ==
 We oppose boring dictionaries.