New online dictionary: Wordnik

Comments:

• Garson O'Toole says:

  September 8, 2009 at 10:12 pm

  Thanks to Paul Biba and Book Patrol for the pointer to Wordnik. If you need a synonym then I would recommend the website Lexipedia for the largest and most variegated collection of synonyms artfully displayed. Lexipedia shows related words in an engaging radial pattern with groupings based on gradations in meaning.

  When a dictionary moves online its text can grow substantially because the strict size limit imposed by the conventional single volume format disappears. For this reason I have long wanted and expected an online dictionary containing rich and manifold examples of word use chosen from authors prized for eloquence.

  Wordnik does not offer hand-selected exemplars from great authors, but it does provide a large set of words embedded in sample sentences and passages. In the tests that I just performed the passages displayed on the main word page were chosen primarily from the corpus of Guttenberg electronic texts. Passages on the more extensive “Examples” page were chosen from newspapers and a wide variety of websites. The process apparently is automated or semi-automated; therefore, an author that “misuses” a word may sometimes appear in the set of examples. The Wordnik FAQ indicates that the website will emphasize a descriptive approach instead of a prescriptive approach to word usage:
  

  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 looked up the word incredulous because its usage is sometimes contested. The word is an adjective and the first definition is “skeptical or disbelieving”. The second definition is “expressive of disbelief” according to the American Heritage Dictionary listing given by Wordnik. All the examples from Guttenberg followed one of these two standard senses.
  

  “At first he was incredulous, then thoroughly alarmed.” — A Busy Year at the Old Squire’s

  “His eyes were wide, incredulous, and filled with a mingling of anger and dismay.” — Shoe-Bar Stratton

  “Even Socrates is incredulous, and indulges in a little raillery at the expense of the brothers.” — Euthydemus.

  Yet, Wordnik provided another interesting instance:
  

  Real-Time Examples from Twitter: It is incredulous that coal is being favored over natural gas!

  Here the Twitterer is using the word sense “incredible” or “unbelievable” and this use is often criticized. But it has an illustrious playwright defender. The Merriam-Webster says that this sense “was revived in the 20th century after a couple of centuries of disuse. Although it is a sense with good literary precedent—among others Shakespeare used it—many people think it is a result of confusion with incredible, which is still the usual word in this sense.”

  Wordnik is a fun new tool, and I wish them Godspeed. (Microsoft Word says I should capitalize Godspeed, and the Wordnik statistical pie chart shows that it is usually capitalized. One the other hand, Wordnik reveals quite a few Guttenberg texts where Godspeed is lowercase.)