49 Free Online Reference Tools for Freelance Writers
September 2, 2009 by Deb
Filed under Freelance Writing
The first blogs were nothing but links. Early bloggers compiled links of wonderful and useful things to share with other folks online. I like keep that early spirit of sharing in mind when I make up my own lists of links to share. Today, I’ve accumulate some terrific free resources for writers. Some are dictionaries, some encyclopedias and others are tools to bookmark to use as needed. I hope you find these links handy and helpful.
49 Free Online Reference Tools for Freelance Writers
Dictionaries
- Dictionary.com – You no longer have to lug around your Funk and Wagnalls.
- The Free Dictionary - Words and references in many languages.
- One Look – Definition Search
- Word of the Day - From Merriam Webster – and they should know.
- WordReference.com - Online language dictionaries
- Net Dictionary
- Hacker’s Dictionary – So I can pretend to know what geeks are talking about
- Urban Dictionary – So we can know what our kids are talking about.
- SlangSite.com – In case we can’t find what we’re looking for at the Urban Dictionary
- Webopedia – More geekery
- Duhaime.org - Legal Dictionary
- UMCP’s Botannical Glossary
- UMCP’s Zoological Glossary
- UMCP’s Biochemistry Glossary
Grammar and Usage
- The Economist Style Guide – Style and usage at your finger tips.
- Orango Spell Checker
- The Element’s of Style - Strunk is online too.
- English Grammar Online - Tutorials, lessons and more.
- Online Dictionary of Language Terminology
Words
- Thesaurus.com – When you need a word, but not that word.
- Visuwords – Word Association
Facts & Statistics
- RefDesk - Online fact checker, filled with links to all sorts of useful sites.
- InfoPlease -Online encyclopedia
- Encyclopedia Britannica - You no longer have to fill your shelves with volumes A to Z – it’s all right here online.
- AllRefer.com Health Encyclopedia
- Healthopedia.com – Ditto the above
Miscellaneous References
- How Cast – Web site filled with how to videos.
- Fact Monster - Dictionaries, encyclopedia, a homework center and even an analogy of the day.
- Top 100 U.S. Newspapers – For when Yahoo isn’t enough.
- World Almanac – World facts
- Famous Quotes & Authors – Impress everyone on Twitter.
- U.S. Census Bureau – Statistics and stuff
- Acronym Finder – So you don’t have to keep Googling letters to find out what they mean.
- 10,000 Year Calendar - You never know when you need to look a few years into the future.
- The World Factbook - For 2008
- The Occupational Handbook - 2008 – 2009
- Bible Gateway - An online searchable Bible
- The Celebrity Almanac – Not that we really care about Tom Cruise’s real name
- The Old Farmer’s Almanac - It hasn’t let us down yet.
- Libweb - Connect to libraries around the world.
- The Internet Public Library – Everything you need to know about everything.
- CIA – The World FactBook – Lots of good stuff about the Government, people and economy.
- Hoover’s Online – Profiles of more than 10,000 American businesses.
- Google Maps – Getting you where you need to go.
- Dot What? – Details on cyber extensions
- Getty Thesaurus of Geographical Names
- Flags of the World - You never know when you’ll need to know
- The Art & Architecture Thesaurus
- The Internet Law Library - Links to lots of legal stuff
- NASA Thesaurus - Spacey terminology
What are your favorite free online reference tools for writers?
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- A,B,C’s of Good Customer Service
- 40 Freelance Writing Markets Paying $100 or More
These are GREAT resources and most of them I didn’t know! (But, um, you’ve got an apostrophe-s plural in “elements” in–ironically–the grammar section.)
Thanks Deb!
Awesome resources! Does anyone have an easy site to attribute quotes and to find quotes?
Beverly, try:
WikiQuote
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page
There are some great resources here!
One quote site that I like is wisdomquotes.com. It is simple and they have a lot of thoughtful quotes. A lot of my favorite posts are structured around quotes, and in my own writing when I get stuck I leaf thru my old hand written spiral boud “quotebooks.”
Thanks you so much for this listing. I have bookmarked this page for future reference.
Thanks so much for this listing. I have bookmarked it for future reference.