Dictionaries online

Where do you go if you don't know the meaning of a word or an aconym? We recommend the best.

Whatis: You're not sure about the meaning of the word "router" in an article about telecommunications, so you'd like a precise definition. Whatis.com will give you one:

• www.whatis.com

acronymfinder: An acronym is a word formed from each of the first letters of a longer name or description. For example, North Atlantic Treaty Organization = NATO. This site should have the one you're looking for — even if it's the world's longest acronym, a 56-letter monster.

• www.acronymfinder.com

OneLook: Let's say you're in Oslo and would like to add a definition of "hedge fund" to that report for tomorrow. Onelook.com searches more than 700 online dictionaries and returns results in less than ten seconds.

• www.onelook.com
  

The Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary is online. There's a free version and a premium version for a fee:

• dictionary.cambridge.org

The Oxford English Dictionary is now 80. Maybe it's time you signed up for it. A year's subscription costs over €200.

• www.oed.com

If you're looking for a quick translation from English into German — or German into English, we recommend the following sites. We also recommend that the more important a translation is, the more dictionaries you should use to check the translation.

• dict.leo.org
• www.dict.cc
• translate.google.com/translate_buttons