Online Reference Resources
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

• Abbreviations.com -- "hundreds of thousands of acronyms, abbreviations, and initialisms"
• Acronyms and Abbreviations Database, Searchable
• Acronym Finder--not only looks up acronyms in a database of about 60,000, but allows you to search words through the acronyms' meanings. Be sure to scroll down the page
• Accounting, Business Studies and Economics Dictionary
• ARTFL Project: French-English Dictionary Form
• ArtLex -- "definitions for more than 3,600 terms used in discussing art / visual culture, along with thousands of supporting images, pronunciation notes, great quotations and cross-references."
• Ask the Experts - FAQs from Oxford Dictionary -- the best place for all your questions!
• Assorted Encyclopedias on the Web--arranged by topic, this gets you to encyclopedias of chess, cell biology, cosmology, herbs, and lots more.
• Behind the Name-- Their meanings and origins.
• Catholic Encyclopedia-- the 1913 edition. 
• Classical Dictionary- explains terms from classical mythology and art.
• Dictionary of Information Security
• Dictionary of Phrase and Fable--complete text of the classic work.
• Directory of Bilingual and Multilingual Dictionaries
• Easton's BIBLE Dictionary 
• Encyclopedia.Com--a free service from the not-free Electric Library. The 17,000 some articles from the Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Third Edition have hyperlinks to related articles as well as references to articles within the Electric Library database.
• Encyclopedia of Psychology -- over 2000 links from people & history to careers to theories and much more. From Jacksonville State University.
• Encyclopedias OnLine--Yahoo's index.
• Etymology Dictionary -- "Etymologies are not definitions; they're explanations of what our words meant and how they sounded 600 or 2,000 years ago. The dates beside a word indicate the earliest year for which there is a surviving written record of that word (in English, unless otherwise indicated)."
• FOLDOC-The Free Online Dictionary of Computing--over 12,000 extensively hyperlinked terms in computer science.
• Food and Nutrition Dictionaries online
• Foodapedia -- an interactive encyclopedia of caloric values of foods. Type in your food item and it comes up with the calories. Excellent and easy; it allows to compare items as well.
• Foreign Language for Travelers--pick your language, and choose from complexes of travel-related words, such as directional words, time and date words, dining and shopping words. Click on sound file for pronunciation. With links to relevant dictionaries on the web.
• foreignword.com--contains an online dictionary search for 58 different languages
• Free Dictionary -- includes dictionaries (also medical legal, computing financial), thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data.
• Geography Dictionary
• Horticultural Dictionary
• Internet Country Codes--what the 2-letter country codes in domain names refer to.
• Internet Movie Database-- if you didn't find it in the All-Movie Guide, try here. Both databases give very complete information for every film they list, who played what roles, producer, director, date, etc.
• Lectric Law Lexicon-- Legal dictionary and reference room
• Medical Reference Tools -- acronym finders, dictionaries, calculators, etc..
• Musical Heritage Network Instrument Encyclopedia--For each instrument, the encyclopedia offers history, design information, and bibliography, along with brief discussions of musical works featuring them.
• New Words in English
• North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)---replaces the old Standard Industrial Classification System (SICS)
• OneLook Dictionary--type in the word you want, and search simultaneous through 29 general or specialized dictionaries.
• Online Medical Dictionary
• Open Dictionary -- Merriam-Webster : where you can submit words that aren't already in the online dictionariy and see all the new entries.
• Oxymoron List -- thousands!
• Phrase Finder -- enough origins and discussion to shake a stick at!
• PC Webopedia
• Psychology Dictionary
• Semantic Rhyming Dictionary--insert word, ask for your choice of perfect rhyme, last sound only, homophones, synonyms; free, courtesy of Doug Beeferman at Carnegie-Mellon.
• Slang Dictionary
• Thesaurus
• Universal Currency Converter
• Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary
• Web Exhibits--great images and analysis, academically oriented. It covers Art and Humanities, Social Sciences, Math, Computer Science, Life and Physical Sciences.
• The Wordsmyth English Dictionary-Thesaurus-- If you're not sure about spelling, use the Approximate Search ("elgant" retrieved "elegant"), and the computer will look for near matches; if you want to see all words that INCLUDE your word, do a Floating Search ("brain" retrieved addlebrained, brainchild, brain wave, etc.)  This is also a dictionary of synonyms.
• Yahoo Index to Dictionaries--all types of dictionaries, including different languages.
• Your Dictionary--There are dictionaries for over 200 languages, plus for 78 topics including literature, linguistics, rhetoric, publishing, theater, metallurgy, finance, and geology to name a few.