Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and Almanacs

Directory and search engine for acronyms, abbreviations and initialisms. Search by exact phrase or category.

Part of the WWW Virtual Library project, this site contains links to dictionaries for many of the more than 200 Australian Aboriginal languages. Also has links to vocabulary, wordlists and placenames.

Search by acronym or abbreviation or by the full meaning.

Acronyma.com provides the users an interface to a large database of acronyms found on the Internet.

This site can translate text or a whole web page into French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian and English.

American National Biography offers portraits of more than 17,400 men and women -- from all eras and walks of life -- whose lives have shaped the American nation.It is updated quarterly, with hundreds of new entries each year and revisions of previously published entries to enhance their accuracy and currency. The ANB Online features thousands of illustrations, more than 80,000 hyperlinked cross-references, links to select web sites, and powerful search capabilities.

Answers.com is a search service which links directly to sites that provide reference information, such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, glossaries and atlases.

Signbank is an interactive dictionary of Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Auslan is the language of the deaf community of Australia.

The Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre contains Australia/New Zealand magazines, newspapers and newswires, reference books, biographies, photographs, maps and flags.

Titles include: Architecture Australia, Australian Geographic, Australian Women's Weekly, Inside Rugby, The Australian (National), The Daily Telegraph (Sydney), The Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Encyclopedia of Australia, History of Australia, etc.

Complete title coverage list available on EBSCOhost website.

A searchable and browsable database of the etymology and history of first names. It is also browsable by nationalities.

Biography Resource Centre is a comprehensive biographical database containing nearly 415,000 brief biographies of more than 320,000 people gathered from over 780 volumes from 120 reference sources published by Gale. In addition it includes the full text of articles from over 280 periodicals.

This site provides a hypertext version of the 1894 edition of Brewer's dictionary of phrase and fable. The contents can be browsed.

This site provides the complete, updated Encyclopædia Britannica, plus selected articles from more than 70 magazines including Newsweek, Discover and The Economist. It also provides a guide to more than 125 000 sites and you can also search the text of more than 100 million web pages to find more information.

Columbia Granger's World of Poetrycontains works of poetry found in anthologies, and volumes of collected works and selected works for individual poets. Currently, there are over 500,000 poem citations and 175,300 poems in full text.

Also included is bibliographic information for over 1,800 anthologies. Supplemental information includes nearly 900 commentaries and approximately 450 biographies.

Use this global dictionary to search in 275 dictionaries on the Internet. Translate from 69 source languages into 73 target languages - 400 language combinations.

This site provides access to the Encarta encyclopedia, Encarta dictionary and Encarta atlas.

Encyclopædia Britannica Online includes the complete encyclopaedia, as well as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and Thesaurus, Britannica Student Encyclopaedia and the Britannica Book of the Year. You can also use Encyclopædia Britannica Online to search an Internet directory that includes more than 300,000 links to Web sites selected, rated, and reviewed by Britannica editors.

An encyclopedia of mythology, folklore and legends, including gods and goddesses, supernatural beings, and legendary creatures and monsters.

An encyclopedia of all the languages currently in use throughout the world. Searchable by country or language name, and browsable through maps. For each language, there are details on where spoken, by how many speakers, language family and how the language is used today. Produced by linguistics organisation, SIL International.

This site provides the facility to select the language you speak and the language you want to learn from, with numerous options including Bengali, French, Russian and Swahili. The site includes basic vocabulary terms, pronunciation guides, translating dictionaries and slang guides.

This site provides links to a number of online encyclopedias and includes search facilities for each of them.

This site provides a searchable version of the Webster's dictionary.

This site contains information about countries, events, geography and statistics worldwide.

This site provides a list of definitions of Australian slang words and phrases.

This American virtual library site provides access to almanacs, speeches, world calendars, encyclopedias, quotations and style guides as well as library resources.

OneLook enables you to find definitions and translations of words and phrases in multiple online dictionaries by doing a single search. The reverse dictionary feature lets you describe a concept and find a list of words and phrases related to that concept.

This online dictionary has 1000 entries covering various disciplines of the social sciences.

Oxford Art Online contains Grove Art Online, The Oxford Companion to Western Art, Encyclopedia of Aesthetics and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms with 21,000 biographies, 500,000 bibliographic citations, 40,000 image links and 5,000 images.

50,000 biographies of people who shaped the history of the British Isles and beyond, from the earliest times to the year 2001.

Includes the 20 volume Oxford English Dictionary and supplements, and new and revised entries. All volumes are fully searchable and provide historical information as well as the meanings of words.

Oxford Music Online contains Encyclopedia of Popular Music, The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Grove Music Online and The Oxford Companion to Music with articles on composers, performers, conductors, individual works, instruments and notation, forms and genres, as well as biographical encyclopedia of rock, pop, and jazz artists etc from 1900 to the present.

Contains over 100 dictionary, language reference, and subject reference works published by Oxford University Press. It is a fully-indexed, cross-searchable database of these books.

The meaning and origins of phrases and sayings

Type in a word to find its rhymes, synonyms and more.

This site provides a searchable version of Roget's Thesaurus. This allows you to find words with similar or opposite meanings.

Science Reference Center contains full text of science encyclopedias, reference books, journals, magazines, biographies, scientific images and videos.

Topics covered include: biology, chemistry, earth & space science, environmental science, health & medicine, history of science, life science, physics, science & society, science as inquiry, scientists, technology and wildlife.

Science Resource Center is an in-depth, curriculum-oriented science database that provides a one-stop resource for all science-related research needs. it comprehensively covers earth, life and physical sciences using Gale's user friendly interface.

This site contains articles on more than 2500 western signs, arranged into groups according to their graphic characteristics.

Free interactive access to dictionaries and encyclopedias, including subject specific dictionaries and a thesaurus.

This site provides a list of acronyms and abbreviations which can be searched or browsed. The index is cross-referenced allowing the user to search by acronym or full meaning.

Online dictionary and reference guide on the origin and meaning of first names, including popular, unusual, and unique baby names from around the world.

A browsable and searchable database of biographies of prominent Australians. It includes various categories like Nobel Prize Winners, Diplomats in Australia and more.

The WordReference Dictionaries are free online translation dictionaries. Type in a word in the forms to the left for a quick translation or definition. There are three multilingual translation dictionaries and one English dictionary: Spanish English Dictionary, French English Dictionary, Italian English Dictionary, Monolingual English Dictionary.

An online reference source that contains every article from the 22-volume print set of the World Book, etc. It also contains multimedia, maps, editor-reviewed Web sites.

A language portal with more than 1800 dictionaries in more than 250 languages. Includes subject-specific technical dictionaries, multilingual dictionaries and other language tools.