Using the right keywords is crucial, for searchers and webmasters alike. Here are two sites with definitions and translations of hundreds of thousands of words, in a wide variety of languages.
Most webmasters quickly learn the importance of using the right keywords when they start to "optimize" web pages for search engines. Using the right words in the right ways can mean the difference between pages being found in search results and being lost among a sea of millions of other web pages.
Similarly, seasoned searchers know that using the "right" keywords in queries can often mean the difference between great results and total garbage.
While there are many techniques for selecting the appropriate keywords for both search engine optimization and searching, dictionaries and glossaries are the most fundamental tools for both processes. And while there are many word-oriented web sites, Xlation and OneLook Dictionaries provide a wealth of resources largely unmatched elsewhere.
Xlation is a site primarily designed for translators. It features more than 1,600 dictionaries, which also serve as glossaries. Using the links on the Dictionaries page allows you to select both multilingual and single language dictionaries.
Xlation's Glossaries page lets you narrow your focus by selecting both category and language. Using drop down menus, you can select from a variety of categories rom Aerospace to Transportation (or all categories), and more than 60 languages from Afrikaans to Yiddish.
Although OneLook Dictionaries is somewhat smaller than Xlation, with "4,197,163 words in 746 online dictionaries" included in its index, it works differently enough, and provides enough variation that it's a worthy companion to Xlation.
OneLook Dictionaries also provides an answer to the niggling riddle that occasionally makes its way around listservs on the Net:
"There are three words in the English language that end in 'gry.' One is angry and one is hungry. Everyone knows what the third one means and what it stands for, and everyone uses them everyday. And if you listened carefully, I've given you the third word. Why can't I find the third one?"
http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2159951
