The Free Dictionary#Mirroring Wikipedia
{{Italic title}}
{{short description|American online dictionary and encyclopedia that gathers information from a variety of sources}}
{{redirect|The free dictionary|the Wikimedia project using the slogan "The free dictionary"|Wiktionary}}
{{Infobox website
| logo = TheFreeDictionary.png
| screenshot = TheFreeDictionary.com screenshot.jpg
| collapsible = yes
| collapsetext = Screenshot
| type = Online dictionary, encyclopedia
| language = English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian, Greek, Arabic, Polish, Turkish, Russian{{Cite web |last=Sheikh |first=F. D. |date=December 26, 2009 |title=Website Review: TheFreeDictionary.com |url=http://beta.dawn.com/news/884854/website-review-thefreedictionary-com |website=Dawn}}
| owner = Farlex, Inc.{{Cite web |title=Farlex – reference and learning tools |url=https://www.farlex.com/ |publisher=Farlex}}
| url = {{URL|https://www.thefreedictionary.com/}}
| registration = Optional
| launch_date = {{start date and age|2003|06|05}}{{Cite web |title=TheFreeDictionary.com WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info |url=https://whois.domaintools.com/thefreedictionary.com |access-date=2016-09-23 |website=WHOIS |publisher=DomainTools}}
| current_status = Active
}}
The Free Dictionary is an American online dictionary and encyclopedia that aggregates information from various sources.{{Cite web |last=Crenna |first=Leslie |title=Dictionary. App Review |url=https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/dictionary |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230330145727/https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/dictionary |archive-date=Mar 30, 2023 |website=Common Sense Media}} It is accessible in fourteen languages.
History
The Free Dictionary was launched in 2005 by Farlex. In the same year, it was included in PCMag{{'s}} Make Your Browser Better list.{{Cite web |last=Mendelson |first=Edward |date=May 13, 2005 |title=Make Your Browser Better |url=https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1815826,00.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050625025720/https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1815826,00.asp |archive-date=2005-06-25 |access-date=2023-03-21 |website=PCMag}}
Content
The site cross-references the contents of dictionaries such as The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the Collins English Dictionary; encyclopedias such as the Columbia Encyclopedia, the Computer Desktop Encyclopedia, the Hutchinson Encyclopedia (subscription), and Wikipedia; book publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin, HarperCollins, as well as the Acronym Finder database, several financial dictionaries, legal dictionaries, and other content.{{Cite web |title=Sources of data |url=https://www.thefreedictionary.com/sources.htm |access-date=June 10, 2009 |publisher=The Free Dictionary}}
It has a feature that allows a user to preview an article while positioning the mouse cursor over a link. One can also click on any word to look it up in the dictionary. The website has sections such as Spelling Bee, Word Pronunciation, My Word List, and Match Up.
It is available as a mobile app called "Dictionary app by Farlex".{{Cite web |last=Eaton |first=Kit |date=8 July 2013 |title=App Smart Extra: Emergency! |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/category/app-smart-extra/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230321043430/https://archive.nytimes.com/gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/category/app-smart-extra/ |archive-date=Mar 21, 2023 |website=Gadgetwise Blog |publisher=The New York Times}}
Farlex
The site is run by Farlex, Inc., located in Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania.{{Cite news |last=Walker |first=Leslie |date=June 26, 2005 |title=CNN.com Decides to Offer Free Video -- Again |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2005/06/26/cnncom-decides-to-offer-free-video-again/4819d77f-fcbc-4069-8dda-ecd021d425c1/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240203040030/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/2005/06/26/cnncom-decides-to-offer-free-video-again/4819d77f-fcbc-4069-8dda-ecd021d425c1/ |archive-date=Feb 3, 2024 |newspaper=The Washington Post}}{{Cite web |title=Farlex Inc |url=https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/1354589D:US |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240203215920/https://www.bloomberg.com/profile/company/1354589D:US |archive-date=Feb 3, 2024 |website=Bloomberg}}
Farlex also maintains a companion title, The Free Library, an online library of out-of-copyright classic books as well as a collection of periodicals of over four million articles dating back to 1984, and definition-of.com,{{Cite web |title=Community Dictionary |url=https://www.definition-of.com/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240101112616/https://www.definition-of.com/ |archive-date=Jan 1, 2024 |website=definition-of.com}} a community dictionary of slang and other terms.
=''The Free Library''=
The Free Library has a separate homepage. It is a free reference website that offers full-text versions of classic literary works by hundreds of authors. It is also a news aggregator, offering articles from a large collection of periodicals containing over four million articles dating back to 1984. Newly published articles are added to the site daily.{{cn|date=May 2024}} The site comprises a selection of articles from open-access journals that can in many cases also be found on a journal's own website.
It is a sister site to The Free Dictionary and usage examples in the form of "references in classic literature" taken from the site's collection are used on The Free Dictionary{{'s}} definition pages. In addition, double-clicking on a word in the site's collection of reference materials brings up the word's definition on The Free Dictionary.{{cn|date=May 2024}}
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|https://www.thefreedictionary.com/}}
- [https://www.thefreedictionary.com/dictionary.htm The Free Dictionary] – Dictionary, encyclopedia, and thesaurus
- [https://www.definition-of.com/ Definition-Of] – Community dictionary
- [https://www.freethesaurus.com/ Free Thesaurus] – Synonyms, antonyms, and related words
- [https://www.thefreelibrary.com/ The Free Library] – Free news, magazines, newspapers, journals, reference articles and classic books
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Category:American online encyclopedias
Category:Works about American English
Category:Multilingual websites
Category:Online English dictionaries
Category:Websites which mirror Wikipedia