Review: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

Basic & Essential Features

This site usually provides most of what I need to know about a word from part-of-speech, definition, pronunciation (see Figure 1), synonyms, antonyms, to sample sentences.The pronunciation sample comes with good voice quality, and you can replay it multiple times, which can help you get familiar with how to pronounce the word. You can also quickly understand how to pronounce the word if you are familiar with the symbolic pronunciation coding.
They also provide a free app version, which makes it handy (iOS/Android).

Link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/

Figure 1: Dictionary entry with part-of-speech, definition and pronunciation.

Features for ESL Learners

In addition to pronunciation, the site also provides information about synonyms, antonyms, origin, word root and even other words that ‘rhyme’’ with a given word (see Figure 2). One interesting and potentially useful piece of information I sometimes can get from the dictionary is the rare definition that is ‘old-fashioned’ or ‘offensive.’ As an ESL learner, I really appreciate the fact that the dictionary also preserves the history of the use of the word and it is vital for me to know whether I am using a word as it is now and whether the word is offensive when used in certain contexts.

Figure 2: The upper screenshot shows links to synonyms, antonyms, other languages for a given entry. The bottom screenshot shows origin of and the words that rhymes with a given word.

Interesting Features

Some additional features include 'saving' the word into your own list (required Facebook login) for you to return to later and a  'popularity' indicator that visualizes how many lookups on Merriam-Webster.com are dedicated to this word. I usually use the ‘popularity’ indicator (how many people look this word up) to approximate how ‘advanced’ a given word is: if a word is not popular, it is probably more advanced and is not used intensively. Otherwise, there should be a lot of people looking up this word. Of course, it is also possible that a word is too simple and well understood, so no one is looking up the word.

On the right sidebar, the site also provides ‘word of the day’, ‘trending now’, ‘browse dictionary’, and ‘word game’ and ‘quiz.’ These sections provide a way for you to go beyond your search to discover new words. The ‘browse dictionary’ is especially useful as it provides you a lens into what other words are listed before and after the word you are looking for, like what you can do if you are looking up the word in the paper version of the dictionary (see Figure 3).

Figure 3: Other words that are listed before and after a specific word in the dictionary.

Credibility

The content on this site is considered authoritative among a lot of my colleagues as it is produced by the company who produces the Encyclopedia Britannica. The definition provided by the site is occasionally cited by the researchers in my fields when they need to define a word or explain how a concept has evolved from the early dictionary definition to a more contemporary academic interpretation.

Update (as of 05/31/16)

The Merriam-Webster dictionary site went through a major revision recently. The overall information architecture has changed. It now displays as an aggregated entry that combines information from various associated products, including Learner’s Dictionary, Dictionary (the main one), Dictionary for Kids, Law Dictionary, and Medical Dictionary. I found this new layout extremely useful for several reasons. First, I can selectively choose the definition that is easier to understand and progress to more advanced and thorough definition when needed. Second, vocabulary used in law and medical contexts usually require precision and have a nuanced variation on the everyday version we have used. It is useful to know, for instance, how a word is defined in the law context when you are reading articles related to government or politics (see Figure 4).

Figure 4: Same word in the Law Dictionary.

Note:

1. All the screenshots are taken on Merriam-Webster.com.
2. This work is an extension of the result of a course project for ELI 510 offered by the English Language Institute at the University of Michigan.
3. Thanks to my former instructor, Pamela Bogart, who has kindly provided feedback and has helped me edit this review.