16 Websites to Super Charge Your English Vocabulary

It won't be an exaggeration if I say that English is the language of this world. Although Mandarin (Chinese) tops the list of most widely spoken languages, we know that it's English which connects people around the world. Hence, it can't hurt to get a deeper understanding of this ubiquitous language and work towards improving your grammar and vocabulary.

When it comes to online resources to improve your English language skills, there are millions of tools available. They range from software, tools, blogs, dictionaries, puzzles and much more. In this post I primarily mention websites which fall in the dictionary / thesaurus category. I'll preserve the other resources for another post.
Visuwords
Visuwords is an awesome visual tool to find new words and improve your vocabulary. When you look up a word in this tool, it shows a neat graph which connects that word to various other words based on different relationships between them. You can hover over each word to get its definition and also zoom-in and zoom-out using your mouse wheel. It's certainly an excellent dictionary plus thesaurus.

Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com is probably the most common and most comprehensive of all the dictionary tools available. Apart from giving the word meanings and pronunciation, it also provides various tools (like the dictionary.com toolbar), RSS feeds to improve vocabulary and word explorer podcasts.

Thesaurus.com
Thesaurus.com is a part of dictionary.com and gives an elaborate description of words, the part of speech they belong to and various synonyms and antonyms of that word.

Definr
Definr, as it says, is an incredibly fast dictionary. It starts suggesting the nearest possible word as you start typing a particular word. Most of the time you get the required word after typing 3 or 4 letters and then you can just click on the word to look up its meaning. Definr also provides some nice tools which make this service more useful.
Merriam-Webster Online
Merriam-Webster Online is a huge online resource for learning and improving your English. It provides dictionary and thesaurus which includes spanish-english and medical dictionaries. You can easily look up words and listen to their pronunciation. Further it provides other resources like crosswords and word games. It also has a visual dictionary which combines words with images.
MetaGlossary
MetaGlossary.com approaches the task of finding meanings of words in a different way. It aggregates various links on the web which provide an explanation to the term and shows the results. Hence it does the job of pulling definitions of the word from the entire web.
Thsrs
Thsrs helps you to get shorter synonyms of long words. Although it's not dead accurate but still can be useful at times. It also provides a browser plug-in to easily look up shorter synonyms of words with a right click.
Wordsmith
Wordsmith is a nice resource for new words, especially its ' A Word A Day ' newsletter, which is immensely popular and delivers new words everyday to your email inbox.
BBC Learning English
BBC Learning English is another comprehensive resource of not only English grammar and vocabulary but on various aspects of this useful language. It includes stories, pictures, quizzes and various communication tools to improve your English vocabulary.
ESL Quizzes
ESL Quizzes is a part of englishclub.com, a website which is a prominent destination for those who want to learn the language from scratch. Its vocabulary quiz section has some nice quizzes to help you learn new words and phrases.

Ninjawords
Ninjawords, like Definr, claims to be a very fast dictionary. Although it doesn't show words as you type like Definr but is certainly very fast in displaying the meanings and synonyms once you hit enter. It also has a random tab which can be used to play around and learn new words.
About.com's Quizzes
About.com's English Quizzes is a good place to find various quizzes related to grammar and vocabulary. It also provides listening quizzes for real time listening practice.
Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus
Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus is a free-to-try visual tool which shows related words in an interactive map and helps you to easily find their meanings and listen to their pronunciation.
AskOxford
AskOxford is the online version of the famous dictionary by the Oxford University press. It's comprehensive without a doubt and includes various other vocabulary resources and a quotations dictionary.
Urban Dictionary
Urban Dictionary stands out from the herd. It's a dictionary of slang words. So use this dictionary and don't miss out on slang words either. :)

Alpha DictionaryAlpha Dictionary doesn't directly show you the meaning of a word. Instead it searches all the available online dictionaries (most of them) and displays the results in the form of links to the meaning of that word in those dictionaries. So choose your favorite dictionary (if at all you have one) and click on the corresponding link to view its meaning.Each of the aforementioned websites tries to accomplish the same task in a different manner and hence helps you to further refine your vocabulary and get a stronger grip on the world's most cherished language.Do you use any other websites to improve your English language skills ? Let's hear about them in the comments. Written by Abhijeet Mukherjee. Abhijeet is a blogger and web publisher from India. He loves all things tech as long as it aids in productivity. He edits Guiding Tech, a blog that publishes useful guides, tutorials and tools. Check it out and subscribe to its feed if you like the site. You can also find him on Twitter.

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5 Super Reasons Why We Shouldn’t Try to Be Super Heroes in 2012

Super Heroes by Cyara

Superheroes are just awesome. They race around looking after everyone and the world. They do all that is expected of them and then race back to their 9 to 5. You will seldom hear them brag about what they have achieved and how great they are. They never complain about how they have too much work and how stress is to blame for their grumpy behaviour.

Yeah, you guessed it — I’m no Wonder Woman. The closest I’ll ever get to Wonder Woman is wearing a Halloween costume (Mental note: Organize Halloween costume for next year).

Before the New Year comes and we all go crazy with our resolutions and goals, it’s a good idea to take some quiet time and take a look at the year gone by. Acknowledge and celebrate the achievements and spend some time thinking about the things that didn’t go so well so that you can better understand the reasons why. This retrospective thinking can help us learn and grow — and ensure we don’t make the same mistakes again. My lesson to learn this year is that I’m not Wonder Woman and that no matter how I try I can’t achieve a workload like her.

“You can do anything but not everything” - David Allen

So if you, too, are guilty of catching the “superhero bug”, here are some reasons why we shouldn’t aspire to be super heroes in 2012:

Reality bites, I know, but those costume clad heroes aren’t real and neither is it realistic to achieve all the tasks they aspire to achieve in one day. Realizing what is possible and what is asking too much of yourself is an acquired skill that one learns with experience. There is only so much one person can do without asking for help or burning out…and we definitely don’t want the latter.

I’m a mother, a wife, a daughter, a sister, a blogger, a business person and a writer, (I’m also a Muppet fan, but I digress). There are times in my life where I have difficulties fitting it all in. There are times when things suffer because of my choices, but life requires us to make daily choices on how we spend our time. Having a personal vision can help to gain clarity about priorities and values. Having this as a guideline can help while making these choices.

Superman flies off to Krypton every now and again to get away from it all; to have some time alone to rest and rejuvenate. We all need it.

Stephen Covey calls it “sharpening the saw”. Without this time we can’t possibly keep going and giving our best. We all need to de-stress and unwind to be able to perform at our best.

You don’t have to do everything now.

I am always guilty of wanting to do it all and wanting to do it now. I’m impatient and have a tendency to push myself too hard. But I have learned that some things can wait. The great plans in my head don’t have to be shared with everyone today. Little by little, it will all get done. The Japanese call it Kaizen — continuous improvement. Robin Sharma tells us:

“Small daily improvements lead to stunning results.”

With a bit of clever planning and persistence, it will all get done.

Even if you look good in tights you don’t have to strive to be somebody else — or try and achieve all that others have achieved. Make your own plans and reach your own heights. We know we can’t do the impossible, but we can achieve great things if we plan and believe.

So for 2012, set your goals and believe that great things will happen. Plan, pace yourself, look after your body. Do that and 2012 can not only be a super one — it can be out of this world.

Ciara Conlon is a Personal Productivity Coach and author. Her mission is to help people achieve their best through working efficiently and being positive and present. “Through Productivity and Positivity I believe there is little we can’t achieve” go to Productivity & Positivity and get Free eBook called Clear the Clutter; Find Your Life

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