Using a reverse dictionary

So.... What's a reverse dictionary?  

A reverse dictionary is a simple concept--it's a place where you look up definitions and find words.  It will often help you rephrase a search query in a way that you might not have thought about, or supply the key term that will lead to success.  

There actually are lots of reverse dictionaries out there, but I tend to use OneLook because it has a relatively powerful search interface.  You don't always need all these search features, but when you do, it's really nice to have.  

Hints to using the OneLook reverse dictionary:  

• The results are rank-ordered.  That is, the best matches will be at the beginning of the results list.
• Click on the word to verify its definition.
• The dictionary definitions are arranged according to categories of – General, Art, Business, Computing, Medicine, Miscellaneous, Religion, Science, Slang, Sports, Tech andPhrases. Phrases and slangs sometimes give interesting variations for use in writing.
• More generally, you can use wildcard patterns to expand on the queries:   
• Asterisk (*) equals any number of characters. For instance, search [ love* ] to get all words and phrases like love-bird that begin with "love"
• The question mark (?) matches exactly one character. For instance, type  [ l?v? ] to get all words that match
• The number-sign (#) matches any single-character consonant. [ ##over ] will match "plover"
• Similarly, the at-sign (@) matches any vowel [ k@n ] 
• A relatedness search combines two wildcards. For instance, a search for [ t*:salesman ] will give words and phrases starting with “˜t’ and related to salesman
• Get the full complement of acronyms by using the expand shorthand. For instance,expand:USA.

Example:  Here I did a search on [ *:shovel ] which is the normal reverse dictionary operation.  OneLook shows up a list of words that use "shovel" in their definitions.  A great way to look for synonyms and related concepts.  

Example:  Here I did a search on [ shovel ] giving just definitions from a wide variety of sources.    

There are more tips in the Help section of the OneLook website.

Searching on... at the word level!  

Search on... even on other search engines!