Vocabulary for
Emily
(about Emily Dickinson)
with Sniffy the Hamster, resident wordsmith

Myth   

Sniffy Says: A myth? Sometimes people use the word "myth" to mean something that isn't true, like "It's a myth that hamsters are skinny." Well, it's very clear that I am not skinny, but I am cute. A myth is also a story that has been told for thousands of years. They are often stories about supernatural beings like gods and goddesses or very strong men and very beautiful women. Apparently, there are no myths about hamsters, but I'm going to change that. Someday they'll tell the story of Sniffy, the hamster, the super wordsmith, the warrior of definitions—too bad I won't be around to hear it.

mystery   

Sniffy Says: Mystery? What is mystery? Well, it's a mystery to me! Ha, ha, ha, ha. I crack myself up. A mystery is something that is hard or even impossible to understand. Now when something is hard or impossible to understand and it fills us with wonder and awe and, and what I call, Wowness, then that's a mystery. Do you know what wowness is? Well, I'll tell you. When you are at the beach and you can smell the ocean and hear the seagulls and feel the cool breeze of a summer evening and you see the sun setting on the horizon and you look out across the surface of the sea and say, "Wooowwwwwww!" That's wowness and that's mystery. Wow!"

bluebells   

Sniffy Says: Bluebells are bulbous plants—that means they grow from bulbs, not light bulbs, that would just be silly, though I did plant a light bulb once and it grew into a tree that had Christmas lights for fruit—anyway, look at the picture, bluebells have flowers that look like little trumpets. Fact is, we in the hamster world use them in our rock bands. I play the bluebell, but, unfortunately, I usually always eat it before the end of the song. Have I told you I like to eat?

Online Reference Dictionary, Encyclopedia & more Word: by: WordStarts withEnds withMentions Match Up Match each word in the left column with its synonym on the right. When finished, click Answer to see the results. Good luck!   Website content provided by The Free Dictionary

Word of the Day Website content provided by The Free Dictionary

On-Line Dictionaries

The Free Dictionary: This is now my favorite on-line dictionary (the box above links to this dictionary). Not only does it provide you with audios to pronounce the word, but it also gives you examples of the word used in context. They also have a "References in classic literature" section which provides entire sentences from classic literature in which the word is used. Also includes a thesaurus, encyclopedia and more.

Answers.com: This is not just a dictionary, but it has a dictionary and the reason I list it is because the dictionary has an audio pronunciation feature which is very helpful when one comes across words that are difficult to pronounce or have never been seen before. Access is free.

The Dictionary of Difficult Words: Good resource for those words that your dictionary doesn't have or that other on-line dictionaries do not have.

A Latin Dictionary: This is great resource for Latin. There is even a downloadable version for your computer that will do both Latin/English and English/Latin.

Dictionary.com Free Access. You can purchase additional features.

Merriam-Webster Free Access.

WordSmyth A children's dictionary is also available. This dictionary requires registration. Free Access.

Oxford English Dictionary The best English dictionary in the world! This dictionary requires paid subscription. $29.95 per month or $295.00 per year.