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Go to Preferences page and choose from different actions for taps or mouse clicks. WordReference Random House Learner’s Dictionary of American English © 2023 look /lʊk/USA pronunciation   v.  to turn one’s eyes toward something or in some direction in order to see: [~ + at]I’m looking at this book.[no object]She looked out the window. to use one’s sight in seeking, searching, examining, watching, etc.:[no object]to look through the papers. to appear to the eye as specified:[~ + adjective]You look pale. See look like below. to appear to the mind; seem: [~ + adjective]Things are looking pretty grim.[~ + noun]He looked a perfect fool. See look like below. to direct attention or consideration:[~ + at]Let’s look at the facts. to face or give a view:[not: be + ~-ing* no object]The room looks on the garden. to give (someone) a look:[~ + object]Can you look me in the eye and say that? to have an appearance appropriate to or that fits (one’s age, circumstances, etc.):[~ + object]began to look his age. (used in the imperative form, and sometimes followed by a word like «who, what, when, where, how» etc.) to observe or pay attention to: [~ + object]Now look what you’ve done! Look how beautifully he skates.[no object]Look, I’m tired of this![~ + at]Look at what’s happened. look after, [~ + after + object] to take care of:a babysitter to look after the kids. look ahead, [no object] to think about or plan for the future:Our leaders have to look ahead. look back, [no object] to review past events:looking back to his childhood. never look back, to have great success:started her own business and never looked back. look down on or upon, [~ + down + on/upon + object] to regard with a feeling of superiority or contempt. look for, [~ + for + object] to seek; search for:I’ve been looking for you. to anticipate; expect:I’ll look for you at the reception. look forward to, [~ + forward + object] to anticipate with eagerness or pleasure:She’s looking forward to working here. look in (on), [~ + in + (on) + object] to visit briefly:The doctor looked in on her patient. look into, [~ + into + object] to inquire into; investigate; examine:The detective was looking into the kidnapping. look like, [not: be + ~-ing] [~ + object] to resemble:She looks just like her father. [~ + clause] to have the appearance of; seem to the eye to be:He looks like he’s working. [~ + clause] to seem to the mind to be:Things look like they can’t get much worse. [It + ~ + clause] to be probable that:It looks like we’ll be late. look on: [no object] to be a spectator; watch. Also, look upon. [~ + upon + object + as + object] to consider; regard:She looked on him as a son. look out, [no object] to be alert to danger; be careful:Look out; here she comes. look out for, [~ + out + for + object] to take watchful care of:My boss was always looking out for me. look over, to examine, esp. briefly: [~ + over + object]I looked over your term paper.[~ + object + over]I looked it over. look to, [~ + to + object] to depend on:to look to the president for leadership. to expect or anticipate:We look to a brighter future for our children. look up: [no object] to become better or more prosperous; improve:The business is looking up. to search for, as an item of information, in a reference book or the like: [~ + object + up]looking words up in the dictionary.[~ + up + object]Don’t look up every word. to seek out, esp. to visit: [~ + up + object]to look up an old friend.[~ + object + up]to look him up next time. look up to, [~ + up + to + object] to regard with admiration or respect:A lot of people look up to you, so don’t let them down. n. [countable] the act of looking:Have a look at these figures. the way in which a person or thing appears; aspect:the look of an honest man. fashion; style:the latest look in furniture. looks, [plural] general aspect; appearance:We didn’t like the looks of the place. physical appearance esp. when attractive:all looks and no brains. See see. WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2023 look  (lŏŏk),USA pronunciation v.i.  to turn one’s eyes toward something or in some direction in order to see:He looked toward the western horizon and saw the returning planes. to glance or gaze in a manner specified:to look questioningly at a person. to use one’s sight or vision in seeking, searching, examining, watching, etc.:to look through the papers. to tend, as in bearing or significance:Conditions look toward war. to appear or seem to the eye as specified:to look pale. to appear or seem to the mind:The case looks promising. to direct attention or consideration:to look at the facts. to have an outlook or afford a view:The window looks upon the street. to face or front:The house looks to the east. v.t. to give (someone) a look:He looked me straight in the eye. to have an appearance appropriate to or befitting (something):She looked her age. to appear to be; look like:He looked a perfect fool, coming to the party a day late. to express or suggest by looks:to look one’s annoyance at a person. [Archaic.]to bring, put, etc., by looks. look after: to follow with the eye, as someone or something moving away:She looked after him as he walked toward the train station. to pay attention to; concern oneself with:to look after one’s own interests. to take care of; minister to:to look after a child. look back, to review past events; return in thought:When I look back on our school days, it seems as if they were a century ago. Idioms look daggers, to look at someone with a furious, menacing expression:I could see my partner looking daggers at me. look down on or upon, to regard with scorn or disdain; have contempt for:They look down on all foreigners. Idioms look down one’s nose at, to regard with an overbearing attitude of superiority, disdain, or censure:The more advanced students really looked down their noses at the beginners. look for: to seek; search for:Columbus was looking for a shorter route to India when he discovered America. to anticipate; expect:I’ll be looking for you at the reception. Idioms look forward to, to anticipate with eagerness or pleasure:I always look forward to your visits. look in: Also, look into. to look briefly inside of:Look in the jar and tell me if any cookies are left. Also, look in on. to visit (a person, place, etc.) briefly:I’ll look in some day next week. look into, to inquire into; investigate; examine:The auditors are looking into the records to find the cause of the discrepancy. look on or upon: to be a spectator; watch:The crowd looked on at the street brawl. to consider; regard:They look upon gambling as sinful. look out: to look to the outside, as from a window or a place of observation:From her office window, she could look out over the bustling city. to be vigilant or on guard:Look out, there are dangers ahead. to afford a view; face:The room looks out on the garden. look out for, to take watchful care of; be concerned about:He has to look out for his health. look over, to examine, esp. briefly:Will you please look over my report before I submit it? Idioms look sharp: to be alert and quick:If you want to get ahead, you must look sharp. British TermsAlso, look slippy. to hurry:You’d better look sharp! It’s getting late. look to: to direct one’s glance or gaze to:If you look to your left, you can see the Empire State Building. to pay attention to:Look to your own affairs and stay out of mine. to direct one’s expectations or hopes to:We look to the day when world peace will be a reality. to regard with expectation and anticipation:We look to the future and greater advances in science and technology. look up: to direct the eyes upward; raise one’s glance:The other guests looked up as she entered the room. to become better or more prosperous; improve:Business is looking up. to search for, as an item of information, in a reference book or the like:Look up the answer in the encyclopedia. to seek out, esp. to visit:to look up an old friend. Naval Terms[Naut.](of a sailing ship) to head more nearly in the direction of its destination after a favoring change of wind. look up to, to regard with admiration or respect; esteem:A boy needs a father he can look up to. n. the act of looking:a look of inquiry. a visual search or examination. the way in which a person or thing appears to the eye or to the mind; aspect:He has the look of an honest man. The tablecloth has a cheap look. an expressive glance:to give someone a sharp look. looks: general aspect; appearance:to like the looks of a place. attractive, pleasing appearance. bef. 900; (verb, verbal) Middle English lōk(i)en, Old English lōcian; cognate with Middle Dutch lœken, akin to dialect, dialectal German lugen to look out; (noun, nominal) Middle English loke act of looking, glance, countenance, derivative of the verb, verbal 1.See corresponding entry in Unabridged See watch.  6.See corresponding entry in Unabridged See seem.  33.See corresponding entry in Unabridged gaze, glance. 34.See corresponding entry in Unabridged appearance, air. ‘looking for‘ also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):

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Also found in: Thesaurus, Financial, Acronyms, Idioms.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun

1.

looking for — the act of searching visually   search, hunting, hunt — the activity of looking thoroughly in order to find something or someone

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

Mentioned in
?

• admire
• anticipate
• askance
• aspect
• await
• better-looking
• browse
• consider
• coup d’oeil
• dekko
• evil eye
• examine
• expect
• eye
• face
• Facial Expressions, Miscellaneous
• Facial Expressions, Serious
• fine-looking
• forward-looking

References in classic literature
?

Natasha looked joyfully at the familiar face of Pierre, «the buffoon,» as Peronskaya had called him, and knew he was looking for them, and for her in particular.

The three soldiers wandered about for a minute or two, looking for them, and then quietly marched off after the others.

The Cat’s head began fading away the moment he was gone, and, by the time he had come back with the Dutchess, it had entirely disappeared; so the King and the executioner ran wildly up and down looking for it, while the rest of the party went back to the game.

Dancers looking for jobs need agents to get them into «invited calls»—audition notices that go directly to the agencies and not to the trade magazines or dance-school bulletin boards.

A stewardess came by and asked us what we were looking for, and she immediately disappeared and reappeared with a flashlight.

We are really looking for the exceptional within each environment.

Looking for a more in-depth look at the Agri-Marketing industry?—did you get a chance to check out the AgriMarketing Boot Camp in October?

«You have to get the skin specialists to describe what’s happening unconsciously when they look at a lesion—get them to explain explicitly what the visual pattern is they’re looking for,» she says.

Thus, it is only natural that these companies are continuously looking for individuals who meet the same standards—or base line values that we referred to earlier—that the company has set for itself.

After three decades of successfully exploiting and marketing the male form, the magazine was looking for the jewel in its crown.

Find out what they would like to see in a speaker—what kind of topic, style, impact they are looking for? Find out if they have seen any great speakers recently.

Dictionary browser
?

• ▲
• look out
• look out for
• look out on
• look out over
• look over
• look round
• look sharp
• look through
• look to
• look up
• look up to
• look upon
• lookalike
• look-alike
• lookdown
• lookdown fish
• looked-after
• looked-for
• looker
• looker-on
• lookie-likie
• look-in
• looking
• -looking
• looking at
• looking for
• looking glass
• looking glass tree
• looking out for number one
• looking-glass
• looking-glass plant
• lookism
• lookout
• look-out
• Lookout Cape
• lookout man
• Lookout Mountain
• look-out post
• lookout station
• look-out tower
• look-over
• Looks
• look-see
• lookup
• look-up
• Lool
• loom
• Loom-gale
• looming
• loom-state
• loon
• ▼

Full browser
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• ▲
• looking down our shirt
• looking down our shirts
• looking down shirt
• looking down somebody’s nose
• looking down somebody’s nose at
• looking down somebody’s shirt
• looking down someone’s nose
• looking down someone’s nose at
• looking down someone’s shirt
• looking down the barrel
• looking down the road
• looking down their nose
• looking down their nose at
• looking down their noses
• looking down their noses at
• looking down their shirt
• looking down their shirts
• looking down upon
• looking down upon her
• looking down upon him
• looking down upon me
• looking down upon someone
• looking down upon something
• looking down upon them
• looking down upon us
• looking down upon you
• looking down your nose
• looking down your nose at
• looking down your shirt
• looking fit to kill
• looking for
• looking for a dog to kick
• looking for a knuckle sandwich
• looking for all the world like
• looking for all the world like
• Looking for Better Management
• Looking for Clan
• Looking for contracts for company
• Looking for Dungeon Party
• Looking for Duo
• Looking for Fellowship
• Looking for Group
• Looking for Guild
• looking for her
• looking for her high and low
• looking for high and low
• looking for him
• looking for him high and low
• looking for it
• Looking For Love
• Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
• looking for me
• looking for me high and low
• Looking for Member
• Looking For Men
• Looking for Mister Goodbar
• Looking for More
• Looking for Mr Goodbar
• Looking for Mr. Goodbar
• Looking for Mr. Goodbar
• Looking For My Sister
• ▼

Although
the borderline between various linguistic units is not always sharp
and clear, we shall try to define every new term on its first
appearance at once simply and unambiguously, if not always very
rigorously. The approximate definition of the term word
has already been given in the opening page of the book.

The
important point to remember about
definitions
is that they should indicate the most essential characteristic
features of the notion expressed by the term under discussion, the
features by which this notion is distinguished from other similar
notions. For instance, in defining the word one must distinguish it
from other linguistic units, such as the phoneme, the morpheme, or
the word-group. In contrast with a definition, a description
aims at enumerating all the essential features of a notion.

To
make things easier we shall begin by a preliminary description,
illustrating it with some examples.

The
word
may be described as the basic unit of language. Uniting meaning and
form, it is composed of one or more morphemes, each consisting of one
or more spoken sounds or their written representation. Morphemes as
we have already said are also meaningful units but they cannot be
used independently, they are always parts of words whereas words can
be used as a complete utterance (e. g. Listen!).
The
combinations of morphemes within words are subject to certain linking
conditions. When a derivational affix is added a new word is formed,
thus, listen
and
listener
are
different words. In fulfilling different grammatical functions words
may take functional affixes: listen
and
listened
are
different forms of the same word. Different forms of the same word
can be also built analytically with the help of auxiliaries. E.g.:
The
world should listen then as I am listening now (Shelley).

When
used in sentences together with other words they are syntactically
organised. Their freedom of entering into syntactic constructions is
limited by many factors, rules and constraints (e. g.: They
told me this story but
not *They
spoke me this story).

The
definition of every basic notion is a very hard task: the definition
of a word is one of the most difficult in linguistics because the

27

simplest
word has many different aspects. It has a sound form because it is a
certain arrangement of phonemes; it has its morphological structure,
being also a certain arrangement of morphemes; when used in actual
speech, it may occur in different word forms, different syntactic
functions and signal various meanings. Being the central element of
any language system, the word is a sort of focus for the problems of
phonology, lexicology, syntax, morphology and also for some other
sciences that have to deal with language and speech, such as
philosophy and psychology, and probably quite a few other branches of
knowledge. All attempts to characterise the word are necessarily
specific for each domain of science and are therefore considered
one-sided by the representatives of all the other domains and
criticised for incompleteness. The variants of definitions were so
numerous that some authors (A. Rossetti, D.N. Shmelev) collecting
them produced works of impressive scope and bulk.

A
few examples will suffice to show that any definition is conditioned
by the aims and interests of its author.

Thomas
Hobbes (1588-1679),
one
of the great English philosophers, revealed a materialistic approach
to the problem of nomination when he wrote that words are not mere
sounds but names of matter. Three centuries later the great Russian
physiologist I.P. Pavlov (1849-1936)
examined
the word in connection with his studies of the second signal system,
and defined it as a universal signal that can substitute any other
signal from the environment in evoking a response in a human
organism. One of the latest developments of science and engineering
is machine translation. It also deals with words and requires a
rigorous definition for them. It runs as follows: a word is a
sequence of graphemes which can occur between spaces, or the
representation of such a sequence on morphemic level.

Within
the scope of linguistics the word has been defined syntactically,
semantically, phonologically and by combining various approaches.

It
has been syntactically defined for instance as “the minimum
sentence” by H. Sweet and much later by L. Bloomfield as “a
minimum free form”. This last definition, although structural in
orientation, may be said to be, to a certain degree, equivalent to
Sweet’s, as practically it amounts to the same thing: free forms
are later defined as “forms which occur as sentences”.

E.
Sapir takes into consideration the syntactic and semantic aspects
when he calls the word “one of the smallest completely satisfying
bits of isolated ‘meaning’, into which the sentence resolves
itself”. Sapir also points out one more, very important
characteristic of the word, its indivisibility:
“It cannot be cut into without a disturbance of meaning, one or two
other or both of the several parts remaining as a helpless waif on
our hands”. The essence of indivisibility will be clear from a
comparison of the article a
and
the prefix a-
in
a
lion and
alive.
A lion is
a word-group because we can separate its elements and insert other
words between them: a
living lion, a dead lion. Alive is
a word: it is indivisible, i.e. structurally impermeable: nothing can
be inserted between its elements. The morpheme a-
is
not free, is not a word. The

28

situation
becomes more complicated if we cannot be guided by solid spelling.’
“The Oxford English Dictionary», for instance, does not
include the
reciprocal pronouns each
other and
one
another under
separate headings, although
they should certainly be analysed as word-units, not as word-groups
since they have become indivisible: we now say with
each other and
with
one another instead
of the older forms one
with another or
each
with the other.¹

Altogether
is
one word according to its spelling, but how is one to treat all
right, which
is rather a similar combination?

When
discussing the internal cohesion of the word the English linguist
John Lyons points out that it should be discussed in terms of two
criteria “positional
mobility”
and
“un­interrupt­abili­ty”.
To illustrate the first he segments into morphemes the following
sentence:

the
—
boy
—
s
—
walk
—
ed
—
slow
—
ly
—
up
—
the
—
hill

The
sentence may be regarded as a sequence of ten morphemes, which occur
in a particular order relative to one another. There are several
possible changes in this order which yield an acceptable English
sentence:

slow
—
ly
—
the
—
boy
—
s
—
walk
—
ed
—
up
—
the
—
hill
up —
the
—
hill
—
slow
—
ly
—
walk
—
ed
—
the
—
boy
—
s

Yet
under all the permutations certain groups of morphemes behave as
‘blocks’ —
they
occur always together, and in the same order relative to one another.
There is no possibility of the sequence s
—
the
—
boy,
ly —
slow,
ed —
walk.
“One
of the characteristics of the word is that it tends to be internally
stable (in terms of the order of the component morphemes), but
positionally mobile (permutable with other words in the same
sentence)”.²

A
purely semantic treatment will be found in Stephen Ullmann’s
explanation: with him connected discourse, if analysed from the
semantic point of view, “will fall into a certain number of
meaningful segments which are ultimately composed of meaningful
units. These meaningful units are called words.»³

The
semantic-phonological approach may be illustrated by A.H.Gardiner’s
definition: “A word is an articulate sound-symbol in its aspect of
denoting something which is spoken about.»⁴

The
eminent French linguist A. Meillet (1866-1936)
combines
the semantic, phonological and grammatical criteria and advances a
formula which underlies many subsequent definitions, both abroad and
in our country, including the one given in the beginning of this
book: “A word is defined by the association of a particular meaning
with a

¹Sapir
E. Language.
An Introduction to the Study of Speech. London, 1921,
P.
35.

² Lyons,
John. Introduction
to Theoretical Linguistics. Cambridge: Univ. Press, 1969.
P. 203.

³ Ullmann
St. The
Principles of Semantics. Glasgow, 1957.
P.
30.

⁴ Gardiner
A.H. The
Definition of the Word and the Sentence //
The
British Journal of Psychology. 1922.
XII.
P. 355
(quoted
from: Ullmann
St.,
Op.
cit., P. 51).

29

particular
group of sounds capable of a particular grammatical employment.»¹

This
definition does not permit us to distinguish words from phrases
because not only child,
but
a
pretty child as
well are combinations of a particular group of sounds with a
particular meaning capable of a particular grammatical employment.

We
can, nevertheless, accept this formula with some modifications,
adding that a word is the smallest significant unit of a given
language capable of functioning alone and characterised by positional
mobility
within
a sentence, morphological
uninterruptability
and semantic
integrity.²
All these criteria are necessary because they permit us to create a
basis for the oppositions between the word and the phrase, the word
and the phoneme, and the word and the morpheme: their common feature
is that they are all units of the language, their difference lies in
the fact that the phoneme is not significant, and a morpheme cannot
be used as a complete utterance.

Another
reason for this supplement is the widespread scepticism concerning
the subject. It has even become a debatable point whether a word is a
linguistic unit and not an arbitrary segment of speech. This opinion
is put forth by S. Potter, who writes that “unlike a phoneme or a
syllable, a word is not a linguistic unit at all.»³
He calls it a conventional and arbitrary segment of utterance, and
finally adopts the already mentioned
definition of L. Bloomfield. This position is, however, as
we have already mentioned, untenable, and in fact S. Potter himself
makes ample use of the word as a unit in his linguistic analysis.

The
weak point of all the above definitions is that they do not establish
the relationship between language and thought, which is formulated if
we treat the word as a dialectical unity of form and content, in
which the form is the spoken or written expression which calls up a
specific meaning, whereas the content is the meaning rendering the
emotion or the concept in the mind of the speaker which he intends to
convey to his listener.

Summing
up our review of different definitions, we come to the conclusion
that they are bound to be strongly dependent upon the line of
approach, the aim the scholar has in view. For a comprehensive word
theory, therefore, a description seems more appropriate than a
definition.

The
problem of creating a word theory based upon the materialistic
understanding of the relationship between word and thought on the one
hand, and language and society, on the other, has been one of the
most discussed for many years. The efforts of many eminent scholars
such as V.V. Vinogradov, A. I. Smirnitsky, O.S. Akhmanova, M.D.
Stepanova, A.A. Ufimtseva —
to
name but a few, resulted in throwing light

¹Meillet
A. Linguistique
historique et linguistique generate. Paris,
1926.
Vol.
I. P. 30.

² It
might be objected that such words as articles, conjunctions and a few
other words
never occur as sentences, but they are not numerous and could be
collected into a
list of exceptions.

³ See:
Potter
S. Modern
Linguistics. London, 1957.
P.
78.

30

on this problem and achieved a
clear presentation of the word as a basic unit of the language. The
main points may now be summarised.

The
word
is the
fundamental
unit
of language.
It is a dialectical
unity
of form
and
content.
Its content or meaning is not identical to notion, but it may reflect
human notions, and in this sense may be considered as the form of
their existence. Concepts fixed in the meaning of words are formed as
generalised and approximately correct reflections of reality,
therefore in signifying them words reflect reality in their content.

The
acoustic aspect of the word serves to name objects of reality, not to
reflect them. In this sense the word may be regarded as a sign. This
sign, however, is not arbitrary but motivated by the whole process of
its development. That is to say, when a word first comes into
existence it is built out of the elements already available in the
language and according to the existing patterns.

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Where can I search for words using descriptive sentences? For example, now I’m looking for a word meaning «to purify (by hand) a quantity of grain and take away anything that isn’t good grain.»

How could I get words like that? I know it in my first-language, but I don’t have a classic version of it to use in automatic translators.

Maybe a search engine that uses content words from my description and offers words that could mean the same with their dictionary definitions. Nothing I’d tried in (translate.)google.com gave me the desired result.

---

Update:

An example dictionary that I use is (Oxford’s Word-Power Dictionary). It’s not for the purpose of the question but for clarification.

Oxford’s has a 3,000 word list of ‘bare-bone-essentials.’ It contains the most-used words in English and all of the grammatical operators. Ideally, these are the words necessary for a learner to use an English-English dictionary such as Oxford’s. The descriptions of words in Oxford’s rely on this list for definitions.

An electronic (web-based) dictionary for word-meaning-search should have a larger list (maybe 10,000) and use a thesaurus to down-level difficult words a user may use in the search then, using all content words in the search phrase, present a list of words whose definitions seem appropriate. Another regular dictionary may be used from there.

• Example:

  Search query: «to use hands to purify a quantity of grain taking away anything that isn’t good grain.»

  Content Words: «use-hands; purify; quantity-of-grain; taking-away; anything; isn’t; good-grain»

  Filtered: «use-hands; clean; quantity-of-seeds; take-away;anything; not-good-grain»

  Words: «1; 2; 3; 4» that use the content words to varying degrees.

And that’s a five minutes’ work!

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PS. Sorry about the delay; connection problems…

Definition of a Word

A word is a speech sound or a combination of sound having a particular meaning for an idea, object or thought and has a spoken or written form. In English language word is composed by an individual letter (e.g., ‘I’), I am a boy, or by combination of letters (e.g., Jam, name of a person) Jam is a boy. Morphology, a branch of linguistics, deals with the structure of words where we learn under which rules new words are formed, how we assigned a meaning to a word? how a word functions in a proper context? how to spell a word? etc.

Examples of word: All sentences are formed by a series of words. A sentence starts with a word, consists on words and ends with a word. Therefore, there is nothing else in a sentence than a word. 

Some different examples are: Boy, kite, fox, mobile phone, nature, etc.

Different Types of Word

There are many types of word; abbreviation, acronym, antonym, back formation, Clipped words (clipping), collocation, compound words, Content words, contractions, derivation, diminutive, function word, homograph, homonym, homophone, legalism, linker, conjunct, borrowed, metonym, monosyllable, polysyllable, rhyme, synonym, etc. Read below for short introduction to each type of word.

Abbreviation

An abbreviation is a word that is a short form of a long word.

Example: Dr for doctor, gym for gymnasium

Acronym

Acronym is one of the commonly used types of word formed from the first letter or letters of a compound word/ term and used as a single word.

Example: PIA for Pakistan International Airline

Antonym

An antonym is a word that has opposite meaning of an another word

Example: Forward is an antonym of word backward or open is an antonym of word close.

Back formation

Back formation word is a new word that is produced by removing a part of another word.

Example: In English, ‘tweeze’ (pluck) is a back formation from ‘tweezers’.

Clipped words

Clipped word is a word that has been clipped from an already existing long word for ease of use.

Example: ad for advertisement

Collocation

Collocation is a use of certain words that are frequently used together in form of a phrase or a short sentence.

Example: Make the bed,

Compound words

Compound words are created by placing two or more words together. When compound word is formed the individual words lose their meaning and form a new meaning collectively. Both words are joined by a hyphen, a space or sometime can be written together. 

Example: Ink-pot, ice cream,

Content word

A content word is a word that carries some information or has meaning in speech and writing.

Example:  Energy, goal, idea.

Contraction

A Contraction is a word that is formed by shortening two or more  words and  joining them by an apostrophe.

Example:  ‘Don’t’ is a contraction of the word ‘do not’.

Derivation

Derivation is a word that is derived from within a language or from another language.

Example: Strategize (to make a plan) from strategy (a plan).

Diminutive

Diminutive is a word that is formed by adding a diminutive suffix with a word.

Example: Duckling by adding suffix link with word duck.

Function word

Function word is a word that is mainly used for expressing some grammatical relationships between other words in a sentence.

Example: (Such as preposition, or auxiliary verb) but, with, into etc.

Homograph

Homograph is a word that is same in written form (spelled alike) as another word but with a different meaning, origin, and occasionally pronounced with a different pronunciation

Example:  Bow for ship and same word bow for shooting arrows.

Homonym

Homonyms are the words that are spelled alike and have same pronunciation as another word but have a different meaning.

Example: Lead (noun) a material and lead (verb) to guide or direct.

Homophone

Homophones are the words that have same pronunciation as another word but differ in spelling, meaning, and origin.

Example: To, two, and too are homophones.

Hyponym

Hyponym is a word that has more specific meaning than another more general word of which it is an example.

Example: ‘Parrot’ is a hyponym of ‘birds’.

Legalism

Legalism is a type of word that is used in law terminology.

Example: Summon, confess, judiciary

Linker/ conjuncts

Linker or conjuncts are the words or phrase like ‘however’ or ‘what’s more’ that links what has already been written or said to what is following.

Example: however, whereas, moreover.

Loanword/ borrowed

A loanword or borrowed word is a word taken from one language to use it in another language without any change.

Example: The word pizza is taken from Italian language and used in English language

Metonym

Metonym is a word which we use to refer to something else that it is directly related to that.

Example: ‘Islamabad’ is frequently used as a metonym for the Pakistan government.

Monosyllable

Monosyllable is a word that has only one syllable.

Example: Come, go, in, yes, or no are monosyllables.

Polysyllable

Polysyllable is a word that has two or more than two syllables.

Example: Interwoven, something or language are polysyllables.

Rhyme

Rhyme is a type of word used in poetry that ends with similar sound as the other words in stanza.

Example; good, wood, should, could.

Synonym

Synonym is a word that has similar meaning as another word.

Example: ‘happiness’ is a synonym for ‘joy’.

There are many words out there, as you may have noticed. Long words, short words, a thousand synonyms and antonyms for each one of them, leaving you feeling confused and a little bit illiterate. Luckily, whether you’re browsing the Internet, reading a PDF or working in a Word or Google Docs document, it’s actually quite easy to look up words by definition on your PC.

Here’s how.

While this article is focusing on Windows 10, most of the methods used are applicable for various operating systems

Look Up Word Definition in Chrome, Edge and Firefox

Most of the reading you do on your PC is probably in your web browser. The good news is that all the major browsers have extensions that you can install, letting you look up any word you read with a simple double-click.

In Chrome, your best bet is Google Dictionary, which when installed will let you look up the dictionary definition of any word with a simple double-click.

As a nice addendum to that, there’s an extension for this extension (an exten-inception, if you will) called Flashcards, where a little “Save” option appears when you double-click words, letting you save the words then test yourself on them using flashcards in your own time.

Now that Microsoft Edge has moved over to Chromium, you can also get the above extensions for the browser from the Chrome Web Store, while Firefox’s answer is the extension Define-It.

Look Up Word Definition in a PDF

Now that we’ve covered option for when you’re browsing the Web, let’s look at some options for when you’re reading a PDF document.

If you have one of Adobe’s PDF readers, such as Acrobat Reader DC, you can just double-click a word in a PDF document, then select “Look up [word]”. This will open the word’s definition at Dictionary.com in your default browser.

The PDF viewer in Chrome or Edge sadly doesn’t work with the Dictionary extensions, and to define a word you’ll need to double-click it, then click “Search the web for [word]”, which will direct you to your browser’s default search engine and tell you the definition.

Look Up Word Definition in Word or Google Docs

The two most popular word processing software at the moment is Microsoft Word and Google Docs, both of which have their own word-definition tools integrated into them.

To look up a word definition in Google Docs, you can either right-click the word and then click “Define [word]”, or, if you lean toward keyboard shortcuts, select the word, then click Ctrl + Shift + Y.

In Microsoft Word you can look up a word definition by right-clicking the word, then clicking “Look Up [word]” in the context menu. Or, as a shortcut, hold the Alt key on your keyboard, then just regular left-click the word.

Want to keep playing around on your Windows 10 PC? Here’s how to check CPU temperatures in Windows 10, and we also have a handy guide on how to check your hard drive health in Windows 10.