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Use the Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary to find out what things are called
Everyone knows what a mushroom looks like. But what do you call those fin-looking parts under the cap? You know, those thin, membrane-like things?
That's the type of question you can't really use a regular dictionary for. You might get lucky with Wikipedia, but in this particular case, you won't.
The Merriam-Webster Visual Dictionary helps you answer questions like these. It's a large visual index of beautiful, detailed illustrations from fields such as plants and gardening, communications, sports and games, and lots more. Each illustration has a legend, and when you click the word, you also get a short definition. But what's important is that you now know the word, so you can look it up elsewhere.
As far as I know, there's no community-generated visual dictionary (like Wiktionary for regular words). This could be an awesome Wiki-style project, but for now, Merriam-Webster offers one of the best visual dictionaries online, and it's free.
(Oh, and I didn't tell you what that part of the mushroom is called. If you're curious, just click the image and find out for yourself!)
Comments
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Subscribe to commentsTPOct 18th 2010 10:31PM
Sure Wiktionary do support "visual dictionary" feature. You can check out http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Picture_dictionary
And it is there since 2009. Plus it have got interactive pictures (ones that show you not only the words inside the picture, but also let users click on the word inside picture to research word of the interest in the actual article, thus showing etymology, synonyms etc.)
SilenceIsGoldenOct 25th 2010 4:47PM
Well, to be precise, it's a service that Merriam-Webster bought from QA International, apparently a company from Quebec, Canada. The original site can be found at http://www.ikonet.com/en/visualdictionary/ .
Why should you go there instead of Merriam-Webster? Because it'll help you learn other languages in a very ingenious way: 1. On that site itself, you can pick "French" from a drop-down menu to change the language. 2. If you look at their footer on that site, under 'partner sites,' you'll find, e.g., a link to "Bildwörterbuch" which is the version of this visual dictionary in the German language.
I'm sure there will be more languages to come.