Dictionaries, thesaurus and books on synonyms and antonyms
- The electronic version of Visual Thesaurus (click on “Look it up”)
- Roget’s
- Oxford
- Merriam-Webster
- Longman Online Dictionary of Contemporary English
- Online Etymology Dictionary can tell you more about word origins
- Urban Dictionary is a dictionary of slang and new words
- Word Spy is devoted to lexpionage, the sleuthing of new words and phrases. These aren't "stunt words" or "sniglets," but new terms that have appeared multiple times in newspapers, magazines, books, Web sites, and other recorded sources.
Collocations
- Just the word is a place to find word combinations and alternatives
Hill, J. and M. Lewis (1997). LTP dictionary of selected collocations. Language Teaching Publications: London.
This dictionary is designed to give students a current working list of all collocations in English. If you find you have problems with prepositions or combining the right adjective with the right noun, this dictionary is for you.
Phrasal verbs and idioms
Spears, R.A. (1997). NTC's dictionary of phrasal verbs and other idiomatic verbal phrases. Lincolnwood: National Textbook Company.
This book contains an extensive listing of the most frequently used phrasal verbs in the English language.
Grammar and Usage
Biber, D., Conrad, S., Leech, G. (2002). Longman student grammar of spoken and written English. Essex: Longman.
A comprehensive grammar built on a corpus (large samples) of written and spoken texts in a variety of contexts (academic, fiction, news, conversation). This grammar gives accurate descriptions of language patterns and how they are used.
Frank, M. (1993). Modern English: A practice reference guide. Englewood Cliffs: Regents/Prentice Hall.
This book is a standard grammar guide designed for advanced speakers of English. Provides lucid explanations and examples. No exercises.
Merriam Webster's dictionary of English usage (1989). Springfield: Merriam-Webster Publishers.
This book is invaluable for those times when you need to distinguish between words such as "continuous" and "continual." This book provides the definitions and lengthy descriptions to many such words. Each entry contains sample sentences for context.
