Help
A few ways to get around the dictionary faster. For how the entries themselves are written, see About; for the ideas behind word histories, see Learn.
Keyboard shortcuts
Press these keys anywhere on the site, as long as you are not typing in a box. They do nothing together with Ctrl, Alt or ⌘, so your browser’s own shortcuts keep working.
| / | Jump to the search box at the top of the page. |
| r | Open a random word. |
| j | On a word’s page: the next word in alphabetical order (the first of “Nearby words”). |
| k | On a word’s page: the previous word in alphabetical order. |
| ? | Open this help page. |
j and k move through the words of the same language, so from an English entry they stay among English words. In the search box, use ↑ ↓ to pick a suggestion, Enter to open it and Esc to close the list.
Random words
Random word (or r) opens any word in the dictionary. To narrow it down, use random word filters:
- From a language: a random English word that came from, or through, Greek, Latin, French or another source, as on the words by origin pages.
- From a century: a random word first recorded in, say, the 14th century. This uses the “First attested” date in an entry’s infobox, so words without a known date are left out.
- A debunked myth: a word with a popular origin story that the evidence does not support, such as a phrase supposedly behind an acronym. The entry explains what really happened. More on why these stories spread in folk etymology and origin myths.
Each filter has a link you can bookmark, like /random?origin=greek&lang=en, /random?century=16 or /random?myth=1, which opens a new word every time.
Something missing?
If a word has no entry yet, its page offers a button to request it. For anything else, use the feedback form at the bottom of the page.