In Episode #16, Tim compares six of the best online dictionaries: Google Translate, Longman’s, Cambridge, Britannica, Wiktionary, Chat GPT, and also Tim’s own dictionaries, one of which, Words For Numbers, is available online as a subscription. Which dictionary is best for students at each level of language learning? What are the strong and weak points of each dictionary? Find out in this episode so you can choose the best learning tools for yourself.
Thanks a bunch for this detailed overview of some dictionaries and your ideas on other stuff! I used to love paper dictionaries, have quite a collection of them, absolutely obsolete now. At present my autistic self is having fun digging in language corpora resources, a great source of a modern language usage. I was going to add Macmillan dictionary to your list, but they discontinued it last month for some reason. It was a great learning and teaching tool.
PS It was a nice but short distraction listening to your blender story with all that nightmarish news in Russia.
Sorry for the late answer!
I didn’t know that Macmillan’s online dictionary had disappeared. I never used it, but it’s always sad when a resource like that disappears- it’s “one less stripe on the tiger”. Maybe it survives somewhere in downloadable form? The Wikipedia article on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macmillan_English_Dictionary_for_Advanced_Learners) makes me sad that I never tried it, as some of the features sound really great, especially the collocation lists, something I hope to include in my own works.
As for paper dictionaries, yes, super obsolete. I have a giant English-German/ German-English one that I used for a long time, also a Langenscheidt’s German learner’s dictionary (super, super well done) and an etymological dictionary of German which doesn’t exist online. I have too much nostalgia to get rid of any of them, although I guess I will at some point.
The blender is getting deeper into its career, I have been throwing decaf matcha into some of my mixes and found it quite vivifying: only a few milligrams of caffeine is more than enough to give me a real buzz.
I used Macmillan dictionary a lot 20 years ago (Oh, God) while studying at university, it was really innovative at that time. I remember about your tough relationship with coffee, mine was bumpy too. I cut it out for several months, reintroduced with big limitatios and have enjoyed a single cup a day in the afternoon since then. How long did it take you to go off it completely and get back to a normal level of energy and alertness?