LibGuides: Reference Sources (Encyclopedias &amp; more): Dictionaries, Thesauri, &amp; Encyclopedias

Dictionaries & Thesauri

Britannica Online This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedia articles written by professional writers to give concise and accurate overviews of a wide range of topics, people, places, and things.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. Includes definitions, meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

Cambridge Dictionaries Online
Includes Advanced Learner Dictionary, American English Dictionary, Idioms Dictionary, and Phrasal Verbs.
Thesaurus.com
Visual Thesaurus
An interactive dictionary and thesaurus which creates word maps that blossom with meanings and branch to related words. Its innovative display encourages exploration and learning. You'll understand language in a powerful new way.

Encyclopedias are a great starting point for research. They can provide you with:

an overview of a topic
keywords and terms that are used in that field or subject area (you can use these terms to do searches in the library catalog and databases)
the names of important people in that field or subject area
a list of references at the end of the articles

Britannica Online This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedia articles written by professional writers to give concise and accurate overviews of a wide range of topics, people, places, and things.
Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
Encyclopedias and specialized reference sources for multidisciplinary research. You can search a single eBook or across an entire eBook collection.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy This link opens in a new window
A scholarly encyclopedia with in-depth entries on philosophical topics that is actively maintained and updated on a regular basis by professionals in the field.
Oxford Bibliographies Online - Education This link opens in a new window
Combining the features of an annotated bibliography and an encyclopedia, this resource guides researchers to the available scholarship in Education. Each entry is a selective guided tour through the key literature on the topic and is designed to facilitate a research experience.