Language is the original technology, the tool we’ve all used to coordinate with each other for thousands of years. Our success in life—both professionally and in relationships—depends on it.
I write for a living, so you’d think I’d have language down. I don’t. I constantly find myself knowing a word exists but not being able to think of it. What am I supposed to do?
You might, in some circumstances, be able to use a thesaurus for this—just look up a word that means the same thing as the word you’re trying to think of. But what if you can’t even think of a similar word?
That’s where today’s tool comes in handy.
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On the tip of my tongue . . .
The next time you’re in a sticky situation where you know a word exists but can’t quite remember what it is, check out a site called Reverse Dictionary.
➜ Reverse Dictionary lets you provide a phrase describing a word and then get back a list of possible matches.
⌚ It’ll take you less than 10 seconds to start using.
I’ve been playing with it for a couple of days, and I’m really impressed with how well it works. If I type “overly willing to please,” for instance, I get back “obsequious”—which was the exact word I was trying to think of.
And you can get even more specific than that. Trying to remember how the fictional detective would respond to true statements, I typed “how Sherlock Holmes would say indeed.” The result: “indubitably.”
I asked about “dystopian to an absurd extent” and got both “Orwellian” and “Kafkaesque” as answers.
Just enter any phrase, and Reverse Dictionary will serve up instant word inspiration.
You get the idea: Just type a phrase and find the word you’re looking for. This is obviously useful for writing, where finding the right word can take a sentence from good to great. But I’ve also found it a fun way to explore language.
Some of the site’s suggestions are both amusing and enlightening.
Perhaps you’ve heard about how, in German, there’s seemingly a word for everything. English has a lot of words, too—there are over 1 billion words in English, in fact, and I’m willing to bet you don’t know most of them. If you think of an idea, there’s a decent chance a word for it exists, whether you know it or not. The Reverse Dictionary is a great way to discover these hidden gems.
Mostly, though, it’s a tool for a very specific purpose. The Reverse Dictionary isn’t something you’re going to use every day, and it isn’t going to change your life. But in those rare moments where you know a word exists but can’t quite think of it, this tool is ready for you.
- Reverse Dictionary is entirely web-based—no apps and nothing to download.
- It’s free to use. There are a few banner ads, and you’ll see an ad after typing a query.
- There’s no need to create an account, and you can optionally prevent your search terms from being listed in the history.
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