Dictionary.com: What are we looking up?
Written by Andy Kazeniac (contact - e-mail) -- April 3rd, 2009 |
Share - Save - E-mail
I long-ago ditched the bulky paper versions of my dictionary and thesaurus in favor of the easier to use (and lighter) dictionary.com. Years of English and Writing classes have forced the habit of underlining unfamiliar words I come across and looking them up later. During a recent trip to the site I wondered; Do other people know what this word means? What is everyone else looking up?
- My junior high English teacher would be horrified to see this list – with terms like alliteration and metaphor ranking high on the list, it looks like many people weren’t paying attention in class. The 25-34 demographic seems to be in most need of a refresher course, with nearly 29% of dictionary.com visitors falling in that group.
- I’m guessing that a lot of Valentine’s Day cards included the message, “The dictionary defines love as…” with the term jumping up to number eight in February. But that isn’t as high as it was in December – were people checking to see if it was the real thing before making their holiday present purchases?
- More than anything else, users are clicking on the Search button without entering a term, which brings up results for the definition of “search.”
The list of most looked-up words can show us trends deeper than what the latest vocabulary refresher was though - the most popular term in October and November was “socialism.”
Did you like that post? You'll love these.
Done reading? subscribe: To get an automatic feed of all future posts subscribe here, or to receive them via email enter your email address in the box in the right column.
Link to This Post:
Get the 
April 4th, 2009 at 6:37 am
Very Usefull info andy
April 5th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say the effect of this post was to make me nostalgic for my days of melancholy in English class, trying to learn esoteric vocabulary.
April 6th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
Thanks for the info.
April 7th, 2009 at 12:55 pm
great info!!!thanks
April 7th, 2009 at 7:47 pm
Don’t ya think it’s me looking up “irony” because I’m confused by Alanis Morrisett’s song, “Isn’t it Ironic.”
May 19th, 2009 at 4:11 pm
hi, msj 529 wonderful blog 529 share
June 11th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I’m almost 100% sure that all of that English vocabulary being looked up is for busy work assignments given out in high school. A lot of early English assignments involve looking up dictionary definitions for words.
June 15th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
Surely I’m not alone when I say that for 95 percent of the words I look up online, I’m simply confirming its spelling while typing in a program without spell check — not looking up its definition.
June 16th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
I look up words when I am trying to spell them, or if I’m choosing between two words with similar meaning and I want to make sure I pick the right one. I have a feeling a lot of the words on this list aren’t because no one knows what they mean but because they just want to pin down the meaning or spelling of a word for refinement purposes. I mean, we all know what “irony” is, but how many of us can spit out a definition offhand?
anyway, interesting.
August 21st, 2009 at 2:49 am
Your article was very well written, I am very like it, I wish you happy every day!
August 25th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Some interesting thoughts. I agree somewhat with Jane (#9) as I will sometimes look up words to clarify spelling, and I imagine others do too, even with spell check available in other forms. Or, I’ll wonder if there are subtle secondary definitions.
But, consider that Dictionary.com is on the WWW and accessible by the world. I wonder how many word searches were completed by users of other languages checking on words we English-speakers would consider relatively simple.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:33 am
hi, my name is basan.com.tr BASSAN loadcell.your wonderful blog, 620 blog. tnx. Msj number . 620
August 30th, 2009 at 11:02 am
Hi, We have been manufacturing stair. 668 merdivenci 668