As you start to improve your English, it’s important to move away from using tools like Google translate and English – your own language dictionaries and start to use English-English dictionaries instead. But why? I hear you ask. Great question! Continue reading to find out my answer.
3 online dictionaries to help you learn English
While Google Translate is great when you’re at the beginning of your English learning journey, as you get better with your English, you’ll start to notice that this tool isn’t always accurate because the translations it gives, especially of longer sentences, can be strange and unnatural. Using a translation tool also stops you from learning how to structure your sentences in English for yourself, which slows your progress down.
English – your own language dictionaries are also very useful when you first start learning English, but as you start to learn more higher level vocabulary, you might notice that some words don’t have a direct translation from English to your own language, or vice versa. In cases like this, English – your own language dictionaries give an approximate definition of these new words, so you lose out on really understanding the small details and differences of what these new English words mean.
This is where an English – English dictionary is highly beneficial. When the new word you’re looking up is described in English, you get a better feel for what it means and how it’s used and this is how you’ll start to improve your English.
Here are 3 online dictionaries to help you learn English. I recommend these to all my students. They all give you a definition of the word, what type of word it is, for example whether it is a verb, noun, adjective etc as well as how the word is pronounced, with an audio file so that you can hear it and the phonemic script so that you can read it. However each online dictionary is a little different and I’ll go into the differences below.
The Macmillan Online Dictionary
This online dictionary is easy to use and great for English learners at a lower level (Intermediate / B1 and below).
What I love about this website is the use of their red words. Whenever you come across a word that is red, it means that it’s a commonly used word in the English language.
There are around 7500 commonly used words in the English language and if you know these words, then you’ll be able to understand around 80-90% of general English. Of course, knowing vocabulary isn’t enough – you’ll also need to have a good knowledge of grammar too.
These 7500 words are shown in red and they’re categorised with stars. 1 star is frequent, 2 stars are more frequent and 3 stars are the most frequently used words. When learning new words, especially if you’re more towards the beginning of your English learning journey, it’s a good idea to see whether the word you’re learning is a frequently used word or not and if it’s not, then perhaps it’s not necessary to learn and remember this new word right now.
I have found, however, that for higher level vocabulary, this dictionary can give slightly vague definitions and in general it only gives you 1-2 example sentences for how a word is used in a sentence. So for higher level vocabulary, I’d suggest using the other dictionaries I’ve listed below.
Collins Online Dictionary
This dictionary, similar to the Macmillan online dictionary, also shows you how frequently the word you’re looking for is used in the English language. It uses a slightly different system, rating the word out of 5, with 5 circles being the most frequently used and 1 circle being the least. However, unlike the Macmillan dictionary, it categorises all words in the dictionary, not just the most commonly used 7500 words.
This dictionary gives you example sentences, so that you can see how a word is used and there is even the possibility of hearing some of them read out to you, which can be very useful to improve your listening skills.
Cambridge Online Dictionary
Like the other two dictionaries, this Cambridge online dictionary also tells you about word frequency of the word you’re looking up, but in a slightly different way. Above the definition of most words, you can see headings like ‘A2’ or ‘B2’. This is only useful if you know the A1 – C2 classification system of English levels.
However, some words aren’t categorised and for these, you can assume they are advanced level vocabulary.
Like the Collins Dictionary, this dictionary gives lots of examples of how the word is used in sentences from real world examples, which is very useful for higher level language learners.
Like anything in life, the dictionaries we like are personal taste, so these suggestions might not be something you like! But why not give them a go and see.
Take a look at some of the online resources I recommend here or feel free to get in touch with any questions you might have. And if you’d like to be kept up to date on when my latest blog posts are published, sign up to my weekly newsletter!
What dictionaries do you use when learning English and have you tried these ones I’ve recommended?
