Skip to Main Content

Reference Resources

Search across hundreds of reference books at once

Dictionaries - Define Concepts

As you research new topics or read scholarly articles, you may come across words and concepts you don't understand.  Use dictionaries to check spelling, word meanings, word history, usage, and define concepts.  General dictionaries like the Oxford English Dictionary, will explain words in everyday use.  Specialized subject dictionaries, like the Facts on File Dictionary of Earth Science, defines the words and concepts particular to the subject.  Here are links to frequently used online dictionaries:

Oxford English Dictionary
English Words | Meaning | History | Pronunciation | Quotations

Facts on File Dictionary of Earth Science
Online Dictionary | Earth Science Terminology

Subject dictionaries can be used to look up specialized terminology for example:
 
   
   Dictionary of Nursing Theory and Research   
   Editors, Bethel Ann Powers and Thomas R. Knapp
   
   Call Number: Ref 
RT81.5 .P69 2006 or available online
book cover image
The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary
Editor: Pramad K. Nayar
Call Number: PN56 P555 N38 2015
 
   
   A Dictionary of Geography
   Editor: Susan Mayhew
   Call Number: Ref G63 .M39 2009
Book cover image   
   Key Terms in Literary Theory
   Mary Klages
   Call Number: PN44.5 .K58 2012 
 

    The AMA Dictionary of Business and Management
    Editor: George Thomas Kurian
    Call Number: HD30.15 .K894 2013
book cover image   
   Dictionary of Media Studies
   Editor: Susan Mayhew
   Call Number: PN87.5 .D53 2006
 

​To find dictionaries, enter a subject followed by the word dictionaries, i.e. music dictionaries

Search Books, Videos and More in the library catalog

Booth Library
Eastern Illinois University Logo
facebookyoutubetwitterflickr
Connect with Booth Library
Booth Library, 600 Lincoln Avenue, Charleston, IL 61920
(217) 581-6072 | Ask A Librarian