Whenever someone has a baby, I always ask how they came up with the baby’s name. Stories have ranged from fascinating to “just ’cause” (we liked the name). Amazing how English words coming from 26 letters of the alphabet have led to unforgettable plays, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, songs, movies, and muscials. Even a simple letter, number, and symbol can have a lot of meanings. Witness the @ symbol.

Just call me a logophile.

All Your Words
http://allyourwords.com/

Enter a word and view Web site associations.

Dictionary of Definitions
http://www.dictionaryofdefinitions.com/

A simple and elegant dictionary with a “Mac” look-and-feel.

The Eggcorn Database
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/

Eggcorns are the result of people who mispronounce a word or phrase on purpose thinking it’s the way to say it. In other words, it’s an intentional malaprop, whereas malaprops are slips of the tongue. The About page explains the eggcorn (and I accidentally wrote this as “egghorn” — a malaprop) history.

English Words Derived from Latin-Greek Origins
http://wordexplorations.com/

Learn more vocabulary words by understanding their Latin and Greek prefixes, roots, and suffixes used in English vocabulary.

Internet Anagram Server
http://wordsmith.org/anagram/.

Use this to find and create words. Internet Anagram Server can be helpful as a brainstorming tool.

The Language Log
http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/

Wonderful blog by linguistic experts. Thanks to links from two big sites, the blog received heavy-duty hits and provided a quick tour.

Merriam-Webster Open Dictionary
http://www3.merriam-webster.com/opendictionary/

While you can go to Merriam-Webster to look up definition, it also has an Open Dictionary. Here you can submit entries that aren’t in the online dictionary, and browse entries submitted by other members of the Merriam-Webster online community.

NOEMATA
http://www.noemata.net/nbng/

Need help coming up with names for brands, products, companies? Use NOEMATA for inspiration.

Online Etymology Dictionary
http://www.etymonline.com/

Etymologies explain what words mean and how they sounded many years ago.

The Phrontistery
http://phrontistery.info/

Phrontistery is a thinking place. The site has an online dictionary, a word list on a given topic, and the definitions to rare and unusual words. Here you find 15,500 obscure and rare words, the International House of Logorrhea, as well as many glossaries, word lists, and other English language and etymology resources.

RhymeZone
http://www.rhymezone.com/

Not only do you geta list of words that rhyme your entered word, but also synonyms, definitions, homophones, similar sounding words, same consonants, and related. RhymeZone is a fabulous resource.

World Wide Words
http://www.worldwidewords.org/

International English from a British viewpoint. Articles, questions and answers, topical words… everything WORDS!

Updated: June 21, 2006

Better and more updated list of free tools and sites for writers.

This lists resources related to writing and for writers around the Web. It’s a growing list, so check back again to see new ones added. Though you can find most of these sites through your favorite search engine, it doesn’t provide you with a description of the site. Plus, searching for “writing resources” or “writer resources” could lead to results with many useless sites that abuse keywords for a better search engine ranking.

You can submit your site for review. Not all submissions automatically make the list. They’re reviewed for quality content.

A good place to start in finding many quality resources for writers is Writer’s Digest Best 101 Web Sites for Writers – 2005.

Absolute Write – contains more than 1,000 pages of content including articles, columns, interviews, book reviews, writing markets, and forums. It has two newsletters: Absolute Write Newsletter (info on home page), which goes out every week and the Absolute Markets Newsletter (free and premium editions available), they go out every other week with premium one week and free the following week. These contain (depending on edition) markets (U.S. and airmail), interviews with editors, and a long list of opportunities (premium, obviously).

Long Story Short – a magazine for writers includes book reviews, book excerpts, interviews, articles, poetry, and has recently added a writing school.

E-Write – offers a newsletter, E-Writing Bulletin, and an index of articles from the newsletter covering business writing, email writing / marketing, and web writing. It also includes a list of onsite writing courses along with the dates and locations.

Paul Conley provides detailed reports on the trade press.

Just Services with funding from Arts Council England set up Disability Writes to help disabled people who face barriers in getting support and encouragement to write. It promotes the work of disabled writers to a wide audience of disabled and non-disabled people through its Web site and printed publications. People with disabilities can post their work on the site and receive constructive feedback.

University of Wisconsin at Madison – offers guidelines and resources for writing proposals. Proposal references are sorted by diferent types such as non-government, research, and federal. The site also links to a list of recommended books on proposal writing.

Guide to Grammar and Writing has digital handouts on grammar and English usage, over 170 computer-graded quizzes, frequently asked grammar questions, and much more.

The Next Big Writer

Site that helps find undiscovered writing talent through feedback on writing work and reviews on existing works.

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) provides superb resources covering writing, research, grammar, and MLA and APA style. Dumb Little Man provides a list of 40 grammar and writing tips from OWL, so you can quickly find what you want.

Clive Pyne Book Indexing has a list of writer resources similar to this one and others. The site also has a few articles on indexing.

Query Letters I Love has actual, honest to goodness query letters received in Hollywood. Thanks, David.

Resource Site for Authors of Historical Fiction

The books featured on this site are mainly historical works of fiction. Authors who submit their books have the chance to be featured for one week. Also contains writing and publishing tips and resources.

Publishing Central is a great resource to find articles from around the Web on just about every topic related to publishing.

Joe Wikert’s Book Publisher Blog

Joe Wikert is a Vice President and Executive Publisher in the Professional/Trade division of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. He shares advice about writing, publishing, and technology.

Writers Write is a massive resource for writers that you can get lost and spend all day there. It has everythng books (reviews, giveaway, blog), job postings, community forums, and specialty sections covering different genres.

Updated: July 17, 2007