First known use - 1592 - Theory: Hypothesis, Abstract thought

Synonyms:
hypothesis, proposition, supposition, thesis

Related Words:

1. also
2. abstraction
3. assumption
4. concept
5. conception
6. concession
7. conjecture
8. construct
9. feeling
   
10. generalization
11. guess
12. guesswork
13. hunch
14. impression
15. inference
16. inkling
17. notion
18. premise
19. premiss
20. presumption
21. presupposition
22. proffer
23. proposal
24. speculation
25. suggestion
26. surmise
27. suspicion
28. theorem

The use of the word pedantic in context.

Source:
http://tolstoy.thefreelibrary.com/War-and-Peace/5-8#pedantic

In 1806 the old prince was made one of the eight commanders in chief then appointed to supervise the enrollment decreed throughout Russia. Despite the weakness of age, which had become particularly noticeable since the time when he thought his son had been killed, he did not think it right to refuse a duty to which he had been appointed by the Emperor himself, and this fresh opportunity for action gave him new energy and strength. He was continually traveling through the three provinces entrusted to him, was pedantic in the fulfillment of his duties, severe to cruelty with his subordinates, and went into everything down to the minutest details himself. Princess Mary had ceased taking lessons in mathematics from her father, and when the old prince was at home went to his study with the wet nurse and little Prince Nicholas (as his grandfather called him). The baby Prince Nicholas lived with his wet nurse and nurse Savishna in the late princess' rooms and Princess Mary spent most of the day in the nursery, taking a mother's place to her little nephew as best she could. Mademoiselle Bourienne, too, seemed passionately fond of the boy, and Princess Mary often deprived herself to give her friend the pleasure of dandling the little angel- as she called her nephew- and playing with him.
 

proselytize (the usage of the word via tfd.com)

He said he would bar tax funding to groups that proselytize and engage in hiring discrimination on the basis of religion.

Faith-based folly: time to end 'earmarks' for religious croups by Church & State

What is the meaning of the word proselytize.

scuttlebutt • \SKUTT-ul-butt\ • noun : rumor, gossip

Merriam Webster Audio - Origin of the Word Scuttlebutt

WHAT DOES MORTON'S FORK MEANS?

Morton's fork

PRONUNCIATION:
(MOR-tuhns fork)

MEANING:
noun: A situation involving choice between two equally undesirable outcomes. 

 Wordsmith.org

88 FUN WITH WORDS WEBSITES

InvestorWords
 6,000 investing terms and 20,000 links between related words.
http://www.investorwords.com/
The Jargon File
A collection of slang terms used by various subcultures of computer hackers.
http://www.jargon.8hz.com/jargon_toc.html
Jennifer's Language Page
Wondering how to say "hello" in Danish or "thank you" in Kurdish? Jennifer has a great collection of how to say common words and phrases in different languages with an extensive list of links to similar pages.
http://www.elite.net/~runner/jennifers/
John's Word Search Puzzles
John's busy making four new puzzles a month for you to print out and solve. Me, I'm working on the one about chocolate ('natch!).
http://www.thepotters.com/puzzles.html
Jumble and Crossword Solver
You enter scrambled letters and it returns the unscrambled word. It also lets you enter words with letters missing and it tells you all the words that fit the pattern.
http://ull.chemistry.uakron.edu/jumble.html
Kenny Translator
Translate text you type into the box into South Park's Kennyspeak.
http://www.namesuppressed.com/kenny/
Kiwi Words & Phrases
Words and expressions commonly used in New Zealand with their equivalent definition.
http://www.chemistry.co.nz/kiwi.htm
The Klingon Language Institute
You can also learn about the KLI's ambitious projects, such as translating the Bible and the works of Shakespeare into Klingon. The KLI publishes a peer reviewed quarterly journal, HolQeD, and the world's first Klingon literary magazine, <jatmey> or "Scattered Tongues."
http://www.kli.org/
LaLa Dictionary
CaliforniaSpeak demystified.
http://www.lalatimes.com/Miscellany/diction.html
Ladle Rat Rotten Hut
Ladle Rat Rotten Hut is a version of the story "Little Red Riding Hood" written in 1940 by H.L Chace, a French professor, to show his students how integral intonation is to the meaning of language. For the full effect, read this aloud.
http://web.syr.edu/~rsholmes/reads/reading/ladle_rat_rotten_hut.html
Language Games.org
Solve word search puzzles, crossword puzzles and play hangman in English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. http://www.languagegames.org/la/
Letterbox Word Game
A simple but addictive online word game. You place letters one at a time into the left-hand grid to make as many words as you can. You play alongside the computer and see if you can beat the computer's score.
http://www.netspace.net.au/~bostwalk/letterbox.html
Linguistic Phenomena/Devices
This is a list of some of the lesser-known linguistic phenomena and devices used in English writing. You actually know what most of these are, you just didn't know what they were called.
http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/~kbarker/ling-devices.html
Little Explorers
A multi-lingual (English; English to Spanish; English to French) picture dictionary with wonderful graphic and links.
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Dictionary.html
Longest Place Name in the World
You'll need a giant envelope to send them mail!
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rbeard/name.html
Lost In Translation
This site answers the question "What happens when an English phrase is translated (by computer) back and forth between 5 different languages?" Some pretty strange stuff!
http://www.tashian.com/multibabel/
Mag's Word Finder
Ever wondered how many words you could make out of the letters in your name? or "Merry Christmas?" or ... ? This is the place to find out. Choose a dictionary, type in a word or phrase, and fire away!
http://magswordfinder.com/
Majstro
A multilingual translation dictionary with a wide range of languages.
http://www.majstro.com/
Marriage Names
"If Yoko Ono married Sonny Bono, she'd be Yoko Ono Bono" and other such "related" nonsense!
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/3456/h_marriage.html
Medspeak -- The Dictionary of ER
Find out what it means when Dr. Benton says "Get me a thoracotomy tray, stat!" or when Dr. Green orders a "CBC, Chem-7, lytes"
http://www.geocities.com/TelevisionCity/5196/index.html
Names for Pets
Wondering what to name your new pet? Heres an A to Z listing of names.
http://gladpet.com/names/
Native Tongue -- Discover the Hawaiian Language
Learn the lingo of the original surfers! Audio clips help you talk like a native.
http://www.aloha-hawaii.com/hawaii_magazine/hawaiian/index.shtml
Nautical Expressions in the Vernacular
Collection of nautical expressions found in the works of author Patrick O'Brian, some with explanations showing the connection between a familiar phrase in everyday language to its marine heritage.
http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/words.words.words.html
Never Say Neverisms
William Safire's illustrative hints of what not do when writing. Example: "Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read."
http://www.mapping.com/never2.html
New Words in English
Neologisms and novel uses of words in English collected by members of the class Linguistics/English 215, Words in English: Structure, History and Use, taught by Suzanne Kemmer at Rice University.
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~ling215/NewWords/index.html
ODLIS: Online Dictionary of Library and Information Science
Learn to talk like a librarian.
http://www.wcsu.edu/library/odlis.html
OED Online: Word of the Day
The Oxford English Dictionary presents a word a day complete with pronunciation, spellings, etymology, quotations and date chart.
http://oed.com/cgi/display/wotd
Official Ten Codes
Everybody knows 10-4 means OK, but here's a site that will teach you the others. Hope you don't 10-22 this site.
http://spiffy.ci.uiuc.edu/~kline/Stuff/ten-codes.html
Ohwejagehka: Ha`degaenage: Iroquois Language + Songs
Words and songs of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, and Tuscarora. Includes sound.
http://www.ohwejagehka.com/index.html
Oly-hay Ible-bay
The Bible in Pig Latin. Genesis, Job and John currently available.
http://www.MuseumOfConceptualArt.com/ible-bay.html
On-line Chinese Tools
Tools to assist learning and using the Chinese language include Character Flashcards, a Chinese/English dictionary, a Chinese Namer, and a Western/Chinese Calendar Converter.
http://www.mandarintools.com/
Once Upon a Palindrome
A story and a word game in one. You come up with a palindrome that logically finishes each section.
http://members.cox.net/jjschnebel/palin.html
Online Hieroglyphics Translator
Enter text and have it translated into hieroglyphics.
http://www.quizland.com/hiero.htm
The Periodic Table of Poetry
Chemistry and poetry together as never before. Click on your favorite element for a poem.
http://www.superdeluxe.com/elemental/
Phobia List
It's enough to give you hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words). Now featuring a reverse phobia list where you can look things up the thing feared.
http://phobialist.com/
PhoneSpell
Enter a 6 to 10 digit phone number and find out what words and phrases your phone number spells.
http://www.phoneSpell.org/phoneSpell.html
Phonetic Alphabets (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta...)
There is a widely known alphabet Alpha Bravo ... Yankee Zulu. Such alphabets are variously known as phonetic/radio/spelling/telephone alphabets, and the term analogy alphabet is also used. This is a collection such alphabets from a variety of languages.
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/radio/phonetic-alph/full/
Puns Galore
This attractive, easy-to-navigate site includes puns of the day, puns you can browse by category (such as shaggy dog, one-liners, groaners, and spoonerisms) or search for in a number of ways.
http://www.punsgalore.com/index.html
Puzzlemaker
A site that lets you create customized puzzles. Includes word search, criss-cross, cryptograms, fallen phrases and much more.
http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com/
Quis vocaris? Your Name in Latin
To find your name in Latin, enter your first name, last name, and the country (US, Canada, Mexico), state or major city where you live.
http://www.latin.org/english/name-lookup.html
Rap Dictionary
This one is for serious rappers. Parental advisory included.
http://www.rapdict.org/dictionary_0.html
Rhetorical Figures
From alliteration to zeugma, and everything in between, all the figures of speech are here.
http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/rhetoric.html
RhymeZone: The Rhyming Dictionary and Thesaurus
Enter a word in the space provided and hit "Submit." The computer will provide a list of rhyming words, each of which is linked to its definition and thesaurus entry.
http://www.rhymezone.com/
Richard Lederer's Verbivore Page
The web site woven for wordaholics, logolepts, and verbivores where we are reminded that "ours is the only language in which you drive in a parkway and park in a driveway and night falls but never breaks and day breaks but never falls."
http://www.pobox.com/~verbivore
Rosie's Ringers
Rosie presents lots of those picture word puzzle I love. She even includes a section to practice on if this type of puzzle is new to you. Great graphics, too!
http://www.rozies.com/Zzzz/Ringers/R-index.html
Russian Tongue Twisters
Yep, the title says it all. Thanks to DJW for this one. (Number 11 is our favorite!)
http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/ru.htm#O76
Sarangworld Word Morphing
Word morphing is changing one word into another by changing one letter at a time with each change resulting in a valid word. You enter a target and a source word, click the Morph Words button and see if morphing is possible.
http://www.sarangworld.com/WORDMORPH/
Scott Pakin's Automatic Complaint Letter Generator
You supply basic information regarding the person you wish to complain about and the number of paragraphs the complaint is to contain. Then push the complain button. Amazingly satisfying!
http://www.pakin.org/complaint/
A Seattle Lexicon
Lingo from the Far Corner. An interpretive guide for non-Northwesterners who want to get the inside line on the local lingo.
http://www.callihan.com/seattle/lexicon.htm
SignWriting
Learn how to read, write and type signed languages.
http://www.signwriting.org/read.html
Silva Rhetorica: The Forest of Rhetoric
Using the metaphor of a forest as a guide to navigation, this site an online reference and primer to the terms of classical and renaissance rhetoric, with over 800 terms defined with examples and references.
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/silva.htm
Slanguage.com: The Hick-to-Hip Translation Guide
Choose a city and learn to talk like the locals.
http://www.slanguage.com/
Sounds of the World's Animals
"Animals make much the same sounds around the world, but each language expresses them differently. English and French cows sound the same, but not in English and French! Explore the sounds of the world's languages through the sounds of the world's animals."
http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/animals/animals.html
Southern Word Homepage
A dictionary of how to speak Southern.
http://www.netsquirrel.com/crispen/word.html
Speak Jamaican
This Jamaican glossary will have you talking like a native in no time. Includes stories, recipes and photos.
http://www.jamaicans.com/speakja/glossary.htm
Spelling Test
An interactive spelling test which features fifty commonly misspelled words. Take the test and see how you score. At the bottom of the page are tips for how to improve your spelling.
http://www.sentex.net/~mmcadams/spelling.html
Sprechen Sie Search Engines?
Parlez vous motors de recheche? Learn how to say "search engines" at those important international conferences with this quick guide.
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/facts/sprechen.html
STANDS4.com
Decode acronyms and abbreviations used in any of a huge variety of categories.
http://www.stands4.com/
Steven Wright Quotes
A plethora of wonderful Steven Wright quotes. My favorite: "I went to a restaurant that serves `breakfast at any time'. So I ordered French Toast during the Renaissance."
http://cyclone.weather.net/zarg/ZarPages/stevenWright.html
Taglines Galore!
Featuring over 439,000 taglines. Not a blurb in the bunch.
http://www.taglinesgalore.com/tags/alphalist.html
Tom Swifties
Excruciating adverbial puns some collected, some created, by Michael Curl as part of his "thinks.com" site.
http://thinks.com/words/tomswift.htm
Tongue Twister Database
This page was originally created to give a good group of tongue twisters to people in speech therapy, to people who want to work on getting rid of an accent, or to people who just plain like tongue twisters. Enjoy!
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/8136/tonguetwisters.html
Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang
With the help of this glossary you too can talk like Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, and Mike Hammer.
http://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html
Valley URL
Nostalgic for the 80's? Here's a site that will translate the Web site of your choice into, like, valleyspeak. Oh, my gawd!
http://www.80s.com/Entertainment/ValleyURL/
Vanity License Plates
A site honoring how creative people can be when they're limited to expressing themselves to 6 or 8 characters. Links here include help if you need to brush up on license plate basics and a retelling of the story of Oedipus the King told entirely with vanity plates, called Oedipus the King (Of the Road).
http://www-chaos.umd.edu/misc/origplates.html
VoyCabulary
VoyCabulary transforms any webpage into links to dictionary or thesaurus lookups. Enter the URL to your favorite website or type in a sentence. Once you're at the page, click on any word to look it up in the dictionary of your choice.
http://www.voycabulary.com/
Wacky World of Words
If you love word games, you'll love this page. Try your hand at such games as "Compound Clues," "Numbletters," "Alpha-Spells," and "Rhyming Buddies." Great fun!
http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/teachwell/
The Wicked Good Guide to Boston English
There's more to "Boston English" than pahking cahs in Hahvuhd Yahd, the author of this site explains. They have their own way of pronouncing other words, their own vocabulary, even a unique grammatical construct. This is the just the guide you need to help understand the locals.
http://www.boston-online.com/glossary.html
A Word A Day
This is the web-page for the mailing list A.Word.A.Day (AWAD), which mails out a vocabulary word and its definition (with occasional commentary) to the subscribers every day.
http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/index.html
The Word Detective
This web page features highlights from "Words, Wit and Wisdom," a humorous syndicated newspaper column which has been answering readers' questions about words and language since 1953.
http://www.word-detective.com/
Word Finder
When you know some or all of the letters that have to be in a word, but you don't know the exact order of those letters in the word, Word Finder can help. It's great to help solve anagrams and crossword puzzles and to cheat at Scrabble.
http://www.vainokodas.com/wordplay/FindWord.html
Word Frequency Indexer
Create a frequency index, or 'word list', of any text. Just paste or type in your text and select the sort order you'd like.
http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/webtools/web_freqs.html
Word Jumble
Helps you unscramble words with up to 25 characters. [Click on the link and choose "Word Jumble" from the menu.]
http://www.wordplays.com/
Word Morph
You enter a word and the computer will come up with a list of words differing from the original word by one letter. [New URL -- Click on the link and choose "Word Morph" from the menu.]
http://www.wordplays.com/
The Word Wizard
This site takes you on a round trip across the language, answering your questions, offering a selection of new words, snappy quotes and elegant insults, not to mention amazing competitions, Public Scribe Service, Fancy Word Parties and the Lexicographer's Club.
http://wordwizard.com/
Wordies On the Web
You translate an arrangements of letters, numbers and/or symbols into a familiar phrase, saying or cliché. Hard to explain, but lots of fun to do. I love these things!
http://www.wordies.ca/
Wordles: Home of Word Fun, Word Games, Word Puzzles and Word Play!
"If you're one of those folks who can't resist turning words inside out, trying them backwards, or transposing them in your mind, then you'll enjoy Wordles." Cryptograms, word search, word in a word, links, and more.
http://www.wordles.com/
Wordly Wise WordGames
An unusual and challenging collection of great word games.
http://www.hoadworks.com/gamemenu.htm
Wordplays
Play against the clock to test your word knowledge with the interactive active games Boggle and Crossword Challenge. The site also features an interactive mostly English dictionary and seven interactive tools to help you solve word puzzles.
http://www.wordplays.com/
Words & Stuff
Jed Hartman's weekly column on words and wordplay.
http://kith.org/logos/words/words.html
Words Commonly Confused
This site has groups of words commonly confused and some info to help figure out when to use which one.
http://homepage.smc.edu/reading_lab/words_commonly_confused.htm
Words Ending with -GRY
For me, the definitive page on the riddle that never seems to die, "There are three words in the English language that end with "gry." One is hungry and the other is angry. What is the third word?"
http://www.tempe.gov/library/netsites/gry.htm
Words in a Word
Helps you solve those "How many words can you find in a word?" puzzles. You put in your starting word, indicate the minimum number of letters a word can have, and the computer will do the rest. [Click on the link and choose "Words in a Word" from the menu.]
http://www.wordplays.com/
World Wide Words
World Wide Words takes a regular sideways glance at the English language, what makes it special and how it has got the way it is. This site features "Articles on Aspects of English," "Turns of Phrase," "The Word Hoard," and "Usage Notes."
http://www.worldwidewords.org/
Worthless Word For The Day (wwftd)
When I visited this site, the worthless word for the day was scumble
1) a: to make (as color or a painting) less brilliant by covering with a thin coat of opaque or semiopaque color
b: to apply (a color) in this manner
2) to soften the lines or colors of (a drawing) by rubbing lightly
http://home.mn.rr.com/wwftd/
Ye Olde English Sayings
English sayings and customs that we have grown up with and taken for granted were explained during the web page author's tour of the Anne Hathaway house in Victoria, British Columbia.
http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/sayings.htm
Yiddishkeit
A gallery of Yiddish expressions transliterated and arranged A-Z. Gai gezunterhait!
http://www.pass.to/glossary/Default.htm
Your Dictionary.com
Here you'll find on-line dictionaries for over 280 languages, glossaries for over 50 areas, grammar resources and loads more.
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/rbeard/diction.html

75 FUN WITH WORDS WEBSITES

Abbreviations and Acronyms of the U.S. Government
The name says it all.
http://www.ulib.iupui.edu/subjectareas/gov/docs_abbrev.html
Acronym Database
A searchable database of acronyms and abbreviations and their expansions.
http://www.ucc.ie/info/net/acronyms/index.html
Acronym Finder
A database of acronyms and their meanings. Contains acronyms about: general topics, computers, technology, government, telecommunications, and the military including Department of Defense, Air Force, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard acronyms.
http://www.AcronymFinder.com/
Action Verbs
A list of verbs to help you brag about your accomplishments on a resume.You can choose to view the list alphabetically or by skill categories.
http://www.earlham.edu/~career/resume/verbs.html
Alan Cooper's Homonym List
Words, like "caret" and "carrot" that are pronounced the same, but are spelled differently, and that have different meanings. This list was compiled with a true appreciation for "the prime numbers of the English language."
http://www.cooper.com/alan/homonym_list.html
Alta Vista Babel Fish Translation
You provide either plain text or the address (URL) of a Web page to translate from English into a variety of languages or vice versa. For real fun, try translating something into a second language and then back again into the original language.
http://babelfish.altavista.com/translate.dyn
Amanda's Mnemonics Page
A mnemonic is a device, such as a formula or rhyme, used as an aid in remembering. Amanda collects them and has organized them into handy categories. To spell arithmetic correctly remember "A Rat In The House May Eat The Ice Cream."
http://www.frii.com/~geomanda/mnemonics.html
Amerispeak
Expressions of our American ancestors. This page is a collection of phrases that have been passed down through the generations in contributor's families. Contribute your own or read through the categories. The site also features "Ye Olde English Sayings."
http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/amerispeak.htm
Ambigram.Com
Ambigrams are a word or words that can be read in more than one way or from more than a single vantage point, such as both right side up and upside down.
http://Ambigram.Com/
The Anagram Genius Server
Did you know that rearranging the letters of "George Bush" gives "He bugs Gore," Madonna Louise Ciccone" gives "Occasional nude income" and "William Shakespeare," "I am a weakish speller"??! With The Anagram Genius you can find out what lurks within the letters of YOUR name, or that of your boss, employer or anything else that you choose." You supply the name or phrase, tone, gender, context, use (or not) of vulgar words, and number of requested responses. Submit this information with your email address and your anagrams arrive promptly in your inbox. Awesome!
http://www.anagramgenius.com/server.html
Anagram Hall of Fame
Here you'll find a list of the best and the brightest anagrams of all time, such as "The Morse Code = Here Come Dots," "Slot Machines = Cash Lost in'em" and "Dormitory = Dirty Room."
http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/hof.html
Antagonyms
An antagonym (a term the author coined) is single word that has meanings that contradict each other. For example: Cleave, which means to adhere tightly and also to cut apart. Antagonyms are also known as "contronyms."
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/antagonym.html
Apostrophe Protection Society
Homepage of the Apostrophe Protection Society, started in 2001 by John Richards, with the specific aim of preserving the correct use of this currently much abused punctuation mark in all forms of text written in the English language.
http://www.apostrophe.fsnet.co.uk/
Archive of Engandered, Special or Fun Words
Readers submit words they describe as either Endangered (at risk of falling eternally out of use), Special (quite unique, either in meaning or in composition), or Fun (a delight to the senses), or some combination thereof. If a word is worthy of being described as Endangered, Special and Fun, then it gets the status of the ever elusive and highly coveted E.S.o.F. Hat Trick.
http://www.13d.org/esofword/
BABEL: A Glossary of Computer Related Abbreviations and Acronyms
This glossary was compiled because the author became frustrated while reading magazine articles, help wanted ads and equipment for sale brochures....all pertaining to computers....where the listed Abbreviations and Acronyms were used and their meanings were either not known or were not immediately available.
http://www.geocities.com/ikind_babel/babel/babel.html
Banished
The list of words and phrases chosen annually by Lake Superior State University as banished from the Queen's English for mis-use, over-use or general uselessness. Lists from previous years are available in their archive to view or to print as a poster.
http://www.lssu.edu/banished/
Barrel Full of Words
"Here is a collection of over 2,000 English words and phrases in humorous context—a veritable dictionary—including goofinitions, mock antonyms, collective nouns, hyp-hens, bundel words and much more. This is a must-visit site for comedians, speech writers, punsters, toastmasters, English teachers, and all students of language."
http://www.jimwegryn.com/Words/Words.htm
Behind the Name: The Etymology and History of First Names
This site looks into the meaning and history of common first names.
http://www.behindthename.com/
Bilingual Vocabulary Quizzes
Interactives quizzes to help you learn and review vocabulary in a variety of foreign languages.
http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/v/
The Book of Cliches: Phrases to Say in Times of Trouble
Cliches for those troubled moments, neatly arranged by category. Includes cliches for: when life is hard, when you are afraid, when you think you are ugly, when you are looking for something and you don't know for what and many more.
http://utopia.knoware.nl/users/sybev/cliche/cliche.htm
Brain Food: Puzzles For the Brain To Gnaw On
Give your mind a work out with devious collection of puzzles. There are hundreds, ranging from word games to logic problems to riddles. Some are tricky. Some require innovation. All require thinking power. Good luck.
http://www.rinkworks.com/brainfood/
Brendan's Amazing Anagram Generator
This amazing program will take an English name, phrase, and so on, and rearrange the letters to form other English words. Submitting "word play" yielded 48 anagrams, including "yap world," "pal rowdy," and "wary plod."
http://mmm.mbhs.edu/~bconnell/anagrams.html
Brendan's Phone Anagram Generator
This program finds the letter equivalents of a phone number. For example, "439-2665" is equivalent to dialing "HEY-COOL." Most of the results you generate will probably be meaningless, but there might be a couple or so that are real or semi-real phrases.
http://mmm.mbhs.edu/~bconnell/phoneagrams.html
Broken Rules Page
Here you will find some background on the "never end a sentence with a preposition" rule as well as lists of words that violate the "i before e" rule.
http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/broken.rules.html
The Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest Home Page
Where "WWW" means Wretched Writers Welcome. Sponsored by the English Department at San Jose State University since 1982, the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest is a whimsical literary competition that challenges entrants to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.
http://www.bulwer-lytton.com/
Burma Shave Slogans of the Fifties
This site features a little history and a lot of the slogans that appeared bit-by-bit along the highway advertising Burma Shave with rhymes.
http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma1.htm
Canadian Aptonym Centre
A collection of real people whose names strongly suggest their occupation or pastime, e.g. the hairdresser Sonia Shears and hockey coach Jim Playfair.
http://homepage.mac.com/chapmandave/aptonyms/
Candy is Dandy But Liquor Is Quicker: Ogden Nash Online
I've loved Odgen Nash's poetry since I was a child. This site boasts it is the largest and most popular online collection of poetry by Ogden Nash. And it's searchable.
http://www.westegg.com/nash/
Canonical Abbreviations/Acronyms List
Some of these will have you ROFLASTC (Rolling On the Floor Laughing And Scaring The Cat).
http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/abbrev.html
Chiasmus.com
Chiasmus is when you reverse the order of words in two otherwise parallel phrases. Like Mae West's famous line, "It's not the men in my life, it's the life in my men.
http://www.chiasmus.com/
Christine Lavin Home Page
Not only does Christine know how to have fun with words, she's funny, clever, hip and sings like an angel. (And she twirls a mean baton!)
http://www.christinelavin.com/
Cliche Finder
Have you been searching for just the right cliche; to use? Are you searching for a cliche using the word "cat" or "day" but haven't been able to come up with one? Enter any words in the textbox and the search engine will return any clichés which use that phrase. Over 3,300 cliches indexed!
http://www.westegg.com/cliche/
A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia
A collection of word facts which includes such oddities as "BEIJING has three dotted letters in a row (in lower case)," and "OCEANIA crams five syllables into only seven letters."
http://members.aol.com/gulfhigh2/words.html
The Collective Noun Homepage
This page as much fun as an exaltation of larks and an ostentation of peacocks.
http://www.ojohaven.com/collectives/
The College Slang Page
They've got the 411 on the hip talk in the hallowed halls. Check it out!
http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~jasanders/slang/
Common Errors in English
Huge A to Z listing of common errors as well as a collection of links to related resources.
http://www.wsu.edu/%7Ebrians/errors/errors.html
Complex Statements for the Simple-Minded
A collection of statements that make you ask the musical question "huh?" My favorite: "There are only three kinds of people; people who can count and people who can't."
http://home.earthlink.net/~getwild/jokes/misuses.html
Country Western Song Generator
Like the name says, this site generates country western songs. When I went there the song included the lyrics: "I met her in Sheboygan at McDonald's; I can still recall that creepy smile she wore; She was weighted down with Twinkies when she shot me, and I knew no guy would ever love her more..." It doesn't get much better than that!
http://www.outofservice.com/country/
Crazy English
Richard Lederer's wonderful essay in which he reminds us, "Let’s face it: English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple..."
http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/crazy.html
Crazy Libs
Read brief original stories or excerpts from classic literature with your words strategically inserted to produce whacky results.
http://www.rinkworks.com/crazylibs/
Create Your Own Shakespearean Insults
Combine one word from each of three columns, preface with "Thou­ and thus shalt thou have the perfect insult. Let thyself go -- mix and match to find a barb worthy of the Bard.
ftp://ftp.cirr.com/pub/SCRIBE/Stage/Toinsult.Txt
Crossword Solver (Sorta)
Select the length of the answer you're looking for, supply the letters you do know, click on the "What is it?" button, and get your answer.
http://www.ojohaven.com/fun/crossword.html
Crypto Cracker
Crypto Cracker is a tool for cracking word ciphers, also known as cryptograms or cryptoquotes, a puzzle where one letter in the puzzle is substituted with another. Will also encrypt a phrase.
http://www.wordplays.com/crypto.html
Daily Word Search
Every day a new interactive word search puzzle with an interesting theme. Choose from 5 different versions that range from easy to difficult
http://www.dailywordsearch.com/
The Darmok Dictionary
Remember the "Darmok" episode from the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation? Of course you do. It's the one in which the Enterprise encounters an alien race, the Children of Tama, whose language has so far eluded human comprehension. Here's a site, complete with sound bites, devoted to understanding the language.
http://www.chaparraltree.com/sflang/darmok.shtmll
Demented Lyrics
An archive of lyrics to wacky songs by such artists as "Weird Al" Yankovic, Tom Lehrer, Allan Sherman, and Stan Freberg. There are even a few Monty Python songs at this site. You can look for a song by artist and by title.
http://mypage.iu.edu/~jbmorris/
Dialect Translator
Translate English text into your choice of a variety of dialects including Brooklyn, Fudd, Pirate, Drawl and Valspeak. Translate a web page or enter your own text. [Click on the link and choose "Word Jumble" from the menu.]
http://www.wordplays.com/
The Dialectizer
Translate whole web pages or passages of text into the following comic dialects: Redneck, Jive, Cockney, Elmer Fudd, Swedish Chef, Moron, or Pig Latin.
http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/
The Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang
This dictionary had its origins in a message posted to the rec.bicycles.off-road newsgroup that said, in part: "Offroading needs more lore. More culture. More vernacular. [...] Let us use the 'net for something really valuable -- let's compile a list of bikey slang. Biff, face plant, gravity check, endo; those are pretty good terms, but let's get some of the really clever ones." This is the result.
http://world.std.com/~jimf/biking/slang.html
Do-It-Yourself Country and Western Song
Fill in the blanks using number-coded word lists and you'll be singing in no time!
http://webpages.marshall.edu/~hartwel1/humor/misc/do_it_yourself_cw.html
eLibs
Just like the Madlibs you did as a kid. Read the eLibs that others have come up with or supply your own nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. to create wacky stories.
http://www.elibs.com/
The Enchefenizer
Translate text you type into the box into Mock Swedish (as spoken by the Muppet's Swedish Chef). Choose "Chef's Language" from the menu on the left.
http://home.earthlink.net/~emttrashtalk/
English Is Tough Stuff
"Multi-national personnel at North Atlantic Treaty Organization headquarters near Paris found English to be an easy language... until they tried to pronounce it. To help them discard an array of accents, these verses were devised. After trying them, a Frenchman said he'd prefer six months at hard labor to reading six lines aloud. Try them yourself. "
http://www.unique.cc/ron/estuff.htm
English Signs from Around the World
Actual signs in English seen 'round the world. A sampling: "Belgrade Hotel Elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk." and "Athens Hotel: Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. daily."
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/nagorski/engsigns.htm
The Enigma Device
A word game where you swap letter pairs in scrambled well-known or humorous quotations until the original message is restored. Great fun!
http://wordzap.com/enigma/
English to Pig Latin Translator
Enter the text you wish translated in the box and click the translate button. It'sway asway easyway asway atthay!
http://www.snowcrest.net/donnelly/piglatin.html
Eponyms
An eponym is a word derived from someone's name. For example, bloomers are named after Amelia Bloomer. This site presents the author's personal collection of eponyms, collected from books, webpages, teacher worksheets, and brainstorming on his own or with literate friends.
http://members.tripod.com/~foxdreamer/index.html
Etymologic
Calling itself the "toughest word game on the web," in this game you're presented with 10 randomly selected word origin or word definition puzzles to solve.
http://www.etymologic.com/
An Evening (Wasted) with Tom Lehrer -- Lyrics
If you enjoy such ditties as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," The Element Song," and "Oedipus Rex" (as I do!), you'll be thrilled to find the lyrics to this album (remember vinyl?) and to other Lehrer masterpieces at this site.
http://mypage.iu.edu/~jbmorris/LYRICS/lehrer.wasted
Expressions & Sayings
Discover the meanings and origins of popular sayings.
http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/sayindex.htm
Fake Out! The Definition Guessing Game
Choose a level and a word and see if you can guess its definition.
http://www.hmco.com/hmco/school/dictionary/
Free Online Word Search Puzzles
A large collection of printable word search puzzles arranged in a variety of categories. Most contain a hidden message formed by the letters remaining when the word search is solved. For instance, in the Music category there's a Beatles puzzle. After you find the song titles that have been hidden in the grid, what's left is the first lines of one of the Beatles songs.
http://www.free-online-word-search-puzzles.com/
FreeTranslation.com
Free automatic computer translation in 8 language directions. Translate FROM English to French, German, Spanish, Italian, Norweigian, and Portuguese and translate TO English from French, German, Portuguese and Spanish.
http://www.freetranslation.com/
German Words in English
List of German words that have found their way into the English language.
http://www.daube.ch/opinions/sprache06.html
Get Lyrical
Here's a site to help you identify that bit of a song that you just can't get out of your head. If you only know the chorus or one lyric from a particular track you can search here and get a list of possible song titles and artist matches.
http://www.getlyrical.com/index.html
Google Borkified
Search the web as the Muppet's Swedish chef.
http://www.google.com/intl/xx-bork/
Goonerisms Spalore (Spoonerisms Galore)
He's been proudly "meducating the asses since 1997." Check out this page dedicated to the listing of assorted, random & fun spoonerisms.
http://www.matthewgoldman.com/spoon/
Grandiloquent
This dictionary is the result of an ongoing project to collect and distribute the most obscure and rare words in the English language. It also contains a few words which do not have equivalent words in English
http://www.islandnet.com/~egbird/dict/dict.htm
Greek and Latin Roots
Vocabulary help is here! This site helps you decode Greek and Latin bases, prefixes and suffixes.
http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/MA/resources/greek_and_latin_roots/transition.html
Haiku Writer: Computer Generated Haiku
Computer-generated poetry. Click reload to see a new collection.
http://www.familygames.com/features/humor/haiku.html
The Heteronym Homepage
Heteronyms are words that are spelled identically but have different meanings when pronounced differently. For example: Lead, pronounced LEED, means to guide. However, lead, pronounced LED, means a metallic element.
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~cellis/heteronym.html
Homographs
Homographs are words that have identical spellings but different pronunciations and different meanings.
http://www.marlodge.supanet.com/wordlist/homogrph.html
Horsename-O-Matic
Create magnificent names for all kinds of horses - equestrian, trotting, galloping by just pushing the button.
http://www.etdomenenavnkanmaksimaltinneholdesekstitrebokstaversliksomdette.com/indexenglish.html
How To Write Your Name in Mayan Glyphs
This page will lead you on a guided tour in steps to show you how you can put together your own name glyph, and finishes with an example.
http://www.halfmoon.org/names.html
I'd Like To Have a "Word" With You!
An attractive page in which the author shares with us a few of her favorite obscure words including: Hapax Legomenon, Logomachy and Clavus.
http://www.psnw.com/~grammaj/words.html
Instant Online Crossword Puzzle Maker
Customize a puzzle to meet your needs. You supply the words, the clues and a title. Great fun!
http://www.varietygames.com/CW/ 

Source: http://www.wolinskyweb.net

[definr.com[avuncular : being or relating to an uncle - ADJECTIVE]

Source:
definr.com/avuncular

definr.com is very fast dictionary indeed. Main programming language used is RUBY. It is developed by University students.
definr.com/definr/about

[ DEFINE ] GOOF: FUNNY OR SILLY PERSON

Army personnel loves to use this word. Why they are so much interested in using this word when words like stupid, fool, idiot and sluggish, lazy type of words are equally suitable.

The fact is everyone wants to remember words easily and GOOF IS WORD you would hardly miss when heard from someone. You may not remember the meaning BUT you will definitely remember the sound of it.

marisamontes.com - FUN WITH WORDS - WORTH SEEING - LINK GIVEN IN THE POST

http://www.marisamontes.com/fun_with_words.htm

languagemonitor.com - The Global Language Monitor MILLIONTH WORD ADDED , Welcome to the Million Word March

The English Language WordClock: 1,000,073

THE GLOBAL LANGUAGE MONITOR has been monitoring WORDS FOR A LONG LOGN TIME.

"Global Language Monitor has been tracking English word creation since 2003. Once it identifies new words (or neologisms) it measures their extent and depth of usage with its PQI technology."

List of New English words introduced

Web 2.0: the second generation of the Internet

n00b: a new or inexperienced user, usually with technology

Jai Ho: an exclamation of victory, from Hindi

slumdog: an unkind term for a person who lives in a slum

cloud computing: services delivered via the Internet

carbon neutral: an activity that doesn't produce heat-trapping carbon emissions

Source: Global Language Monitor