Research Guides: Reference Materials at NYU Libraries: Dictionaries, Thesauri, Language Resources

What's on this page?

The resources in this section support learning with and about language, contemporary and ancient, technical and literary, biographical and bibliographical.

Dictionaries help us understand words' meaning and conventional usage and our collection includes dictionaries that provide equivalent words in many global languages. This guide focuses on fundamental tools but the library also has many specialized dictionaries, including names of key figures, words, definitions, and/or other information related to particular topics (e.g. marine science) or fields of study (e.g. art history).

Thesauri help us relate words to one another by providing lists of words with similar and opposing meanings. We have included some of our most used thesauri but these too can be quite diverse; our collection includes multilingual thesauri, including Old English, and topically specific resources, like this NASA thesaurus explaining relationships between terms used in aerospace engineering and physics.

Finally, on this page we have included other general language resources, ancient language databases and a language self-study program.

English Language Dictionaries (electronic)

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) This link opens in a new window
The Oxford English Dictionary is the accepted authority on the evolution of the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of over half a million words, both present and past. It traces the usage of words through 2.5 million quotations from a wide range of international English language sources.

English Dictionaries & Thesauruses (via Oxford Reference Online)
Search across dictionaries and thesauri published by Oxford. Titles included are: The New Oxford American Dictionary, The Australian Oxford Dictionary, The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, The Oxford American Dictionary of Current English, The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, The Oxford American Thesaurus of Current English, The Oxford Paperback Thesaurus, and Visual English Dictionary.

Global Language Dictionaries (electronic)

Oxford Language Dictionaries Online This link opens in a new window
Searchable bilingual dictionaries and unique study materials for learning languages. Includes dictionaries for Chinese, German, French, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.
Yiddish Dictionary This link opens in a new window
Verterbukh is an online Yiddish-English dictionary. It is the online version of the print edition (published by Indiana University Press in 2013).

Thesauri (electronic)

Roget's International Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases
Mawson, C. O. Sylvester (Christopher Orlando Sylvester), 1870–1938, ed. Roget’s international thesaurus of English words and phrases; a complete book of synonyms and antonyms founded upon and embodying Roget’s original work, with numerous additions and modernizations, by C. O. Sylvester Mawson.
English Dictionaries & Thesauruses (via Oxford Reference Online)
Search across dictionaries and thesauri published by Oxford. Titles included are: The New Oxford American Dictionary, The Australian Oxford Dictionary, The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, The Oxford American Dictionary of Current English, The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, The Oxford American Thesaurus of Current English, The Oxford Paperback Thesaurus, and Visual English Dictionary.

Dictionaries and Thesauri in Print

The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History by Nancy Frazier
Call Number: Reference Collection ; N5300 .F64 2000
ISBN: 0670100153
Publication Date: 1999-12-01
Sharp's Dictionary of Power and Struggle by Gene Sharp; Adam Roberts (Foreword by)
Call Number: Reference Collection ; HM1281 .S525 2012
ISBN: 9780199829897
Publication Date: 2011-11-01
Roget's International Thesaurus, 7th Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer
Call Number: Reference Collection ; PE1591 .R73 2010
ISBN: 9780061715228
Publication Date: 2010-08-03

Other Language Resources

Mango Language Learning This link opens in a new window
Mango is an online language-learning system that provides instruction for Spanish, French, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Mandarin Chinese, Greek, Italian, Russian and other languages. Includes audio and video learning tools.
Users must create an individual account within Mango in order to access the content.
Ethnologue: Languages of the World This link opens in a new window
Ethnologue: Languages of the World contains data for finding, reading about, and researching all 7,097 known living languages in the world.
Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) This link opens in a new window
The Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) represents American regional vocabulary, from Adam’s housecat to Zydeco. It is consulted by scholars and lovers of language and regional nuance. This digital version transforms the dictionary into an interactive, multimedia tool for both scholarly inquiry and general intellectual curiosity.
Database of Latin Dictionaries Online (DLD-O) This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to a number of dictionaries covering classical Latin and Latin from later periods, including Lewis and Short; Albert Blaise, Dictionnaire latin-français des auteurs chrétiens; and C. du Fresne ('du Cange'), Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis.
Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament Online This link opens in a new window
The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament Online contains the complete vocabulary of the Hebrew Bible, extended with variants from the Oriental and Samaritan textual traditions, the Ben Sira fragments, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.