| AHD | American Heritage Dictionary | |
| CD | Cambridge University Dictionary | |
| EB | Encyclopaedia Britannica | |
| OED | Oxford English Dictionary | |
| MW | Merriam-Webster | |
| NOA | New Oxford American Dictionary (Apple, Amazon, and Google dictionaries. Google link provided when available.) |
Secondary
| BD | Britannica Dictionary | |
| CHM | Chambers Dictionary | |
| CDC | Collins Dictionary | |
| DARE | Dictionary of American Regional English | |
| DC | Dictionary.com | |
| Green's | Green's Dictionary of Slang | |
| Groki | Grokipedia | |
| JDO | Johnson's Dictionary Online (18th century) | |
| LDOCE | Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English | |
| VC | Vocabulary.com | |
| WUD | Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) |
AI
| ChatGPT | OpenAI | ChatGPT.com | ||
| Gemini | Gemini.google.com/app | |||
| Grok | xAI | X.com/i/grok |
Other
| RM | These are instances where I have not found a satisfactory definition, so I have created my own. | |
| AB | Andrea Badgley, Andrea's Lexicon, Words I think are cool. | |
| DS | Daniel Scrivner, Personal Dictionary, Terms and Ideas that Resonate with Me. | |
| WN | Ella Patrice, Word Nerd, LaWhimsy.com. |
It is probably worth mentioning that the universe of online, web-accessible, personal lexicons is rather small.
No longer available online
| MD | Macmillian Dictionary, MacmillianDictionary.com | |
| OD | Oxford Dictionary Online, OxfordDictionaries.com, later Lexico.com |
Notes
First, thank you to all of the above reference sources. I quote definitions under fair-use principles for comparative and educational purposes. I link to all original reference sources, and encourage the purchase of their subscriptions and dictionaries. I support lexicography and its publishers, and hope visitors to this site will as well.
I do of course use additional sources on an ad hoc basis; with links back to the original sites. If a source becomes recurrent, I will include it above.
Regarding the addition of AI, these tools are useful for scouring the internet to help construct definitions for unusual terms and concepts. Or even for entries not previously defined elsewhere. They are also good at summarizing complex concepts, for which I aways provide a link.
The AI links may turn out to be rather short-lived. As they work now, these tools provide a linkable record for every interaction. It is as if Google were to provide a link for each search – Seems unreasonable and unsustainable. Will the AI companies continue to provide this record? It is an open question.
Regarding Wikipedia, I am no fan of its leftist persuasion which corrupts so many of its entries. So I only resort to this site as a source if there are no other easily accessible online sources. While I am fully aware of the flaws and limitations of this site, and of the prohibition of its use in academic quarters, it is occasionally adequate for my purposes. However, with the addition of the AI tools, I find myself removing Wikipedia as a source, and certainly not adding to its use here. No one will miss it.