Dictionary.com Miscellaneous Questions
- How do I look up a word on your site?
- How does a word get in the dictionary?
- Where can I find a word's etymology (word history)?
- Can I add a word to the dictionary?
- Where can I hear a word's audio pronunciation?
- Do you offer software, such as toolbars, etc.?
- May I link to Dictionary.com or add a search box to my site?
- Do you offer a mobile version of your site?
- What is your privacy policy?
- How can I advertise or do business with Dictionary.com?
- Do you have a key to the pronunciation symbols and abbreviations used on this site?
- Do you have any tips for faster searching or better results?
- What are the terms and conditions of use of this web site?
- How do I report an error on your site?
- How do I contact you to make a suggestion or general comment?
How do I look up a word on your site?
Simply type the word in the blue search box at the top of the page and click the "Search" button. Click here to jump to the search box
How does a word get in the dictionary?
You will find the answer to this question in our Language FAQ.
Where can I find a word's etymology (word history)?
When you perform a query on Dictionary.com, you're retuned with a search results page containing results from a number of different sources. Many of the individual results entries will contain the word's etymology near the bottom of that entry (e.g. Dictionary.com Unabridged etymology is reddish text, enclosed in brackets, and beginning with the word "Origin"). Also, you can scroll down the page and look for results from the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Can I add a word to the dictionary?
You will find the answer to this question in our Language FAQ.
Where can I hear a word's audio pronunciation?
When you perform a word search on Dictionary.com, you'll be returned results for your query from a number of dictionary sources including The American Heritage Dictionary and the Dictionary.com Unabridged. Both of these dictionaries contain many audio pronunciation files designated by this audio pronunciation icon 
. You may click on this icon to listen to the word's audio pronunciation.
If you have the Flash® Player installed in your browser, you'll be able to stream the audio playback directly from the results page. If you don't have the Flash® player, you can still listen to the audio files by clicking on the pronunciation icon, however, a new window will open and your computer's default media player will play the audio pronunciation.
Do you offer software, such as toolbars, etc.?
Yes! You will find our software offerings in Tools section.
May I link to Dictionary.com or add a search box to my site?
Please feel free to link to our site. We automatically grant all linking requests. You can even place the Word of the Day or a search box on your site — free of charge! See our linking section for details.
Where can I find dictionaries in print or CD-ROM format?
Our recommendations can be found in our bookstore.
Do you offer a mobile version of your site?
Yes, smartphone users can go directly to m.dictionary.com.
What is your privacy policy?
Our privacy policy can be found here.
How can I advertise or do business with Dictionary.com?
Thank you for your interest in advertising or doing business with us. You will find details here.
Do you have a key to the pronunciation symbols and abbreviations used on this site?
Yes; click here to see the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation key. Click here to see the Spelled pronunciation key. Click here to see the American Heritage Dictionary pronunciation key.
Do you have any tips for faster searching or better results?
Yes; please see our search tips.
What are the terms and conditions of use of this web site?
You will find the terms and conditions here.
How do I report an error on your site?
We sincerely appreciate your taking the time to notify us of any errors you may have found on our site. We thank you for helping us to improve our service. In an effort to make the process of reporting an error more efficient, we ask that you read the following before submitting your message.
Please be sure that the error you are reporting is indeed an error. Occasionally we receive false reports of errors. For example, you may have found the word materiel in an entry, and you may believe that to be a misspelling of material. However, materiel is itself an actual word, albeit a less common one than material.
Occasionally we receive complaints about the content of an entry. Please be aware that the purpose of a dictionary is not to prescribe what words people should use or what they should mean by them, but rather to define words as they are actually used, so that one who consults a dictionary may understand what is meant by them. Thus one will find many offensive and slang terms, for example, in the dictionary. This is not to be understood as an endorsement of their use.
Moreover, please note that the dictionaries that appear on our site are mostly licensed from third parties. Thus they were produced without our editorial input. To learn more about our site and the dictionaries that we host, please see our "About Dictionary.com" section. To find out more about the source of any particular entry, click on the source link immediately following the entry in question. If an entry comes from a third-party source, there is a good chance we will not be able to correct it, though we do keep a record of all error reports in order to notify the publishers so that they can make the corrections in any subsequent edition.
To report an error, click here.
How do I contact you to make a suggestion or general comment?
We sincerely appreciate your feedback and suggestions, and we really do read each and every message sent to us. Unfortunately we are unable to reply individually to all of them. Your comments help us improve our service, and we thank you for taking the time to share them with us.
Note that occasionally we receive suggestions for features and services we already offer. For example, we sometimes receive suggestions for a browser toolbar which we already offer. Most of our offerings can be found on our home page, and others can be found in our Help section.
To send us your feedback, click here.
