I need dictionary (english-english)

[krma-thkpds]

Sometimes I experience a word that I do not understand. And I hate looking them up in ordinary dictionaries. Does any of you know which electronic dictionary is best? Are there any for free?

[tfflivemb2]

Are you looking for web-based (like dictionary.com) or downloadable?

[jdhurst]

This may not fit you, but I run MS Office, and when I need a word defined or a synonym, I type the word into MS Word and use the Thesaurus and Dictionary that are built in. ... JD Hurst

[GomJabbar]

Here are a couple free online ones that I use.

http://www.britannica.com/ A the top of the page is a search box that you can type in a word, then click on the arrow to the right to choose Dictionary & Thesaurus, and finally click on the GO button. This site uses Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary. The encyclopedia is there also for more in-depth information on some topics.

http://www.askoxford.com/?view=uk Has UK and US versions. Works simular to the one above.

http://www.wikipedia.org/ Not really a dictionary, but rather an encyclopedia. Excellent for looking up general (and some specific) computer jargon. I believe you'll find stuff here that is hard to find anywhere else without a lot of searching.
http://www.wiktionary.org/ is the dictionary part of this site. I haven't tried Wiktionary just yet. I didn't realize it was there, as I never scrolled down on the homepage of Wikipedia before.

Even though I use the above, I still have my paperback dictionary close at hand. I use the dictionary mostly to check my spelling. It's usually faster for me than going online. I'm old-school, and dislike spell-checkers.

[krma-thkpds]

Thanks for all the tips provided, I see that you mostly use on-line dictionaries. I am aware of some of those and of wikipedia. I really like them. But there is another problem; I study in another city and there I do not have wired or wireless connection but instead use my Nokia as a modem. My phone services provider offers me 200MB of date via UMTS per month and this really isn't that much. So I would need downloadable dictionary to avoid using much needed MBs for checking the spelling. Any suggestions there?

[GomJabbar]

I haven't personally used any software dictionaries, but the names of Merriam-Webster and Oxford are well known and either should work well.

Link: JR.com dictionary software search

Link: Merriam Webster's Concise Dictionary 2.07

Link: iFinger downloadable dictionary software

EDIT: I fixed the link above. I had to leave in a rush a few minutes ago.

[AIX]

online:

www.webster.com

[dr_st]

http://dictionary.reference.com
http://thesaurus.reference.com