MED Magazine - Issue 39 - June 2006

MED Web Watch
by Mairi MacDonald

Pseudodictionary
www.pseudodictionary.com

Pseudodictionary describes itself as 'The dictionary for words that wouldn't make it into dictionaries'. Anyone can submit an entry, whether it's slang, jargon or regional dialect. Each word has a short definition and an example sentence to provide context.

You can either browse the entries alphabetically or search according the word you are looking for. A nice feature is the 'randomerizor' (follow the link in the right margin on the home page) which generates a random entry from the database of over 21,000 words.

Most entries are slang with a few specialist words thrown in. Pseudodictionary provides no clues of frequency or any hard evidence of a word's actual existence. The entries are checked over but not edited to any great extent so the quality of definitions varies considerably. Some words seem to be made up e.g. invisitize (to make something invisible) or are just the product of spoken words that have merged in natural speech e.g. bofem for 'both of them'.

So what value does Pseudodictionary have for students? Some of the definitions make for entertaining reading even if your students will never see or use that word again. In the case of words that have possibly been made up, one task would be for students to either guess the meaning or decide for themselves if they think the definitions are convincing enough. They could then do their own research – a quick look in Google will determine whether a word appears anywhere else.

The site is also a useful source of regional language. The search facility searches the whole entry text, not just the headword. This can be used to target slang belonging to a certain region, for example type in Australian or Scottish and you get a list of entries for Australian or Scottish words. Similarly searching for Internet or acronym will give you entries relating to the Internet or containing acronyms.

To get the most of this site, you need to be selective; some of the entries are a bit rough round the edges while others can be over-complex. Nevertheless Pseudodictionary contains a huge variety of contemporary English and is well worth dipping into.

Score
current and archived content
up-to-dateness/topicality
graphic design and navigation
speed and technical performance
features and functionality
overall score	19 out of 25