WordWeb: Free Dictionary and Thesaurus Software for Your Computer

You're busy writing a letter, article or story when, suddenly, you can't think of the right word for what you want to say. You know what you mean to say, but the right word is on the tip of your brain and, no matter how you try, you just can't think of it.

Or maybe you've typed a word that you think fits, but you'd like to check the meaning to make sure.

You could always stop writing long enough to pull out your thesaurus or dictionary to look a word up. But that could interrupt your writing flow. And, once the flow is interrupted, it's hard to get back.

Times like these are when WordWeb comes to the rescue.

What is WordWeb?

WordWeb is an English thesaurus and dictionary for Windows. And you can use it to look up words from inside most Windows programs.

Using WordWeb to Find Definitions

Say you are righting something in Notepad and aren't sure one word you've written means what you're trying to say.

Well, all you have to do is highlight the word (by double clicking on it). Then, on your keyboard, press the Ctrl+Alt+W shortcut. In an instant, WordWeb will open up, and give you the definition of the highlighted word.

Using WordWeb to Find Synonyms

Say you are writing a short story in Microsoft Word, and you want a word that means "beautiful." Well, all you have to do is type the word, highlight it, and hit Ctrl+Alt+W. Again, WordWeb will open up, and give you a list of words that mean "beautiful."

After looking over the words, choose the synonym that fits what you're trying to say, hit the Replace button, and the word "beautiful" will be replaced by the new word you've chosen in your document.

There is a paid version of WordWeb, called WordWeb Pro that offers a few more features. For example, there are more words and definitions in the database of the paid version. You can customize the database, adding new words and definitions. You can even use WordWeb Pro to find all the different anagrams (words or phrases that can be formed by rearranging the letters of a word) of a word.

However, while the paid version has a lot of cool features, I find the free version, which is fully functional, to be very useful. In fact, WordWeb is one of my favorite freeware programs. I use it at least once a day, usually more.

Whether you're writing articles, short stories, a school reports, WordWeb is a must-have tool.