Word Meanings / Google For Dummies

Word Meanings

Chapters 1 and 2 discuss Google's built-in dictionary. The dictionary contributes to search results when prompted by a misspelling - or what it perceives as a misspelling according to the aggregated knowledge of the Google index. Furthermore, Google shunts you over to Dictionary.com when you click one of your keywords in the blue search summary bar on the results page. (Chapter 2 covers these topics in depth.)

Tip

Google is superlative at defining words I know how to spell but whose meaning eludes me. By simply pairing the glossary or definition keyword with the word I want defined, I can often get the gist of the word's meaning - without clicking through the search results page. Even if that happy consolidation of information doesn't happen, the results certainly link me to several solid definitions.

Figure 16-6 shows how much information you can glean from a search results page for the keyword string glossary peer-to-peer. Having Google by your side is helpful when reading a technical manual.

Figure 16-6: When searching for word definitions, you might not need to click search results.

Remember

You can modify Google's use of your keywords when searching for glossary information just as with any other search. Using the site operator (see Chapter 2) might prove useful to narrow glossary hits of medical terms to educational domains, for example. Try this keyword string to see what I mean:

encephalitis definition site:.edu

But then, I also find that consumer-level information is generally easier to understand - and no less informative - than information from professional sources.