Now that we’ve released the Elementary Children’s Dictionary, the primary level of our Children’s Dictionary Suite, we’d like to offer you, both individual users and educators, some tips that can help you make the best use of our dictionaries and vocabulary tools.
Dictionary settings
As a registered user, you can use the dictionary settings to design your dictionary entry so that it best serves your learning or teaching goals.
For elementary school students, set the default level at “Elementary.” Definitions at the Elementary level are written in a full-sentence, explanatory style with carefully controlled vocabulary. If a student looks up a word that is beyond the Elementary level, they will see the entry in the Intermediate level. Words not included in the Children’s Dictionary Suite at either level will be available from the Advanced Dictionary (with the Parental Filter controlling for appropriateness). For middle school students, set the default level at “Intermediate.” Once inside an entry page of the Intermediate Dictionary, students have the option at any time to see the entry in the lower level dictionary if a simpler explanation is desired (and provided the word is included at that level).
For educators with an Educational Group Subscription, don’t forget you can control the dictionary settings for all your students.
Wordlist maker settings
All Wordsmyth dictionaries are available for use in wordlists. You can choose whichever dictionary is best suited to your needs.
To learn more about the wordlist maker, please refer to the Wordlist Maker User Guide.
Word Exploration: different ways to search and make use of the dictionary
- Word Explorer: Word Explorer is a word-finding and knowledge-exploration feature. It is an index of related words that allows a child to find words connected with multiple topics and to explore whole networks of words and their meanings. The dictionary entries also contain an integrated thesaurus of synonyms and antonyms. The addition of our Word Explorer creates a fun and uniquely valuable educational resource.
- A-Z Word Parts: This is an alphabetic database of roots, prefixes, and suffixes, which also includes numerous example words for each. (Words parts information is also included in applicable entries throughout the dictionaries.)
- Search filters: Dictionary search filters allow you to narrow and focus your search of the dictionary by filtering out all the entries except the kind you want to find. If you’ve ever shopped at an online store and narrowed your search by size, price range, or brand, then you’ve used “search filters.”
- Browse search: This gives you a print dictionary experience, allowing you to browse all entries from the Children’s Suite in alphabetical order and flip through the dictionary pages as you would in a book.