We help people communicate better

There’s no avoiding the fact that English is complex and illogical in many ways. At Merriam-Webster, we consider it our mission both to propagate our irrational love of the English language and to help people better understand and use language, so they can better understand and communicate with the world around them.

To that end, we develop products that clarify meaning and usage, and help users communicate more clearly and powerfully.

In fact, we’ve been America’s leading and most-trusted provider of language information for nearly 200 years. And all Merriam-Webster products and services are backed by the largest team of professional dictionary editors and writers in America, and one of the largest in the world.

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Language features for everyone from casual readers to word nerds

Language Blog:
Words at Play

Entertaining and educational content on obscure, fascinating, or commonly searched language questions. All delivered in our signature voice: authoritative yet a little sassy.
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Time Traveler

Explore the words first used in print in a given year. Find out what words came from your birth year, or alongside a historic event. No one can look just once!
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Trend Watch

When a public statement or event raises the question of meaning, people turn to Merriam-Webster — and in turn, we connect to public events through that lookup data.
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Word Games

Whether passing the time or competing to get on our leaderboards, our word games and Weekly Challenge Quiz are addictive. Plus, access to exclusive web games from some of the top game developers.
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Word of the Day

Learn something new every day! We share the meaning, history, and other fun facts about our editorially curated selection. Also available as a daily podcast.
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User friendly, search friendly. The best definition pages available

Clean, easy-to-read design meets users’ needs with a near-perfect UX score and high search ranking. Plus, we go beyond definitions to meet a wide variety of use cases:

  • Embedded thesaurus features
  • Helpful usage notes answer common questions
  • Example sentences provide context
  • Audio pronunciations recorded by real, live English speakers
  • Additional information, from Time Traveler links to Nearby Entries, lookup stats and related blog content

Robust Print Sales

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate® Dictionary is an American publishing institution, selling more than 60 million copies since its initial publication in 1898. Other best-selling titles include age-appropriate references for students of all ages, thesauruses, bilingual references, and dictionaries for English-language learners. 

 

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