Dictionary.com

On May 14, 1995, a domain called dictionary.com was registered. Three decades later it is still one of the oldest reference sites on the web, and it has outlasted most of its early contemporaries. The site's core product is a proprietary English dictionary built on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary. A team of in-house lexicographers writes and revises entries as usage shifts, which gives Dictionary.com an editorial layer that pure aggregators lack. Licensed content from Collins English Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, and other sources broadens coverage beyond a single lexicon.

Beyond definitions, the site bundles a thesaurus, example sentences, word-origin notes, word games, crossword puzzles, and a daily Word of the Day. A mobile app extends the experience to phones. The company calls itself "the world's leading online dictionary" and "a trusted authority for 25+ years." Access is free and ad-supported, with no subscription tier. IXL Learning acquired Dictionary.com in 2024, folding it into a portfolio that includes IXL and Rosetta Stone.

Each year the editors pick a Word of the Year, a tradition that has produced picks like "maxxing" and, in earlier cycles, "67." The site marked its 30th birthday on May 14, 2025, celebrating the anniversary of that 1995 registration. Traffic remains strong, with millions of monthly visitors looking up definitions, checking spelling, or settling arguments. Search engines and AI tools now surface definitions directly, but Dictionary.com has kept a loyal audience of students, writers, word nerds, and crossword players. [edit]