Research and Course Guides: English: Dictionaries/handbooks

Handbooks

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature This link opens in a new window
continuously-updated scholarly resource for literary studies
Oxford Reference Online: Literature This link opens in a new window
Reference works on African-American, American, classical, English, and Irish literature, literary terms, Shakespeare, 20th century poetry in English, and writers

Oxford Bibliographies: Literary and Critical Theory
Cross between an annotated bibliography and high-level subject encyclopedia for literary and critical theory research

World Folklore and Folklife This link opens in a new window
folk traditions from around the world: celebrations & rituals, food & drink, holidays & festivals, music & dance, religion & beliefs, tales & myths, & traditional arts & crafts
Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
collection of resource tools, including encyclopedias, dictionaries, biographies, quotations, bilingual dictionaries, & more
Gale Virtual Reference Library (now Gale eBooks) This link opens in a new window
selected online reference books
Bloom's Literature This link opens in a new window
essays on well-known writers, works, & influential movements and events in world literature plus bios, character entries, and videos
Play Index This link opens in a new window
citations to approx. 34,000 plays by contemporary playwrights from 1949-present and 600+ monologues
Short Story Index This link opens in a new window
index of more than 145,000 stories with full text for approx. 5,000; 1984-present
Oxford African American Studies Center This link opens in a new window
biographies, topical entries, primary source documents with commentary, images, maps, charts, tables, and more

Oxford English Dictionary (OED) This link opens in a new window
definitions and historical usage of over 600,000 words

English Dictionaries & Thesauri
Oxford English-language dictionaries and thesauruses
English Language Reference Sources
Oxford dictionaries of abbreviations, grammar, eponyms, foreign terms, idioms, linguistics, proverbs, usage, & style
Bilingual Dictionaries
French, German, Irish, Italian, Latin, Spanish, & Welsh dictionaries (Oxford Univ. Press)
Quotations
Oxford dictionaries of quotations

American Sign Language Video Dictionary and Inflection Guide This link opens in a new window
over 2,700 examples of sign language presented via video segments; appropriate for everyone to learn or improve ASL vocabulary skills