When you search for the definition of a word in Wordnik, a vast online dictionary, it shows the information it has found on the Internet, with no editorial tinkering.

When readers ask about a word, Wordnik provides definitions on the left-hand side of the screen, callling on the more than six million words it has found so far. Example sentences on the right-hand side provide further understanding of a new term.

Another innovative database is the Corpus of Contemporary American English, 1990-2011, containing 425 million words of text from articles, transcripts of conversations, and other sources. It shows how often a word is used, and the types of discourse in which it is found, be it conversational speech or academic prose. The collection also lets users see words found near a new word.