We celebrate 28 years in 2024! Founded April, 1996

About OneLook
  • Overview
  • Frequently asked questions
  • Acknowledgments
  • Awards and accolades
  •   Special features
  • Reverse Dictionary
  • Spruce quotations search
  • Access from any site
  • Developer API
  •   Miscellaneous
  • Contact us
  • Customize the site
  • Link to OneLook.com
  • Privacy policy


  • (Click here to return to OneLook)


    Welcome to OneLook® Dictionary Search

    Think of this web site as a search engine for English words and phrases: If you have a word for which you'd like a definition, we'll shuttle you to the web-based dictionaries that define that word. If you don't know the right word to use, we'll help you find it. No word is too obscure: More than 19 million words in more than 1000 online dictionaries are indexed by the OneLook® search engine.

    What can you do at OneLook.com?
    • Define words: Type a word into the search box on the front page to retrieve a list of dictionary web sites that define that word. Be sure "Find definitions" is selected.
    • Find words: Type a pattern consisting of letters and the wildcards * and ? to retrieve a list of words matching your pattern. The asterisk (*) matches any number of letters or symbols. The question mark (?) matches exactly one letter or symbol. (More info on patterns and the Reverse Dictionary.)
    Please read our FAQ or send us feedback if you have any questions. When you're ready to try it out, simply return to the front page.


    Access OneLook® Dictionary Search from any site!

    Take OneLook with you everywhere you go on the Web! Here's how:



    Problematic word associations

    Some of the features on OneLook, such as the OneLook Thesaurus and reverse dictionary, are enabled by a statistical analysis of the words in a large collection of books written in the past century. A handful of times we've found that this analysis can lead the system to suggest word associations that reflect racist or harmful stereotypes present in the source material, and we remove them. If you see one of these, please know that we do not endorse the association itself, and we'll seek to remove it from the site if you report it to us via the feedback box below.


    Privacy policy

    No personally identifying information is ever collected on this site or by any add-ons or apps associated with any Datamuse-owned website. In some cases, you may voluntarily provide personal information in response to a specific query or by filling out a form such as the feedback form below. This information is not passed on to advertisers or used for any purpose other than what is stated.

    OneLook uses cookies only to store the customization information that you can set via the "Customize" link at the top of this page. If you wish to disable cookies in your browser, follow the steps outlined on this page.

    OneLook uses third-party advertising companies to serve ads. These companies might separately place or recognize a cookie file on your browser in the course of delivering advertisements to this site. These companies might use information (not including your name, address email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. On OneLook You can disable banner advertisements on this site on the Customize page.

    The Google Docs add-on for OneLook, the Spruce search engine, and CivicSearch, all send search terms securely to an API server maintained by Datamuse, the owner of these sites. The server keeps a log of the queries made to the service in the last 24 hours, but not beyond that, and never shares this data with any third party. Datamuse saves no long-term usage data other than a count of the number of requests.


    Got a suggestion, question, or bug report? Send a message to the developers below!

    My message is a:  



    Email address:

    We'll only ever use your email address to send you a reply.
    Please include an email address if your message is about something not working, so that we can follow-up if we have questions. Thanks!




    You can also follow the Datamuse blog for (very) occasional updates.