Lately, a website I’ve been visiting a lot is the online Cambridge Dictionary. I first knew it back when I was in grad school.?I vaguely remember its name coming up in a conversation with friends about proofreading.

?

But I never got around to actually using it until recently when I got back to?English learning again. And?it turned out my friend?was right: the dictionary really comes in?handy?for English learners or anyone who writes in English.

?

On the homepage, there are several links to a variety of dictionaries. What I find most practical?are the bilingual dictionary, learner’s dictionary and?thesaurus.

?

With the bilingual dictionary, I’m able to look up?both English and Mandarin Chinese definitions?of a word in one entry, thus gaining a deeper understanding (in both languages). When I want to know the idiomatic use of some basic to intermediate words, I’d definitely turn to?the learner’s dictionary. And then there’s the thesaurus. It allows me to distinguish between?synonyms?when the difference?in meaning is really subtle.

?

Aside from those, the website also contains a wide array of great features?that I as an English learner find incredibly useful. There are?abundant?examples from?reliable sources and corpora, which give me a general idea of how to use a word in contexts. On top of that, the site also provides authentic?pronunciation in audio, both in American and British English.

?

The only slight inconvenience?that irks me is the site maintenance?which comes up way too often, but other than that I think?it’s an overall great place to?look up unfamiliar words. At the click of a mouse, you can search out everything you need to know from collocations to idioms?in a split second.