The world of science is full of technical terminology and arcane jargon. Often times, understanding scientific jargon becomes in and of itself a learning curve hence the importance of scientific dictionaries.
There are many scientific dictionaries online but not all of them are as good as they claim to be. I did some digging of my own and compiled the initial list below. I hope you and your students will find it helpful. If you have other suggestions to add to this list, share with us on our social media profiles.
1- World of Science
World of Science provides students with a searchable database that contains a wide variety of scientific terms and definitions. Entries in World of Science are organized alphabetically. Students can use the search bar to search for specific science term, a physical quantity, or a unit. Or, they can click on an alphabetical letter from the chart to access a glossary of the scientific terms that start with that letter.
2- Enchanted Learning
This is definitely a great platform to keep handy. Enchanted Learning features a wide variety of illustrated scientific dictionaries including: astronomy dictionary, botany dictionary, paleontology dictionary, hurricane glossary, landforms glossary, shark dictionary, math dictionary, rainforest dictionary, rock and mineral dictionary, volcano dictionary and more. Students click on the dictionary they are interested in and they will be able to access a glossary of illustrated terms related to the topic of the dictionary.
3- The Science Dictionary
The Science Dictionary (TSD) prides itself on being like Google for Science. When you search for a scientific term, the Science Dictionary retrieves the best possible and most relevant search result for your query. For instance, when I searched for the term Tsunami, I got results from Wikipedia, National Geographic, NASA among others.
As per TSD's statement, the site "leverages Google's over one million servers and enormous web index of over 13 trillion web pages to perform its search queries. On top of Google's search index, The Science Dictionary has implemented a filtering system that determines which websites are trusted, science websites and which websites aren't."
4- Visionlearning Glossary
Visionlearning Glossary allows students to search for definitions of scientific terms and concepts. They search for words alphabetically or by discipline. For each of the terms featured in the Visionlearning glossary, a link to the module in which it appears is included. Students can click on the link to see the module. These are peer-reviewed modules that cover a wide variety of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics topics.
