| Links to these on line dictionaries | |
| Wordsmyth Dictionary | Collins Cobuild Dictionary |
| Student's evaluation | General evalution |
| Student's evaluation | |
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The students found that Wordsmyth gives more information, that
is to say that it gives better explanations and contains more words. In
their opinion this feature makes Wordsmyth a more scientific dictionary than
Cobuild. They also found that Wordsmyth has a better lay out and that this
makes it easier to find things. For example, there were students who
couldn't find the phonetic transcript in Cobuild.
The possibility to hear the pronunciation of the searched words was considered one of the major advantages of Cobuild. There was also a minority of students who found the explanations in Cobuild easier to work with because they are simplified. Some found it also helpful the words are explained in sentence. |
| General evaluation
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| Here we'll give a schematic comparison of Wordsmyth and Cobuild. We
think this is the best way to point out the differences and compare their
qualities. Afterwards we'll draw a general conclusion
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Wordsmyth |
Cobuild |
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1. has
different possibilities for searching:
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1. no different possibilities for searching. | ||||||||
2. there are 10 possible categories:
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2.
seven possible categories:
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| 3. many definitions given per word. |
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3. less definitions given, moreover Cobuild tries to explain a word in one sentence, what makes the definitions more clear but less complete. | ||||||||
| 4. if they are mentioned, many synonyms and similar words are given. |
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4. cfr. 2. | ||||||||
| 5. possible to browse the region (number) entries around the word. |
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5. no possibility to browse | ||||||||
| 6. when an exact search is performed, Wordsmyth advises a specific broad search. |
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6. no advised broad search (cfr. 1.) | ||||||||
| 7. a more thorough search can be made by clicking on the hyperlinks |
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7. only a hyperlink for "grammar explanation". | ||||||||
| 8. presented in a clear way (by the use of colours, italics, structured by "part of speech"). |
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8. less well-organised | ||||||||
| 9. gives possible corrections when you mistype a word. |
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10. gives possible corrections when you mistype a word. | ||||||||
| 10. it is a general dictionary, so it isn't able to provide explanations for technical terms... |
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11. it is a general dictionary, so it isn't able to provide explanations for technical terms. | ||||||||
| 11. ...but it sometimes leads you to other dictionaries. |
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12. it doesn't lead you to other dictionaries. | ||||||||
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! |
Important remark There are words that Cobuild doesn't provide, whereas Wordsmyth does. |
| General
conclusion
We can conclude that Wordsmyth is currently a better on line dictionary than Cobuild. In the eleven categories mentioned, Wordsmyth nearly almost scored better. |
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