Dictionary.com was founded by Brian Kariger and Daniel Fierro as part of Lexico Publishing, which also started Thesaurus.com and Reference.com.[6] At the time of its launch, it was one of the web's first in-depth reference sites.[7] In July 2008, Lexico Publishing Group, LLC, was acquired by Ask.com, an IAC company,[8][9] and renamed Dictionary.com, LLC.[10] In 2018, IAC sold Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com to Rock Holdings.[11] At the time of the sale, Dictionary.com was the 447th most trafficked website in the United States, according to the website tracking service SimilarWeb.[11] In 2015, they estimated that there are 5.5 billion word searches a year on its site.[12] In 2024, Rock Holdings sold Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com to IXL Learning.[5]
Features
Among its features, Dictionary.com offers a Word of the Day,[13] a crossword solver,[14] and a pop culture dictionary[15] that includes emoji and slang sections.
In 2010, Dictionary.com began a Word of the Year feature with the word change.[16] The selection is based on search trends on the site throughout the year and the news events that drive them.[17]Dictionary.com's words of the year have been:[16]
In April 2009, they launched an app on the Apple App Store allowing users to find definitions and synonyms. It also included audio pronunciations, alphabetical indexing, and synonym example sentences.[20] Since then, Dictionary.com released a standalone thesaurus app called Thesaurus Rex along with education apps, Dictionary.com Flashcards, Word Dynamo, and Learning to Read with Zoo Animals.
In early 2020, in response to COVID-19 quarantine home-schooling needs, Dictionary.com launched an interactive platform for learning at home, and an online tutoring service.[21] Later that year Dictionary.com's sister site, Thesaurus.com, launched a writing assistant and grammar checker called Grammar Coach.[22] The coronavirus outbreak led to the addition of novel words to the main dictionary (e.g., fomite) and the slang dictionary (e.g., rona).[23]
