A major dictionary publisher is making its content available free online on a dedicated website for the first time.

Visitors to www.collinsdictionary.com will be able to check spellings and definitions from today by accessing 120,000 dictionary entries, which will rise to 220,000 by March.

The site, developed in Scotland, also offers 350,000 translations of the most frequently used English words in 35 languages.

For those unsure how to pronounce words there are a million audio pronunciations with British and American differences offered where necessary, as well as translations of English words in every major global language.

Images from photo website Flickr will appear alongside words to help people grasp their meaning.

Alex Brown, head of digital at HarperCollins, said: “We are extremely proud of this new online tool for lovers and users of the English language everywhere.

“This is part of an ongoing strategy to make Collins’ content available to as wide an audience as possible through new digital media.

“It’s been a privilege to bring together the world’s best language specialists and lexicographers with a leading digital agency to create www.collinsdictionary.com.”

He added: “We’ve brought together the web designers’ creativity with our own experience of language and how it’s used to create a really nice, user friendly but sharply designed website.”

Visitors to the site can also check synonyms on the fully integrated thesaurus, while a predictive search function, available in all languages, will help users locate “near misses”.

Each definition is accompanied by a word frequency graph which demonstrates the historical and contemporary popularity of the word over the last 500 years.

There are also two million full-sentence usage examples covering words and phrases in English, French, German and Spanish to put the words in context.

The new dictionary site has been developed over 18 months by the editorial team in Collins’ headquarters in Glasgow, where Collins English Dictionary print editions, and other reference titles, will continue to be produced. The Collins Language team will make regular blog postings to document, explore and debate the changing use of English.

The website was designed by UK-based digital agency the Other Media, whose previous projects include creating sites for Paul Smith and the Natural History Museum.

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