Help: Homepage

TheFreeDictionary homepage contains two major components: a multi-dictionary/encyclopedia search box and a portal with customizable content. The homepage is optimized for all modern browsers; full functionality in older browsers is not guaranteed.

Customizable Content

The portion of the homepage that features a light gray, striped background contains customizable content. You can create your own personal homepage by adding and removing, dragging and dropping, and "using or losing" existing content windows. In addition, you can add your own bookmarks, weather, and RSS feeds from anywhere on the web. Below, you will find descriptions of our titles and learn how to operate the boxes that contain our features.

Customize Your Homepage

You can eliminate this box as soon as you learn how to customize your page.

Daily Infotainment

Our unique content is completely free of charge and is updated daily.

Read it regulary and improve your knowledge base. Learn how to log in to keep track of your progress and earn points and badges.

Word of the Day

Each day, we feature a new word that will help expand your vocabulary. Each word is accompanied by its pronunciation, synonyms, and an example of how it is used in a sentence. Clicking on the icon will play a sound bite of the word being pronounced in American English. Clicking on the word will take you to its complete definition in our main dictionary.

You may also discuss the Word of the Day on our forum.

Article of the Day

A brief introduction to an article of interest, updated daily, with a link to the full encyclopedia text.

You may also discuss the Article of the Day on our forum.

Quotation of the Day

A quote from a famous person, updated daily. The link will direct you to an encyclopedia article about the author of the quote.

You may also discuss the Quotation of the Day on our forum.

Today's Birthday

 A famous (or infamous) figure whose birthday falls out on today’s date. The link will direct you to an encyclopedia article about the person.

You may also discuss Today's Birthday on our forum.

This Day in History

An event of interest or historical significance that occurred on today’s date, with a link to a full encyclopedia article on the subject.

You may also discuss This Day in History on our forum.

Today's Holiday

A description of a holiday, festival, or celebration that occurs on this date, with a link to an encyclopedia article on the subject. The links in the description will direct you to other encyclopedia articles related to the holiday.

You may also discuss Today's Holiday on our forum.

Daily Grammar Lesson

A short excerpt from The Farlex Grammar Book, with a link to the full article on the subject.

You may also discuss the Daily Grammar Lesson on our forum.

Learning games

Play our games and expand your vocabulary. Learn how to login to keep track of your progress and earn points and badges.

Hangman

Our own version of the classic hangman game. Your goal is to save the hangman from the gallows by identifying the hidden word before you run out of guesses.

  1. In the box marked “your guess,” type letters that you believe the hidden word contains.
  2. If you choose a letter that is part of the hidden word, the computer fills in the blank(s), showing you where your letter appears in the word.
  3. If you choose a letter that is not part of the hidden word, it appears in the “garbage bin,” and a line is added to the hangman’s gallows.
  4. Guess correct letters and spell the hidden word before the hangman’s gallows are completed, and you win the game!
  5. After you finish the game, see if your friends can solve it. Just click on to share the game and your result on Facebook, Google Plus, or Twitter. Friends will play the same word and will be able to compare results.

Spelling bee

Put your spelling skills to the test! (Please note that Spelling Bee only accepts American English spellings at this time.)

  1. Choose a difficulty level: easy, hard, or expert.
  2. Read the definition of the word, and click the speaker icon to hear its pronunciation.
  3. When you think you know what the mystery word is, type it into the “Spell the word” box and see if you’re right!
  4. After you finish the game, see if your friends can solve it. Just click on to share the game and your result on Facebook, Google Plus, or Twitter. Friends will play the same word and will be able to compare results.

Match Up

A puzzle to test your knowledge of words and their synonyms. Your goal is to match the words in the left column with their respective synonyms in the right column. See how many pairs you can identify! The match up puzzle updates once in a day.

  1. Click the word in the left-hand column that you would like to match.
  2. Click the synonym in the right-hand column that you believe corresponds to your word; your matched pairs will be highlighted in the same color.
  3. To change an answer, simply click on a different word choice; to start over, press the “Clear” button.
  4. When you’ve finished matching pairs, click the “Answer” button to see your score and compare your choices with the correct answers.
  5. After you finish the game, see if your friends can beat you. Just click on to share the game and your result on Facebook, Google Plus or Twitter. Friends will play the same word and will be able to compare results.

Grammar Quiz

A random quiz question from The Farlex Grammar Book.

Choose your answer and then click "Submit." Click "Learn this topic" to read more about the subject.

WordHub

Use the letters in the wheel to create as many words as you can before time runs out!

New words must contain at least 3 letters and cannot be proper nouns or abbreviations.

Play with mouse: Click letters to add or erase them. Click the red circle to delete all.

Play with keyboard: Type to add and Backspace to erase. Press Escape to delete all.

Challenge your friends in multiplayer mode at WordHub.com!

Old version (Words Within Words)

Use the letters in the given word to create as many other words as you can. New words must contain at least 3 letters and cannot be proper nouns or abbreviations.

Log in into TheFreeDictionary to save your game, so that you can resume it later. If you find all the answers, you'll earn the Words Within Words 100% Club badge.

My Bookmarks

The "My Bookmarks" feature allows registered users to create a word list and track recent search terms. In order to begin tracking terms with this feature, simply log in to the site and then search for a word or term. On the right side of the searched page, there is a box titled "My Bookmarks" and below that the option: "Add current page to bookmarks." Click on the "Add current page" button. The searched term will then appear within the bookmarks box. A gray "x" next to each entry allows users to selectively remove unwanted words/entries, while clicking the word itself loads the webpage for the saved search term. Users may also export this list at any time by clicking the Excel icon in the upper right corner of the box.

When using our free, highly rated iPhone app just log in to your account to access the bookmarks you saved while using our desktop site. Now you can access your favorite words at home or on the go!

Flashcards

With the Flashcards feature, you can create a flashcard by choosing any word for the front of the card, and then choosing its definition, translation, synonym, or antonym for the back of the card.

You must be logged in to use flashcards.

To create flashcards:
  1. To get started, go to any definition page and find the Flashcards box on the right side of the page.
  2. Click to select which type of flashcard you want to create.
  3. Scroll through the options to select the content that will appear the back side of the card, or type your own.
  4. To finish and save the card, click "Create." If you want to save the flashcard to a set, choose that set from the dropdown menu above. Flashcard sets can be created on the homepage with the following instructions.
To create a flashcard set:
  1. Go to the homepage.
  2. In the flashcards box, click the "new set" icon to create a set in which flashcards can be kept. A set can be created before or after you've created flashcards.
  3. To move flashcards into that set after they've been created, select each flashcard you want to move into that set by clicking on the box on the bottom right corner of the card. Next, click the "edit” button, select "Move to…," and then choose which set you want the flashcard to appear in.

Weather

Get up-to-date weather reports for any area you choose.
  1. Click "Edit" and enter your desired location.
  2. Click the "Save" button to apply changes and exit the editing area.
  3. Scroll down to enjoy your 6-day forecast.
The "more details" link at the bottom will take you to qwikcast.com for additional weather information for your area.

Dictionary-related

Contains information relating to TheFreeDictionary’s functionality.

What's inside

A list of all our dictionaries and encyclopedias that correspond to the tabs on search result pages. This is useful when you want to search in or read about a specific dictionary or encyclopedia.

For Surfers

See Free Tools for Surfers help

For Webmasters

See Free Tools for Webmasters help.

Recent Searches

Lists all your past searches. This information is stored in a cookie, which also contains your homepage customization information.

A-Z

An alphabetized guide of all the entries and articles contained in TheFreeDictionary. This is a good way to begin your exploration of our website if you do not have a specific search term in mind.

Add/Restore Content

This option is your control panel for customizing content.

Customization Used

This bar indicates the extent to which you have customized your content (i.e. how much you have strayed from the default settings).

Pre-selected content

"TheFreeDictionary" contains our proprietary features and "Syndicated News" contains external news feeds.
  • Grayed-out items are items currently featured on your homepage.
  • Underlined items are available for addition to your homepage.

Custom RSS Feeds

To add a custom feed, use the "URL of the RSS/Atom feed" form field at the bottom of the “Add/Restore content” box.
  1. Copy an RSS/XML/Atom/Podcast feed link from the originating website.
  2. Paste the link in the form field.
  3. Click "Add" to make it appear in a box on your homepage.

Custom feeds do not get listed in the "Add/Restore Content" control panel.

Once added, a custom feed can be removed by deleting its respective box.

To restore a deleted custom feed, you need to add it again at the bottom of the "Add/Restore Content" control panel.

Restoring content

Restore pre-selected (default) content boxes:
  1. Open the "Add/Restore Content" control panel and find the item you wish to restore. It should appear underlined.
  2. Click on the underlined title to make it re-appear in the content area.
  3. Close the control panel.
To restore a custom feed, you’ll have to add it again from scratch. Follow the steps in Custom RSS Feeds.

Saving Customization

When you are not logged in, the customized page is saved via a cookie in your computer. If you clear browser cookies on your computer, open TheFreeDictionary in another browser, or reinstall browser software, you may lose all the customization you previously made. If you wish to save your customization or use your customized page on another computer, please log in into TheFreeDictionary. Your cookies will be save in your profile and will be avaliable on any computer or mobile device once you are logged in.

View Archive

Allows you to access an archive of the daily infotainment content for the previous four months.