Imagine this scenario: You are surfing the web at home and you read some interesting article. Feeling grateful for that article, you feel you should comment on his blog’s post to tell him that you appreciated the hard work he put in.

You begin to type your comment. Suddenly, you came to a word that you cannot seem to remember how to spell. ‘Psychology’ or ‘Phsycology’. What do you do then?

• Grab a dictionary and check out the spelling?
• Fire up Microsoft Word and use its spell checker? (I used to use this method a lot)

None of the above, of course. Here are 2 great ways instead.

Way 1. If you are using Firefox browser, any misspelled word will be highlighted similar to Microsoft Word. All you need to do is to right click it and see what Firefox thinks you are trying to spell, choose it and you are done.

While Way 1 is the easiest, it is does not actually solves all problems. If you are typing in a single line textboxes, it will not function. If you want to know exactly what the word means before you select it as the correct spelling, it will not help you too. This brings us to the Way 2.

Way 2. Use Google.com. No, not type the wrongly spelt word into the search textbox and wait for: Did you mean: psychology. This helps only at certain times and not reliable. The best way is to type this instead ‘define: phychology’. Add ‘define:’ before your wrongly spelt word. Google will now show you:

Excellent. Now you know you got the spelling wrong. This is only when you should click on: Did you mean: define: psychology. Once you do, you’ll now see the entire list of all definitions for the word psychology.

Why we recommend this method?

Because it is fast and easy to use. Not only you’ll find the correct spelling, you’ll also be able to learn up the word from the content of that page. Since you misspelled the word, it is highly possible that you do not understand the word very well.

Personally, I prefer this method because it works for me. Many of the new words I learn recently are from here.

It is more than just a dictionary

Hey, why stop there. Check out spellings for things like a state’s name or even a brand’s name. Take a look at the screen shots below.

 
Now try searching for Optimus Prime on your favourite dictionary!

Do you have any other favourite method to check and learn up a new word? Do let us know at the comments below. Here is to better and better command of English for all of us!

(credit: photo by Southernpixel)