DATABASES & RESEARCH REFERENCE SITES

al·​ma·​nac (noun):  a usually annual publication containing statistical, tabular, and general information

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CIA World Factbook – provides detailed country information

Farmer’s Almanac – Since 1818 – includes weather forecasts & history, calendars, gardening, fishing, home & living, astronomy, holidays & events, and folklore

InfoPlease.com – find answers to your questions in this wide ranging reference work, which includes an almanac, encyclopedia, and dictionary, atlas, and more!

U.S. Census Bureau – provides business, people, and geography information about the U.S.

bi·​og·​ra·​phy (noun): a history or narrative account of a person's life

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Conversations With History - distinguished men and women from all over the world talk about their lives and their work

Academy of Achievement - profiles of extraordinary individuals 

Biography.com - over 25,000 biographies 

Inventor Hall of Fame - can search by inventor or invention

Public Figure - learn about people in the news

Acronym Dictionary - look up the meanings of acronyms (words formed from the initial letters of a phrase – examples: ASAP or YOLO) 

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language – comprehensive definitions, history, and offers word roots

Cambridge Dictionary - in addition to grammar rules and a thesaurus, four different Cambridge dictionaries may be searched from this site: English, the Learner's Dictionary, Essential British English, and Essential American English

Google Translate -  translates boxes of text or full web pages

Homophone Dictionary - find words that are phonetically identical (sound the same) but which have different meanings

Law Dictionary - defines legal terms

List of online dictionaries - scroll down the page to access the many links

Medical Dictionaries:

• The Free Dictionary Medical
• Harvard Health Publishing - Medical Dictionary of Health Terms
• Merriam-Webster Medical

Merriam-Webster - an excellent hypertext, online dictionary, and thesaurus offered by the Merriam-Webster Company, a well known and trusted publisher of reference books

Phrase Finder - find phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions related to a word

Rhyme Zone – find rhymes, synonyms, adjectives, and more!

Synonym Finder - free online thesaurus

Visual Dictionary Online - an interactive picture dictionary that you search by word or theme / subject

Webopedia - defines computer and Internet terms - “the online tech dictionary for students, educators and IT professionals”

YourDictionary.com - offers content from more than 1800 dictionaries in more than 250 languages, and can search within the dropdown menu: dictionary, thesaurus, examples, sentences, quotes, reference, and word finder

en·​cy·​clo·​pe·​dia (noun): a work that contains information on all branches of knowledge or treats comprehensively a particular branch of knowledge usually in articles arranged alphabetically often by subject

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Britannica – a highly trusted world standard in knowledge since 1768

Encyclopedia.com - search over 200 individual encyclopedias and reference books from the worlds most trusted publishers

Encyclopedia Mythica - an internet encyclopedia on mythology, folklore, legends, and religion

Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - philosophical peer-reviewed academic resource

Medline Plus - medical encyclopedia

Wikipedia - the biggest free-content encyclopedia on the Internet. Can be edited by users. Over six million articles in English.

map  (noun): a diagram or other visual representation that shows the relative position of the parts of something

at·​las  (noun): a bound collection of maps often including illustrations, informative tables, or textual matter

ga·​zette  (noun): a newspaper or other official journal

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All the World's Maps - index to maps for any country

Altapedia Online - "contains full color physical and political maps as well as key facts and statistics on countries of the world"

Geographic Names Information System - from the U.S. Geological Survey, this database enables you to query a database containing nearly 2 million physical and cultural geographic features within the United States

Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names (Research at the Getty)

Interactive Map Atlas - a collection of maps of the world's countries. Also includes a geography glossary, time zones, travel statistics, and other such data.

Library of Congress Gallery of Historical Maps

Map Collection at Perry-Castaneda - online map collection organized by continent, and then by country. This Perry-Castañeda Library (PCL) Map Collection website is archived as of 2021. World maps are also available through this website

Mapquest - find driving directions 

The National Atlas of the United States of America - view the full book, which provides a comprehensive, map-like view into the enormous wealth of data collected by the Federal Government

National Geographic Maps - an amazing visual collection of all sorts of maps!

Places in the News - maps of areas in the news today

TopoZone - detailed, zoom-able, topographical maps of the entire United States 

U.S. Gazetteer - find geographic facts about places in the U.S. 

U.S. Geological Survey - geographical information for the United States is offered here. See and browse their new section: USGS Information by State for information on Earthquakes, Floods, Maps, Public Health, Volcanoes and other similar/related topics.

United Nations Maps of the World - a rich archive of maps of countries, regions, and themes 

Weather Maps - current forecasts and maps from The Weather Channel 

World Atlas