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Looking for a terrific dictionary?   You might not want to throw away your Larousse, but … well, check out the online dictionary on Tomisimo.org.

Have you ever thought that you knew the meaning of a word in Spanish, but then were just completely baffled by the way someone was using it?  You’re not alone.  And here’s where this dictionary SHINES.  It doesn’t just give you a quick, brief definition – it tells you tons of things about that word.

Just to give you an example:  Guardar.   A definition and 18 synonyms, 9 idioms, the reflexive verb, a reflexive idiom and words with guardar as the root word (guardarropa for example).  So when someone says to you, for instance,  “guardar las apariencias”, they’re saying “to save face”.  And if all Tomisimo provides isn’t enough, at the bottom of the page are 3 links to look up the word guardar in 3 other online dictionaries.

The entire Tomismo site is interesting.  Tomismo  means “enormous  tome”, and a tome of course is a large and scholarly book.  Tomismo is certainly that.  There is, first and foremost, the dictionary.  But wait… there’s more.  There are tabs for Forums, Idioms, Grammar,  a Blog, Tools and  Word of the Day.   Standard stuff, I know, but on Tomisimo it’s all so thorough.

Take Forums, for instance.  Under “what’s going on”, it tells you how many people are online (members and guests) at this very moment. AND you can look on a map to see from where they’re logging on.  As I write this, 88 people are online on Tomisimo from 15 different countries.  A toy, but a cool toy.

Under Idioms, Tomisimo has 20 categories of idioms (and there is an idiom forum). There’s even a tab there for untranslated idioms, so you can help out if you’re so inclined.

The Blog has really useful, well written articles.  It’s been going for several years now, so there are a long list of categories.

The Grammar section is both disappointing and interesting.  It’s disappointing because it’s still under construction.  It’s interesting because the construction is community based, much like Wikipedia.  For instance, if you go under “parts of speech”, “adjectives” and then “gender”, you’ll see that the entry is very short.  At the bottom it tells you that the entry is a “stub”, which is geek-speak for “help us write this entry”.  Although a finished entry would be nice, to be honest, you can find grammar stuff all over the place (Go to our own “Learn” tab above.  When you get to the “Learn” page, click on “The Grammar Page” and you’ll find all the grammar links your little heart could want.)

What else?  There’s a Pen Pals page.  There’s a calendar that has things listed like.. Costa Rica’s Independence Day.

But it’s the dictionary that shines.  When you go to their website, go to the dictionary and type in “guardar”.  Look at all those entrees.  And there’s a “conjugate” button beside each one.  Wow.  What an enormous amount of work went into creating this website.

To use some features, like the forums, you have to register, but that’s a common thing with forums.  It makes sure that people just don’t go onto a forum and get nasty.  Registration is free.

We hope you enjoy the site as much as we do.  Sherry went to just look up a  word there yesterday and logged off an hour later.  Here’s the address:    www.tomisimo.org/dictionary/

Tags:   Dictionary · Learn Spanish · Learning Spanish · Online Dictionary · speak Spanish · TomisimoNo Comments