Helpful Websites to Use While Editing

In editing, there’s a common saying that goes “If you don’t know, look it up.” Sometimes it ends there, and sometimes people will add “Even if you think you know, look it up anyway.” Basically, if there’s any room for doubt, editors—especially copyeditors and proofreaders—verify everything. That means we’re always turning to references to check spellings, definitions, names, random facts, locations, historical data, quote sources, song lyrics, how a company name is styled, and whether the sun set at 6:13 p.m. on March 8, 2004, in San Diego. (It set at 5:51 p.m. actually.)

Whether you’re an editor or a writer, I’m guessing you’re used to having an overwhelming number of tabs open on your web browser. That’s because there are so many websites we can turn to for the hundreds of things we check and research as we edit. Therefore, I thought it’d be useful to compile a list of sites that can be helpful to editors and writers alike. You can also access a free PDF version of this list by clicking on the graphic at the end of this post.

The list

Before I share the list, I want to say thank you to everyone who responded to my post on social media asking what sites you use while editing. I hadn’t been planning to write this blog post at the time—I’d only asked out of curiosity—but your responses inspired me. I’ve tried to give credit to those who recommended sites I was unfamiliar with. And to readers: I haven’t used all the sites listed here, so if you try one and find that it’s unreliable or has poor information, please let me know. Also, this is absolutely not an exhaustive list of all the helpful sites that exist.

Style manuals

Style manuals, sometimes referred to as style guides, provide recommendations on how to style text for consistency, such as when to use numbers versus text (spelling out numbers above 10 or 100), whether to use periods in acronyms (“U.S.A.” or “USA”), and how to format citations and references. Some style manuals are available online, as well as in hard copy.

• The Chicago Manual of Style (requires subscription): used in US trade publishing

• The Associated Press Stylebook (requires subscription): used in US journalism and short-form media

• The American Psychological Association style and grammar guidelines: used in social and behavioral sciences

• PurdueOWL: if you don’t have a subscription to some of the major style manuals, Purdue’s Online Writing Lab has overviews of citation formats for many of them

Dictionaries and thesauruses

• Dictionaries

  • Merriam-Webster: the dictionary most often referenced in US publishing; it also has separate medical, legal, and kid’s dictionaries

  • Oxford English Dictionary: the dictionary most often referenced for British English

  • Collins Dictionary

  • Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction: terms often found in sci-fi

  • Technopedia: tech terms

  • OneLook Dictionary Search (h/t Joan Slattery Wall): searches many dictionaries at once

• Thesauruses

  • WordHippo: The thesaurus lists words as well as phrases, and the website includes other word tools to help you find definitions, antonyms, translations, and more.

  • Panlexicon (h/t Joanie Eppinga): lists a cloud of related words that also lets you get more specific with your search

  • Historical Thesaurus of English: lists words from Old English to present-day English

• Slang and swears

  • Urban Dictionary: user-submitted definitions of slang

  • The Timelines of Slang: timelines that show what slang words evolved when

  • Kia Thomas’s Dictionary of Swears: This list, written by renowned sweary editor and writer Kia Thomas, helps you format swear words (though you might want to pick up Kia’s updated Very Sweary Dictionary in book form).

Additional language references

• Google Books Ngram Viewer: compares how common different usages are in printed books (“What’s the frequency of tree line, treeline, or tree-line in print?”)

• Google Translate: translate from various languages

• Online Etymology Dictionary: explanations of what English words used to mean

• The Canadian Press Caps & Spelling (h/t Berna Ozunal; requires subscription): lists commonly misspelled words and names

• Bishop Fox Cybersecurity Style Guide (h/t Kelly J. Cooper): style recommendations for writing about cybersecurity

• Forebears: dictionary of surnames

Grammar, usage, and style

• Quick and Dirty Tips (aka Grammar Girl’s website): articles on grammar and words, and includes the Grammar Girl Style Guide

• GrammarBook: guidance on grammar and punctuation (I frequently visit the “into” vs. “in to” and “onto” vs. “on to” blog posts, whose comment sections are rich with information.)

• Linguaholic blog (h/t Adina Edelman): articles on grammar

• Parts of speech tagger: identifies the parts of speech of each word in a sentence you submit

• RhymeZone (h/t Karen Loomis): finding words that rhyme

• Capitalize My Title: capitalizes a title based on the style manual you’re following (though it’s not perfect)

• Headline Analyzer (h/t Alyssa Rowley and Dawn Baird): analyzes headlines and helps you optimize them

Conscious language

Many guides exist to help you choose words with intention and assess whether writing might be biased, exclusive, or harmful. These are just a handful of the ones I use most.

• Conscious Style Guide (various topics, including race, disability, religion, plus a free monthly email newsletter)

• Ableist language list from Lydia X. Z. Brown (disability, illness, mental health, and neurodiversity)

• American Psychological Association bias-free language guide (various topics, including race and socioeconomic status)

• Diversity Style Guide (various topics, including age, race, and immigration)

• GLAAD Media Reference Guide (sexual and romantic orientation, gender identity)

• The Language Project by the Marshall Project (criminal justice and incarceration)

• National Center for Disability and Journalism style guide (disability, illness, mental health, and neurodiversity)

• Radical Copyeditor (various topics, including a Transgender Style Guide)

• Trans Journalists Association style guide (gender identity)

Fact-checking

• Wikipedia: general information (user-submitted and edited)

• Britannica: encyclopedia

• Google Maps: location and travel information

• Time and Date: calendars, sun and moon information

• WorldCat (h/t Angie McCauley and Secret Copyeditor): publishing details and other information from libraries

• Library of Congress (h/t Patty Boyd): publishing details (You can still use the search even though it says the site is retired.)

• Union List of Artist Names (h/t Leah, agirlandaboy): database of artists and architects

• LinkedIn: people’s names, pronouns, and job titles

• Quote Investigator and Wikiquote (h/t Karen Wise): looking up quotations and their sources

• Internet Archive (h/t Lori Paximadis): library of books, movies, music, and more

Internet searches beyond Google

• DuckDuckGo: private internet search

• Ecosia (h/t Joan Slattery Wall): plant trees with your internet searches

Final thoughts

There are so many details we need to check while editing, and we’re fortunate to live in a time when we can access tons of information easily and instantly. What sites that I haven’t listed here do you find helpful while you’re editing?

Click to access a free downloadable PDF version of this list

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