I’d just like to take a moment to say I love you, Webster’s Dictionary. They’re not paying me to say this – they don’t know I exist – but I love them all the same.

I think there might be a stigma against looking words up. I’ve felt it, at least. I think especially with being a writer, it seems like most people just assume you know all of the words English has to offer, which is simply not possible.

But more than that, I think that declaring yourself to be a writer means you are also declaring some sort of mastery of whatever language you write in and are, therefore, showing some sign of weakness in admitting to anyone that there’s a word you don’t know the definition of, how to use, pronounce, use in a sentence, or all of the above.

I think that’s to the detriment of every writer everywhere, though. Especially because we’re writers, we should feel no shame in wanting to look a word up. Instead, I think a sense of curiosity and wonder is in order.

Perhaps what helped break me out of my own sense of shame I still sometimes feel in having to look up a word, are a few friends of mine who, I am assured beyond reasonable doubt, are complete geniuses. While they prove their intellect without fail, they also still harbor a natural sense of wonder about things they don’t know. I think it’s the mark of someone incredibly insecure to shame others for not knowing something, or to shame themselves, and the mark of someone who is truly wise to say (even if only to themselves), “Oh, I don’t know something. How fantastic to have another opportunity to learn.”

Webster’s Dictionary’s online site can help break writers out of their insecure shells. For even the simplest words, it not only offers definitions without any sense of judgement, it offers common spellings and uncommon ones (usually meaning it’s British), a guide to pronouncing the word, a thesaurus option so you can find synonyms and even words that simply have similar meanings, and a host of example sentences that include ones recently found in the news. There’s also sometimes a section at the bottom that can explain the history of the word.

I’ve also been following Webster’s on Instagram (being the word lover that I am), and they’ve started a trend lately of explaining how certain words got to be the way they are. I love learning the most random facts about words I think not many people stop to wonder about (or maybe they do and just never found a way to look it up).

If you want to add something that’s downright amusing and interesting to your Instagram feed, I higly recommend following them.

Otherwise, Webster’s Dictionary is your non-judgemental friend for learning even about words you thought you already knew.