If you have a visual way of thinking, you might enjoy a new online tool called Visuwords™ which uses Princeton University’s WordNet, an open-source database built by students and language researchers.

It calls itself a “visual dictionary, visual thesaurus and interactive lexicon”.

To use the tool, you type a word into the search query box “Visualize a Word” at the top of the page and press ‘Enter’. A network of nodes or ‘synsets’ will spring out from the word that you entered.

Colours denote part of speech and type of association, and the colour key is on screen at all times.

Hovering over nodes will reveal definitions. Some will also show a few examples of usage.

More details about the interface and how it works can be found by clicking on the menu (top left) and “More Info”. Clicking on “Explore” will bring up random word networks as examples.

Visuwords™ is a free resource, and no registration is required. Try it out here.

Do let me know what you think!

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Hat tip to George P. for bringing this to my attention!