The Acronym Finder is a searchable database of more than 109,800 common abbreviations and acronyms about computers, technology, telecommunications, and the military, including Department of Defense, Air Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, National Guard, and Coast Guard acronyms and abbreviations.
Age Calculator – Need to remember how old your characters are throughout your novel? Here’s one way to keep them straight.
A-Z Music Lyrics – This index contains links to all sorts of music lyrics. An amazing site. This is how you discover the words behind today’s hit music.
Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations
Behind the Name – Name meanings and various name ideas.
Bible Gateway – The best way to search for that elusive Bible verse. Search any verse in the NIV, ESV, The Message, NASB, NRSV, KJV, Young’s Literal, Worldwide English or Darby translations. It is as good as having Bible software loaded on your computer. (You can search within foreign language translations as well!)
British-American Dictionary – ever wonder about the British usage of an American phrase? More can be found on this additional site.
Child Development Guide – What is a three-year-old typically capable of doing? (click the link then scroll down) If you have one in your novel, be sure you don’t have them doing what a six-year-old does. Of course, this isn’t “exact,” but it is what is considered average for typical modern child development. You might say, “But my little Johnnie didn’t do that!” Again, this is for research and a starting point for your story.
The Christian Post – A comprehensive Christian news site
Convert Measurements – Convert yards into metric; Fahrenheit into Celsius; etc.
Count Your Phrases – (the WriteWords Phrase Frequency Counter) – copy and paste your work-in-progress and see how many phrases you inadvertently repeat.
Currency Calculator – Convert money into the correct amount in another country.
Ecclesiastical Calendar – Need to know the date of Easter for a future or past year? Need to know the timing of the Church Holy Days? This is the resource for you. Discover the Holy Days for any year after 325 A.D.
Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr.
Famous Birthdays – Find out who was born when. Great for trivia sidebars.
Federal Statistics – More than 70 agencies in the United States Federal Government produce statistics of interest to the public. The Federal Interagency Council on Statistical Policy maintains this site to provide easy access to the full range of statistics and information produced by these agencies for public use.
Grammar Checker – offers a free online tool to proofread any English text with a simple “Copy & Paste.” Try it out, and let us know if it helps.
Height Comparison – Give your character a height, then add your other characters as well, see them side-by-side in a visual chart.
How Far is It? – Determine the distance between any two locations
Internet Movie Database – Everything you ever wanted to know about the movies.
Movie Clichés – A hilarious collection of assumptions about society that movies have inserted into our thinking. For instance: “Pastries are always in plain pink boxes. When we see a plain pink box, we expect to know that the box contains donuts or cake or some related item.”
Name Generators – this link goes to fantasy creature name generator, but on the menu are dozens and dozens of other ideas of all sorts!
Exceptional Websites for Theologians
One Look -Look in 165 Dictionaries at the same time! Believe it or not.
Probe Ministries – A great site with wonderful apologetic resources. Their mission statement reads: “Probe’s mission is to present the Gospel to communities, nationally and internationally, by providing life-long opportunities to integrate faith and learning through balanced, biblically based scholarship, training people to love God by renewing their minds and equipping the Church to engage the world for Christ.”
Project Gutenberg – The original and exhaustive site of public domain books that have been converted to digital form for you to search and read on the Internet. The list of available texts is extraordinary. Look for your favorites.
Precept Austin – THE go-to place for public domain resources. Note the “commentaries by verse” feature. This allows you to find amazing resources for each book of the Bible. Including hundreds of links to Mp3 resources, the complete writings of Spurgeon, Calvin, Henry, etc.
Research-It! – currency converter, a language translator, dictionary, thesaurus, zip code retrieval, biography searcher, bible search, quotation search and package tracking plus a lot of other stuff you might need now and then.
Rhyming Dictionary: The Rhyme Zone
Slang Dictionary (Green’s Dictionary of Slang) – the largest historical dictionary of English slang. Written by Jonathon Green the print version had nearly 100,000 entries supported by over 400,000 citations from c. ad 1000 to the present day. The best part is showing the “when” a particular phrase was used. So helpful when writing a historical novel. For example, the word “jazzy” started being used in print in 1917, but not before (click here for the results) It will also reveal if the word you want to use has vulgar connotations.
The Slot: a web site for copy editors -This web site evolved into the great book Lapsing into a Comma by Bill Walsh. However, there are still some fascinating articles and insights into writing at this site. Highly recommended for the discussion it generates.
Statistics Every Writer Should Know – Intriguing discussion of statistics and their meaning. Important if you are to become accurate in your research.
Trademark Search – Make sure you aren’t breaking any laws concerning the use of a particular name that might be trademarked! Can you use a trademarked name in your book? Read this article on the topic.
Translate to Other Languages – English to French, Spanish, German, Italian or Portuguese. Great for adding a little flair to your character!
Weather Spark – This site offers detailed reports of the typical weather for 145,449 locations worldwide. I looked up my home (Phoenix) and had to admit to its accuracy.
White House Documents – Current releases, hot topics, and the latest Federal statistics.
Word Counter – Paste your work-in-progress in this site and see how often you use specific words.
YourDictionary.com – A fabulous compendium of on-line dictionaries and thesauri of every imaginable description, including foreign language, acronyms, biographical, multilingual, and the ever-popular Pimbly’s Dictionary of Heraldry. If you can’t find it here, it’s probably not a word.