English and Spanish Dictionaries and Glossaries
Thursday, March 11th, 2010A dictionary is a simple tool which helps us with the pronouciation, spelling and grammar needed for correct and effective communication. A glossary is an alphabetical list of technical terms in some specialized field of knowledge. The list below are helpful resources for general and specialized terminology in English and Spanish aimed for students, teachers, professionals and the general public.
English and Spanish Dictionaries and Glossaries
Biology Glossary English – Spanish glossary of technical terms used in ecology, evolution, and systematics
Business Dictionary English to Spanish terminology and vocabulary
Child Welfare Glossary English – Spanish child welfare terms from the Child Welfare Children’s Bureau
Deaf & Blind Glossary English – Spanish glossary of concepts and terms from the National Consortium of Deaf-Blindness
Dental Terms Glossary English – Spanish dental glossary to improve dentist and patient communications Courtesy of Wake Forest University
Election & Voting Glossary English – Spanish glossary of key election terminology from the US Election Assistance Commission
Fannie Mae Glossary of English and Spanish Industry Terms Mortgage, lending and borrowing terms
Financial Glossary English and Spanish terms from the Financial Monetary Fund website
Forestry & Wildlife Glossary English – Spanish terminology used in forestry, range, wildlife, fishery, soils, and botany from the USDA Forest Service
Free Dictionary Online English to Spanish dictionary
HUD Glossary of Mortgage terms English to Spanish glossary of mortgage and financing terminology from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development
Internal Revenue Service Glossary English – Spanish glossary of terminology used in Publications issued by the Internal Revenue Service
OSHA Dictionary-Construction Industry Terms English – Spanish glossary of Occupational Safety & Health Administration construction industry terms
Political Science Glossary English – Spanish glossary of important political science terms from Thompson Wadsworth Learning
Royal Spanish Academy Dictionary Spanish language dictionary
Special Education Glossary English-Spanish glossary of special education terminology provided by the Van Buren Intermediate School District
Superfund & WQARF Terms English – Spanish environmental quality glossary from the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality
Technical English – Spanish Glossary Technical terminology courtesy of the Technological Institute of Buenos Aires
Tomisimo English-Spanish & Spanish-English dictionary
WordReference English to Spanish & Spanish-English dictionary
English Spanish Glossaries Portals and search engines that take you to a large number of glossaries on every topic imaginable, as well as general dictionaries, encyclopedias and other resources for translators. If you are looking for a very particular glossary that does not fall in the other categories, check the portals in this section






The idea of machine translation was introduced to the general public on the 7th of January, 1954. The project was a collaboration between the University of Georgetown and IBM, who provided a model 701 to serve as the “brain” for the translation. The machine was fed over 60 relatively simple sentences in Russian and provided a fairly accurate English translation. Keep in mind that this experiment took place at a time when computers were just being introduced to the world and were frequently called “robots” or “giant brains,” so the results were astounding and in some circles, frightening.



After having received several valuable comments from readers, I’ve looked into Ideal Nol and Esperanto a bit more in an effort to differentiate their purposes, current and projected usage, and challenges that the languages face.
In the same vein as ttyl, lmao and gr8, Ideal Nol is a new language created by Enric Cabrejas that combines the simplicity (confusion) of abbreviated text messages and messenger conversations with the simplistic rules of Esperanto. The new form of expression was devised as a way for individuals without a common language to communicate, be it vocally, over cell phones or online. According to the Ideal website, it is rapidly gaining momentum across European college campuses and the world.
individuals (locked up, drug addicts, etc.). You won’t find these words in dictionaries. And so I ask myself: Do you count all of the feminine and masculine variants, the singulars and plurals, the diminutives, the augmentatives….? And aaaaaaaaallll of the words that we make up each day, for text messages or chatting: some abbreviations, other “stretched” ones (like the second one in this sentence), other manipulated words or “vesre”* in Spanish? We also have “imported” words, the ones we copy, borrow and steal from other languages, plus those that undergo a slight phonetic modification and adaptation so that we can consider them new. And there are also bad words (which we’ve discussed here before) and although they are “bad,” there are a lot of them and they are widely used… even if they’re not in the dictionary. Does whoever counts words include those?
“Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.”
No matter how beautiful your translation, there are certain errors, most often made by someone just starting out in the trade, that will peg your work as “rookie level.” Most of us are guilty of one or more of these seemingly innocent, yet disastrous mistakes. This article will hopefully point out a few of these
Those in the translation industry have long laughed at machine translation and its incorrect wording, awkward sentence choice, etc., so when Google Enterprise product manager Cyrus Mistry proclaimed that the new Google Translate would be “analogous to giving every employee in a business 34 translators sitting at their desk and translating everything they want to look for within a 10th of a second,” professional translators the world over spit their collective coffee onto their computer screens.