A new online dictionary shows what words REALLY mean

If you’ve ever looked at the dictionary meaning of a word and come away more confused than ever, then new online dictionary Wordia could be for you.

Launched two years ago, the visual dictionary uses techniques made popular by Wikipedia to allow users to contribute their own video definitions of words.

For example, look up the word silk and you’ll find a straight definition from the website’s partner, publisher HarperCollins: “Silk (noun), the very fine soft lustrous fibre produced by a silkworm to make its cocoon.”

But click on the video definition and you’ll get something very different from a woman calling herself Dark Angel. “To me, silk is a very sexy word. It just kind of slides off your tongue. When I say something is silky, I am not just referring to the texture. It means, smoothy, sexy and sensual.”

Springwise quotes the site’s founders as saying: “We’ve found that this visualisation works; place a word into context visually and it helps you to recollect its meaning much more easily then a textual definition. The ‘author’ breathes life into it – and their video acts as an easy-to-remember reference; an aide memoire or mnemonic as it were.”