Welcome to the Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction. This work-in-progress is a comprehensive quotation-based dictionary of the language of science fiction. The HD/SF is an offshoot of a project begun by the Oxford English Dictionary (though it is no longer formally affiliated with it). It is edited by Jesse Sheidlower. Please explore the menu links to learn more.

So as work on the Third was winding down he took another step to address a kind of question that only a computer could easily answer: he set the typing staff the new task of creating a 3”x5” slip for virtually every word that appeared in boldface in the dictionary typed backward, each letter followed by a space (and spelled normally, without the extra spaces, below its backward spelling).

“All the words in the world pronounced by native speakers.”

Beautiful photographs to demonstrate words.

"There are many terms which refer to a state of relating to or pertaining to a certain thing or category of things. Instead of using a phrase such as 'pertaining to buttercups', you can substitute the adjective 'ranunculaceous'. Using the admittedly invented phrase 'adjectives of relation', I have compiled 842 such terms."

"One of the great features of Mac OS X has aways been the built-in spelling checker. Unfortunately, there's no easy way to see what words you've added. But with Dictionary Cleaner, a convienient System Preferences pane for Mac OS X, now you can."

Backwards dictionary, wildcards, and other useful tools.