Taking Advantage of Idioms Dictionaries

I have taken a look at how free web-based dictionaries can be useful for keyword research.

Now, there’s one more way to use those (and other) dictionaries: research English idioms and set phrases.

While most copywriters are surely getting the idea why this may be useful, some SEOs may be unaware of what I am actually talking about.

So, researching idioms may be useful for:

  • Getting more keyword and content ideas;
  • Gaining a deeper understanding of the topical language;
  • Finding more catchy domain names ideas; etc

UrbanDictioanry.com

Urban Dictionary is a great tool to research contemporary slang and Internet jargon. While most people know how to use it, not everyone knows where to find derived terms and phrases. So the steps to take are:

  1. Search for your base word;
  2. See the letters in the top menus;
  3. Click the letter your base term starts;
  4. Now you should see all the terms and phrases starting with the same combination of letters:

Urban dictionary idioms

2. Phrases.net

Phrases.net seems to be quite a new dictionary of idioms (hence not really large database) but what I liked about the tool is that it searches not only the idioms but also the definitions and even sample sentences (thus you will get the list of all related phrases and idioms).

You’ll have to scroll down to actual search results under the ads:

Phrases.net

3. TheFreeDictionary.com

The Free Dictionary also offers separate section for idioms: for every word searched it lists:

  • The idiom;
  • Its definition;
  • A few examples of usage:

The Free Dictionary - idioms

Written By:
PG

Ann Smarty | My Blog Guest | @seosmarty

Ann Smarty is the blogger and marketer specializing in SEO consulting and guest blogging. Ann's expertise in blogging and tools serve as a base for her writing, tutorials and her guest blogging project, MyBlogGuest.com

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Comments

  1. iGoMogul says:

    Ann,

    Excellent post! I think you’ve truly illuminated the importance of language as it relates to SEO, especially more colloquial styles and idioms.

    My favorite new emergence on the “dictionary” front is Wordnik.com. This page will give searchers a great grasp on how words are actually being used in everyday speech, as well as online.

    Not only does it offer definitions, etymologies, and examples, it also provides related words, images, and frequency graphs (which are great for SEO content). Most exciting of all, Wordnik also provides real-time examples of the word or phrase as used in recent Twitter feeds.

    If you haven’t checked it out yet, be sure and take a look. It’s a wonderful resource for linguaphiles and SEOs alike.

    Ronnie@iGoMogul