The TED Conference

If you have not heard of TED conference talks before, make sure you check out ted.com, because enlightening videos by amazing people speaking at the conference can be found there.

One good example of the quality of a TED talk is the video below called “Redefining the dictionary” featuring Erin Mckean. In this video Erin talks about how paper dictionaries have become outdated and dead when compared to the alive and evolving online dictionaries.

This video does such a cool job of describing how language is alive. Almost every book has an undictionaried word, for example.

Online dictionaries are undeniably themost important tool of lexicography. It will be interesting to see what devlopments are made in the online dictionary industry. One solid site within the online dictionary category is the worlds “fastest dictionary,” the Princeton engineered, definr.com.

Since definr will only give you a quick and succinct meaning for a word, and not its origin, I recommend checking out a second source to help elucidate a words true meaning. This is not a waste of time at all and it probably takes less time to look up two words online than it would to get up, grab a dictionary off of the shelf, and flip through to the word you are looking for. That is, if you have not already thrown your old dictionary away. Instead of simply defining what a word is, I like to understand what a word means, and where it came from.

To learn a new word every day on Twitter make sure to give a follow to @eduifyWord. Eduify also has a blog post about words commonly confused that is worth checking out. For a wealth of word and writing resources make sure to sign up for the writing website for students, eduify.com.

Other Ted Recommendations

Two other of my favorite TED talks are Malcom Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce (Marketing), and Bill Gates on Mospuitos, Malaria, and Education (Philanthropy / Philosophy).

Feedback

What is your favorite TED talk? Have you ever been to the annual TED conference?