This is only really true if you're already educated. Presuming that reading and writing is something that all can do would certainly lead you to believe the dictionary had limited usefulness.
Showerthoughts
A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- Posts must be original/unique
- Be good to others - no bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia
- Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct
Word!
Unless that dictionary is Wiktionary.
Wiktionary is part of the same project as Wikipedia. It provides dictionary-style definitions for basically all slang terms whereas Urban Dictionary is actually terrible if you want to find the meaning of words because half the definitions are jokes while the other half define slang in terms of other slang.
It's also great for etymology! Obviously etymonline is my go-to for English, but Wiktionary has plenty of info on other languages.
Yep, 'watermelon sugar' is still a disputed hellhole and I feel like the UD editors make it worse by approving everything there to drive up engagement.
There's so much clear editorialization of terms that legitimate definitions are flooded out for what's trending at the time, so nothing is up to date, the editors scrape by for engagement, and its not useful anymore.
If you only need to look for slang expressions, that is...
*for writing anything between a basic and intermediate reading level.
As an adult sure. But when I was a kid I loved my dictionary. I learned so many words that I might not have. And I enjoyed books much earlier than I would have.
But when I was a kid I loved urban dictionary. I learned so many words that I might not have. And I enjoyed memes much earlier than I would have.
Dank memes and good books are both an important part of childhood
If you're prepare to encounter lewd definitions for basically anything you search, yup, it's great :-)
And the lesser known Urban Thesaurus