Is there such a dictionary on-line where, if there is a certain word you are grasping for or if you can describe the word you need, but it just won´t come to you, that you can type in a few key words are the dictionary will spit out some potential matches for you?
huh, and all in one sentence!

This sounds like a thesaurus. There's one at the top of the page here, by M-W. Just put in any word which is something like the one you want and the thesaurus should provide a list of words that are of similar meaning or are related to it in some logical way.That's how a regular thesaurus in a book works anyway. Roget's Thesaurus was the first of these. The title still exists and it retains its ingenious and logical method while being regularly updated. You can start with a word which is quite remote from the one you want and Roget should lead you to what you seek It's the only reference book where the index is longer than the text ( think about it !).The only problem with this is that the thesaurus does not define the words, it just puts associated words together, so if you use it to find a new way of saying something you may spend quite a while checking unfamiliar words in a dictionary.

Merriam-Webster also has something like what you are describing, which they call a reverse dictionary. The problem is you need to be a paying subscriber to use it.

Look up "reverse dictionary" in google and you will find a few more, including this one and this one. None of them look particularly good though (at least not the free ones).

As Fred said, a thesaurus will probably work in most cases, and there is a link to the M-W near the top of every page on AnswerPool. I would repeat his caution though. If you find a new word using the thesaurus, always look it up in a dictionary to help prevent you from using it improperly.

[This message was edited by methos5000 on 05-20-03 at 03:35 PM.]