# Announcing WordReference Lists



## mkellogg

*WordReference Lists*

Hi everybody,

We have been working on something new for WordReference and I am ready to present it to you all in the forums.  It is WordReference Lists.  You can use the lists to increase your vocabulary in English or favorite language.  You can also create lists for everybody to use.

Common steps:
1. Choose a list.
2. Click "See Translations" and choose your dictionary.
3. Click through the list of words to see the meanings (the translations or definitions).

The main principals guiding the lists:
1. Monolingual - The lists are monolingual. This way, a list created in English by somebody in Spain can be used by learners in France, Italy, China and any other country.
2. Collaborative - You can copy list content to put in your own list, others can copy your lists.
3. Mostly English - For now, let's keep the lists mostly in English, so that the lists can be useful to a wider group worldwide.

The goal here is to eventually have a great collection of lists that you can use to improve your understanding of a language that you are learning.

For example, I have created a list of Eating and Serving Utensils.  It is a simple list that contains the basic utensils and related terms that I use everyday.  While it is simple to me, I bet that the vast majority of learners of English would learn something in it.

The Lists website is not perfect now. I am sure that you can think of many helpful features that could be added. Me, too, but we needed to start somewhere.   Let me know here if you encounter any problems now.  Once it is in good shape and we have a few lists, I will introduce it and incorporate it into the dictionaries for the whole world to see.

So, please find an idea and create a list for the world to use!

Mike


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## ain'ttranslationfun?

Hi, Mike,

This is a good idea, since lists aren't allowed; it both gives learners a chance to expand their vocabulary and will reduce the number of posts. Should there maybe be both definitions/decriptions and examples? And of course your list will have many addditions e.g., 'china(ware)"; for 'silverware' we also say 'flatware', for 'crystal', 'stemware', etc. In some cases, mightn't GB & AM EN be different, too ('frying pan/skillet', 'pot/saucepan')?

Just my two cents' worth...


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## cherine

Excellent idea, Mike!
I'm sure it will be helpful to many. I also love that "see translations" feature which takes us to the dictionaries. 
May I suggest -if it's doable- that the lists be in alphabetical order?


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## mkellogg

ain'ttranslationfun? said:


> Should there maybe be both definitions/decriptions and examples? And of course your list will have many addditions e.g., 'china(ware)"; for 'silverware' we also say 'flatware', for 'crystal', 'stemware', etc. In some cases, mightn't GB & AM EN be different, too ('frying pan/skillet', 'pot/saucepan')?


Right now, we just provide the one 'description' column. We have created the ability to add many more columns, such as examples, tags, linked senses in definitions, etc., but we wanted to present something more simple to start with.



cherine said:


> I also love that "see translations" feature which takes us to the dictionaries.
> May I suggest -if it's doable- that the lists be in alphabetical order?


I tried to put my "utensils" list in an order that made sense with the basic utensils at the top, but, sure, it wouldn't be too hard to let people sort a list alphabetically.


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## Amapolas

A very useful new feature. Congratulations on a great idea.

I wonder whether this will grow to include other languages as well, and whether it will accept contributions or suggestions from members.


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## mkellogg

Thanks, Amapolas!


Amapolas said:


> I wonder whether this will grow to include other languages as well, and whether it will accept contributions or suggestions from members.


Sure. We want to start with English, though.  Ideally, we would want non-native English speakers to feel comfortable starting a list and relying on native speakers to suggest additions and changes. Right now, there is no way to easily give feedback. We hope to add it soon.


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## Amapolas

If I may suggest a subject for a new list it might be tools (wrench, pliers, etc.).


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## Loob

What's the point?


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## swift

Loob said:


> What's the point?


Lists are a fascinating subject matter. There is even a collection of books devoted to it—The book of lists. People create lists for all kinds of reasons and I personally like them a lot.  The best thing about WR’s lists is that they are collaborative and, from an educational standpoint, collaboration is a powerful way of learning. What’s great about this new feature is that everyone is invited to collaborate but no one is forced to. 

Mike, thanks for your continued efforts to make WR a better tool for language learning.  I think this new feature would benefit from some of the old “WR Glossaries” forum contributions.


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## Amapolas

Loob said:


> What's the point?


It's great for people who speak other languages. For example, my suggestion about tools was brought to mind because many years ago (and there was no Internet back then to help me) I made a list for myself, which I compiled by badgering a number of native English speakers I knew. I was fortunate that I was working in an embassy and had a lot of them around. Lists are really helpful.


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## Loob

Thank you both


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## mkellogg

Haha. I think many people will find it useful to have lists of related terms available to study.  When learning Spanish, one of my best resources was a small book with translated lists, organized by subject: sports, animals, food, "the house", etc.  This will provide something similar, adapted for the online world.  I also have a good feeling that if somebody looks up the word 'spoon' in one of our dictionaries, he or she might be interested in the translation of fork, knife, etc.


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## Kelly B

It sounds like the Themed Lists subforum in French-English, which was a lot of fun and remains useful, or it would be if it were more visible. 

There's a thread about that issue here somewhere, in fact, but I don't think it elicited any responses.


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## tsoapm

mkellogg said:


> please find an idea


We have a False Friends thread in IT-EN. The thread format is pretty robust and detailed, which makes sense. Looking at how the example works, with the option to show translations and definitions inline, I wonder if this might be another useful way of presenting that list. @Paulfromitaly


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## mkellogg

Kelly B said:


> It sounds like the Themed Lists subforum in French-English


Ah, the themed lists.  I had forgotten about it. That was our attempt at much of the same thing from 10 years ago!


tsoapm said:


> We have a False Friends thread in IT-EN.


This type of list is a bit hard for a monolingual list, but it might convert over easily.


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## tsoapm

Mostly English lists were proposed: I was thinking in this case that would just mean a list of relevant English words that could be navigated with ‘See translations’ → and either ‘Italian-English’ or ‘English definition’.


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## wildan1

mkellogg said:


> This type of list is a bit hard for a monolingual list, but it might convert over easily.


But there are a good number of "false friends" between British and North American English, too.

_pavement/sidewalk/road
underground/subway
rubber/eraser
biscuit/cookie/scone
knock someone up/go see someone_
etc...​
The same goes for French, Spanish, German, and probably any language that is spoken widely in more than a single country.


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## DearPrudence

Ah, great idea, Mike! 
It reminds me of the Multingual Glossaries as well:
Multilingual Glossaries

I have tried to add lists to see what it was like. I didn't manage to add descriptions for terms though.
(I didn't quite know how to handle the UK/US spelling (eg: autumn/fall))

Also, once the list was created, I didn't manage to add a description to the list.
And going back to the homepage is that not obvious.


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## Chrestos_SV1GAP

I did something similar to the 'lists' some time ago by creating a new folder (actually subfolder) in my browser's bookmarks where I save the url, eg. amendment - Αγγλοελληνικό Λεξικό WordReference.com. This way I can have 3 or more lists, I can sort the words in the lists to my taste and I can also share these lists/subfolders.


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## ChrisKZ

I found the Lists is very useful! Would that be possible if we could have a searching function by using keyword to find what we are looking for? Like if I want to find the words frequently used in office, so I can search "office" or "things on the desk" etc, instead of being keep turning so many pages


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## mkellogg

We are working on adding search to the lists. I was going to say to look in the dictionaries.  They are supposed to show all the lists that a term shows up in, but it doesn't seem to be working now.   It should be working right in a few days and you should be able to find all lists that include "pen" towards the bottom of a page like this: pen - English-French Dictionary WordReference.com


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## ChrisKZ

mkellogg said:


> We are working on adding search to the lists. I was going to say to look in the dictionaries.  They are supposed to show all the lists that a term shows up in, but it doesn't seem to be working now.   It should be working right in a few days and you should be able to find all lists that include "pen" towards the bottom of a page like this: pen - English-French Dictionary WordReference.com



That's awesome, thank you!


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## irinet

In the meantime, the link shows a _runtime error_ so, I'll try later.

Congrats for working so hard!


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## tsoapm

I made my EN-IT False Friends list a few weeks ago. I’ve noticed that certain Lists appear at the bottom of a search, i.e. if I search for the definition of ‘the’, it says:





> *In Lists:* Top 2000 English words, PET Vocabulary List - T,  more...


But so far none of my words seem to get the same result. How does this work?


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## mkellogg

tsoapm said:


> How does this work?


Since we don't have continual moderation watching over the lists, we only copy the lists every few months to avoid spam and "malicious lists". Your list will probably show in June or July!

And thanks for the false-friends list. Lists like that are why we created the feature to begin with.


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## tsoapm

Ah right. Thanks.


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## tsoapm

mkellogg said:


> Your list will probably show in June or July!
> 
> And thanks for the false-friends list. Lists like that are why we created the feature to begin with.


Hi, I wanted to follow this up up because as far as I can see it still hasn't turned up. Additionally, I now get the message:





> Error!
> Details have been logged. Please contact the administrator or try again later.


when I try to add new terms to my list (I last tried some time ago but it's still like that today). I would use the report link, but it doesn't seem to do anything except bring me back to the top of whatever page I try it from.


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## mkellogg

Oh, I still haven't gotten them copied over to the other servers.  I'll make a note and try to get it done by the end of the month. Sorry about this.


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## tsoapm

Thank you. It's the part about not being able to add new terms that seems like the bigger problem though.


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## mkellogg

tsoapm said:


> It's the part about not being able to add new terms that seems like the bigger problem though.


I wasn't able to track this down. Can you tell me exactly what you do that gives you this error message?  Thanks.


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## tsoapm

@mkellogg I scroll to the bottom of my list, click in the term field, type a few letters, select a term (I seem to get the error with all terms) and click Add Term. That brings up the error.
I just tried logging out to see if that cleared it, but I didn't actually manage to do that either!


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## mkellogg

Thanks. I see the problem now. We should have it fixed soon!


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## chrisdouka

Hello! Thank you so much for the lists. It's a great feature.
I signed up and created a list yesterday. however, today I am trying to log in back to add more words to my list but the message:


> *Error: *You need to have an account in order to create a list
> 
> Redirecting you to the loging page...



is always there...any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!


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## tsoapm

I've been checking at intervals. I still saw it last time I checked.


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## mkellogg

Tsoapm, adding new terms should be working now. Let me know if it is not for you.

Chrisdouka, you might be getting this message because you are not logged in "permanently".  Log out of the forums, then log back in, checking the checkbox that says "stay logged in".  Again, if this doesn't work, let me know.


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## tsoapm

It's working now, thanks.


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## velisarius

A member asked in EO today for a list of body parts. I thought to direct them to "lists", but I had no idea how to access them. I did find them by googling, but is there a way to find them from the WR home page?

I'm sure that most members have no idea they exist, or that they can create their own lists for reference. If I hadn't happened to see this thread two years ago, I would have had no idea either. Could the existence of this feature be made more prominent?


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## mkellogg

There is a link from the main WR homepage (www.wordreference.com) and links to the lists from the words in the list (back). Maybe I'll add some links to the header or search box here in the forum. Not a bad idea. Thanks!


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## Paskalo

Does anyone else have issues with this?

Every time I try to create a list I get this message:



> You need to have an account in order to create a list
> 
> *Redirecting you to the login page...*
> 
> Please check "Stay logged in" before clicking on "Log in" button.




I always click the "Stay logged in" checkbox, I have tried logging in and out multiple times, using incognito mode on chrome, microsoft edge, etc. What could be the problem? I have been using this site for a long time just decided to register today to use this feature and it doesn't work .

I didn't know where else to post this so I am sorry for reviving a very old thread.


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## mkellogg

Paskalo said:


> Every time I try to create a list I get this message


Sorry. It is broken for new members right now. We hope to get it working by Monday.


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## bkdfhc56

Hello, I can't seem to find how to copy/import someone else's list into my own lists. I'm using the desktop website.


mkellogg said:


> 2. Collaborative - You can copy list content to put in your own list, others can copy your lists.


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## mkellogg

bkdfhc56 said:


> Hello, I can't seem to find how to copy/import someone else's list into my own lists. I'm using the desktop website.


I think that in the end, we didn't create that feature. You can manually copy the words, though.


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