By Luis A. Quibranza III

NOPE, the title is not a typo error of the ’99 James Bond hit.

Zup is about to lay down some interesting facts for students about a website, and why I personally think that it is the world’s way of educating the new generation when “the word is not enough.”

Apparently these days, kids are bored with paperback dictionaries. So perhaps, the techno-geeks of present constructed this website, http://visual.merriam-webster.com, to appeal to a younger audience.

The great thing about today’s technological advances is that it allows the merging of different media to create one effective medium. Not only does this site combine the dictionary with visual images to go with every definition, a sound sample is also available per item to give you an audio example and teach you how to pronounce the word correctly.

This is where it gets interesting.

So to test the site, the word I had in mind was “poignant.” A random word from nowhere that I placed into my head. I wanted to check the site’s capability of showing a word’s meaning.

Now, a journalist is obliged to take up both sides of the coin when it comes to writing, reporting and all that kind of stuff. So with a sense of hesitation (yeah right), here’s the downside of things:

I would personally rather take the time and effort to flip a page.

The website is so extensive, you wouldn’t know what to click or where to click. The site provides you with a barrage of links that the most conventional dictionary user (if such race is not yet extinct) will come running back to their dusty old shelves and would rather flip a page to letter “A”, “W” and “H” to find out the meanings of the words, amazing, writer, here, respectively. Just kidding.

Whatever happened to the “alphabetical” way of finding words? The site offers “themes” instead of the conventional A-B-C alphabet assignments. Themes are represented such as “Earth, House, Energy, Astronomy, etc.”

And when you click on a theme, it will bring you to a page where there are sub-themes. In the case of clicking on the theme “earth”, the sub-themes would be geography, geology, meteorology and environment.

And under the sub-themes, the list can get messy and random. But when you finally see the word you’re looking for, you’d smile at how detailed it can get.

Which brings me to the upside.

No dictionary can get as detailed as this. If you were given an assignment to come up with a report on what a helicopter is, by using this site and its content, your teacher will think you’ve actually attended hours of flight school.

So there is a price to pay. One price may be internet connection. Another is the time spent searching for the word you’re looking for. As mentioned, the site does away with the conventional alphabetical groupings.

I don’t even think the site covers adjectives. Remember “poignant?” I tried searching for it but found no match. I tried bringing it down to “beautiful,” and the closest match I got was “beauty,” which led me to a graphic presentation of a “supermarket with beauty products.”

Though the site is rich in terms of visuals, it’s not the ultimate go-to spot when you’re reading a book and you don’t know the meaning of the word you just read. But if you happen to find yourself browsing online, thirsty for knowledge, then give the site a heads up.

This site is best described as an “enriching supplementary guide.” But if you’re pretty hardcore with words, stick to the conventional dictionaries for your primary source of definitions.

But again, who are we to tell you what and what not to do? Check out the site yourself and enjoy!

At http://visual.merriam-webster.com, 20,000 terms and 6,000 full-color images of 15 major themes are available—Astronomy, Earth, Plants & gardening, Animal kingdom, Human being, Food & kitchen, House, Clothing & articles, Arts & architecture, Communications, Transport & machinery, Energy, Science, Society, Sports & games. (Sun.Star Cebu Zup!)