Reverse dictionary: how to find a word from a meaning
A normal dictionary goes from a word to its meaning. A reverse dictionary goes the other way: you type a meaning — a description, a definition, a half-remembered idea — and it gives you the word. It's the tool you want when the concept is clear in your head but the word won't come.
WordFor is a privacy-first reverse dictionary: you describe a concept and it returns the closest matching words, ranked. Nothing is sent to a server — the search runs in your browser.
Try these example searches
For those descriptions, the kind of words WordFor surfaces include:
How to write a good reverse-dictionary query
- Describe the meaning, not the spelling. "a word for X" works, but just describing X works just as well: fear of long words.
- Add the part of speech if you know it — "wordy (adjective)" vs "wordiness (noun)" nudges the ranking.
- Use a whole phrase. Semantic search rewards context: "smell of rain on dry earth" beats "rain smell".
- Try a synonym of the description if the first result isn't it — small rewordings explore nearby meanings.
How ranking works (short version)
Every result is scored by combining several signals:
- Lexical match — overlap between your words and the entry.
- Semantic similarity — how close the meaning of your description is to the word's definition, using on-device embeddings.
- Source confidence — how reliable the dictionaries that define the word are.
- Lemma family grouping — inflections like run/running/ran collapse to one entry so results aren't cluttered.
- Reranking — a fast first pass narrows candidates, then a more precise pass reorders the top of the list.
There's a deeper write-up in how WordFor ranks candidate words.
Reverse dictionary vs thesaurus vs word finder
A thesaurus needs a starting word and gives synonyms. A word finder usually works on letters or patterns. A reverse dictionary starts from a meaning with no word at all — which is exactly the "it's on the tip of my tongue" situation. If that's you, see the tip-of-my-tongue word finder guide.