Oodrinthe precise word: a reference on everyday English

An independent reference on everyday English. It is not an academic or educational institution and is not affiliated with religious or political organisations or with the previous website on this domain. In disputed cases, check current dictionaries.

Archive

Archive

The archive lists every page of the reference, from the newest to the very first. Topic tags help you narrow things down quickly: loanwords, words, writing or dictionaries. If you remember what you read but not where, start with the topic filter and then check the date.

An archive is not a report but a table of contents: everything ever written should be easy to find.

— Editors' view

A page enters the archive on the day it is published and stays there for good. If a page is later expanded, its archive date does not change, and the updated text appears at the same address — so your bookmarks and links in emails keep working. We do not remove pages silently: if something becomes outdated, a note will appear on the page itself. Every entry leads to a live page: there are no drafts, placeholders or sections promised for the future. Each entry has a single topic tag, based on the main question of the page, even if it touches on several directions at once. That keeps the filter simple, and the page you need is just a couple of clicks away.

2026

The old address on this domain

Before us, a different website ran on this domain, and later unrelated spam pages appeared there. The Oodrin reference has no connection with them and restores nothing of their content. External links still point to one of the former addresses, so we placed our own page there on native Russian alternatives to common loanwords and on when such a swap makes reading easier. That page was written from scratch, is available only in Russian and contains nothing from the former site. We did not carry over any other old addresses.

  • Reference

    A glossary: loanword, calque, paronym, neologism, officialese, pleonasm and the kinds of dictionaries.

  • New

    A feed of the reference's pages with dates, notes and topic tags.

  • Sections

    Four themes: loanwords, confusable words, clear writing, and dictionaries and checking a word.

  • Guides

    How to rewrite a work message more clearly: preparation, steps with sample examples, mistakes and a checklist. Plus the article catalogue.

Sources

  • Current general, spelling and etymological dictionaries of English

Explanations are given in general terms and reflect the material as of the date it was prepared. Language changes slowly, but it does change: if our advice differs from a current dictionary, go with the dictionary. For official documents, follow the style rules adopted where you work.