Merriam-Webster's Word Central Gears Up for Back-to-School

Merriam-Webster's Word Central (http://www.WordCentral.com), the language center on the Web for kids, teachers, and parents featuring Merriam-Webster's Online Student Dictionary, has been given a full makeover just in time for back-to-school. With the help of Cambridge, MA educational internet and software developer Six Red Marbles (http://www.sixredmarbles.com), the site has been redesigned and upgraded with exciting new features, including the fully searchable Merriam-Webster's Online Student Thesaurus (containing thousands of synonyms, related words, idiomatic phrases, and antonyms) and great new interactive games guaranteed to both stimulate and challenge young minds. Classic Word Central content has been enhanced as well-including the vocabulary-building Daily Buzzword and the popular Build Your Own Dictionary-where kids can share their own word creations and definitions.

"We developed Word Central to provide accessible, age-appropriate language content to young students," said Michael Guzzi, Director of Electronic Product Development for Merriam-Webster Inc. "Beyond the online dictionary and thesaurus, new games like Robo-Bee and BigBot and the Build Your Own Dictionary activity are fun ways for students to practice and improve their language skills."

Reference experts at Merriam-Webster created Word Central with input from educators around the country. Since its debut in 1998, the site has won several prestigious awards, including the Webby Award for Best Educational Web Site of the Year and ComputEd Gazette's "BESSIE," for the Best Language Arts Web Site. The Parents' Choice Foundation, the country's most distinguished not-for-profit evaluator of children's learning materials, honored Word Central with a Parents' Choice Approved Winner Award as Best Web Site for Children.

Homework this school year will be a breeze with the compelling new design and content of Word Central for Kids-and learning about language might just become the latest back-to-school craze!

Check out Word Central's new design at http://www.WordCentral.com . For additional information, or to arrange an interview on this topic with Michael Guzzi, please contact Arthur J. Bicknell, Senior Publicist, at the above address.

Merriam-Webster, Incorporated

Merriam-Webster Inc. acquired the rights to revise and publish Noah Webster's dictionaries in 1843. Since then, Merriam-Webster has maintained an ongoing commitment to innovation, scholarship, and love of language. Today, the company continues as the leader in both print and electronic language reference publishing with reference products, learning tools, and word games. For more information about the company, and about Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition, visit Merriam-Webster OnLine at http://www.Merriam-Webster.com .
Arthur Bicknell, Senior Publicist
Merriam-Webster Inc.
Phone: (413) 734-3134 ext. 119