Research Guides
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- French Studies
- Dictionaries/Encyclopedias
French Studies: Dictionaries/Encyclopedias
Library resources for the study of French and Francophone language, literature, and culture.
Language Dictionaries
- WordReference.comFree online translation dictionaries.
- Dictionnaire des francophones (DDF)An open, collaborative dictionary. The goal of the DDF is to include all the words of French together to reflect the diversity of usage across the world.
- Le Robert dico en ligneFrench-language dictionary (free, online version).
- Larousse DictionariesFrench language and bilingual dictionaries, thesauri, and conjugation.
- Trésor de la langue françaiseDictionnaire de la langue du XIXe et du XXe siècle.
- Dictionnaire de l’Académie françaiseDictionary of the Académie française online.
- Oxford Reference: Bilingual Dictionaries
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Essential vocabulary, clear translations, usage and grammar.
French Grammar
- Bescherelle3 volumes. Verb tables, spelling, and grammar.
- Bescherelle: La conjugaison pour tousRequest via Summit
- Bescherelle: La grammaire pour tousRequest via Summit
- Larousse ConjugateurFree, online
Historical Dictionaries
- Dictionnaires d'autrefois
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French dictionaries of the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. - OrtolongHistorical use of French words.
French Linguistics
Biographies
- Dictionnaire de biographie française22 volumes. (A-L available, dictionary still being published)
Suzzallo 4th floor. Call number: CT143 .D5
- World Biographical Information System Online This link opens in a new window
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Worldwide index to older biographies; good for obscure individuals.
Encyclopedia Collections
- Gale Ebooks This link opens in a new window
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Full text encyclopedias in all subject areas - Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
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Full text dictionaries, encyclopedias, and subject reference works from Oxford University Press.
General Encyclopedias - in French
- Encyclopédie LarousseOnline
- The ARTFL Encyclopédie "The Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, par une Société de Gens de lettres was published under the direction of Diderot and d'Alembert, with 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of plates between 1751 and 1772. Containing 74,000 articles written by more than 130 contributors, the Encyclopédie was a massive reference work for the arts and sciences, as well as a machine de guerre which served to propagate the ideas of the French Enlightenment." University of Chicago
Literary Encyclopedias
- Gale Literature Resource Center This link opens in a new window
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Comprehensive database of poetry, drama and prose, literature journals, author biographies, topic overviews, and critical essays.
- New Oxford Companion to Literature in French
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Written by an international team of specialists, entries cover individual authors and works from the troubadours to Césaire, and from La Princesse de Clèves to La Vie mode d'emploi. - The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales
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This Companion is the first authoritative reference source for the complex and captivating genre of the fairy tale. - Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Theory & Criticism
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The JH Guide presents a comprehensive historical survey of the field's most important figures, schools, and movements.
History Encyclopedias
- Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment
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Covering the “long” Enlightenment, from the rise of Descartes' disciples in 1670 to the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy in 1815. - New Dictionary of the French Revolution
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400 entries covering the main events, personalities, parties, ideologies, political ideas, philosophers, writers, artists, rebellions and wars. - Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars: A Political, Social, and Military History3 print volumes available in Suzzallo Library, First Floor Reference: DC220 .E53 2006.