This hypertext Webster interface provides a point-and-click client interface (for non-linemode browsers) for accessing various dictionary services on the Internet. First, type the word for which you want the definition in the search window, click to select either an exact match or an approximate match, and then click on the "Look up definition" button. Words in the resulting definition are hypertext linked back into the dictionary, allowing you to use your mouse to access the definition of those related (and unrelated) words.
If you misspell the word, the dictionary server may offer a list of close matches as alternatives. If you know the prefix of the word, a list of potential matches may be obtained by entering a * after the prefix, e.g., alpha*.
This Web interface is rather simple-minded -- all but very short words
are hyperlinked back to the dictionary.
Because it doesn't know if the words are actually in the dictionary,
these links may fail.
In particular, prefix/suffix removal to find the root
word (stemming) is neither performed by the Web interface nor the
dictionary server, so looking up
encephalopathic
doesn't work,
since the dictionary server only has an entry for
encephalopathy,
and the gateway is not smart enough to find the root.
The job of root extraction should be done in the dictionary server,
just as matching is done now for
spongyform.
The exact behavior depends on the back-end dictionary server
implementation.
Note that you can use cut-and-paste to extract the root and paste it into
the search window: you just have to click-hold-drag instead of single-click.
bsy only wrote the gateway and does not have any control over the contents; see the Webster Gateway FAQ and also the Back-end/database links and credits.