[literalusername]

The dict protocol, and dict.org in particular, provides easy access to Webster's 1913 as well as other dictionaries.

I normally use Webster's 1913 from the command line, since I usually have a terminal in front of me. I keep this in my .zshrc:

    function dict () {
        if [[ $1 == (d|m) ]]; then
                curl dict://dict.org/$1:$2 | $PAGER
        else
            echo 'Unknown command. Use (d)efine or (m)atch.'
        fi
    }

That allows me to issue queries such as `dict d example` to define "example", or `dict m exampel` to figure out how "example" ought to be spelled.

[pandatigox]

dict protocol? As in http and FTP? That's so cool! Are there any more protocols to play around with?

[gone35]

Of course not every URI scheme corresponds one-to-one to a layer 7 protocol, but there's plenty of interesting stuff in this list nonetheless [1].

[1] http://www.w3.org/wiki/UriSchemes

[staunch]

dict ftps gopher http https imap imaps ldap ldaps pop3 pop3s rtmp rtsp sftp smtp smtps telnet tftp

[e12e]

And if you want to go explore, you could continue with everything (not all are plain text!) in: /etc/services ...

[staunch]

Well, that list is things curl supports.