how about Xrefer? Xrefer offers access to word searches across both general and discipline-specific dictionaries, encyclopedias, thesauri, and more... Visit : http://www.xrefer.com/about.jsp It's *free* for some titles, listed below.   I think they also offer a paid service, for even better information retrieval capabilities. You can add one of their search boxes to your site for free, or use their search box yourself from their site. Source references fully indexed by Xrefer include: Free titles listed by topic ********** ART The Encyclopaedia of the Renaissance  The Oxford Dictionary of Art  The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms  The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art and Artists  BRITISH HISTORY Dictionary of British History  BUSINESS & LAW A Dictionary of Law, Oxford University Press  Dictionary of Accounting, Oxford University Press  Dictionary of Business: Oxford University Press  The Penguin Dictionary of Economics  Wall Street Words  DICTIONARIES The Penguin Rhyming Dictionary  The Pocket Oxford Dictionary of Current English  ENCYCLOPEDIAS A Dictionary of First Names, Oxford University Press  Oxford Paperback Encyclopedia  The Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography  The Macmillan Encyclopedia 2001  The Oxford English Reference Dictionary  The Penguin Biographical Dictionary of Women  Who's Who in the Twentieth Century: Oxford University Press  ENGLISH LITERATURE A Dictionary of Shakespeare, Oxford University Press  The Oxford Companion to English Literature  HEALTH A Dictionary of Food and Nutrition  Concise Medical Dictionary: Oxford University Press  Dictionary of Medicines, Oxford University Press  LANGUAGE & USAGE The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms  The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics, Oxford University Press  The New Fowler's Modern English Usage  The Oxford Companion to the English Language  MUSIC Oxford Dictionary of Music  The Penguin Dictionary of Music  PHILOSOPHY The Oxford Companion to Philosophy  PLACE NAMES A Dictionary of English Place-Names  QUOTATIONS Bloomsbury Biographical Dictionary of Quotations  Bloomsbury Thematic Dictionary of Quotations  The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations  SCIENCE A Dictionary of Earth Sciences  A Dictionary of Geography  A Dictionary of Science, Oxford University Press  A Dictionary of Scientists, Oxford University Press  Dictionary of Biology, Oxford University Press  The New Penguin Dictionary of Science  TECHNOLOGY Compact American Dictionary of Computer Words  THESAURUS Bloomsbury Thesaurus   ********** The pocket dictionary is supplemented by discipline-specific dictionaries, including ones for Science, Biology, and Law.  The multiple encyclopedias that offer word and phrase information. Multiple results are returned from each reference because full-body text searches are made across every entry of each *free* reference cataloged in xrefer. -nj