LibGuides: EAL (formerly ESL): Find Word Meanings and more

Online Dictionaries & Word Finders

One Look dictionary
Search hundreds of online English-language dictionaries at once.
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18,967,499 words in 1,060 different dictionaries – all the major English ones, but also dictionaries for specific subjects (business, art, medicine) or languages. You can customise your search – only in slang, for example; compare entries in different dictionaries; do a wildcard search (asterisks, hashtags or @ symbols account for the characters you can't remember), or a reverse search (type in "being tried twice for the same crime", for "double jeopardy", for example).” (theguardian.com)
Oxford English dictionaries
Also has a language blog, a thesaurus, grammar tips, word origins, and word lists
Merriam-Webster Dictionary & Thesaurus
Includes audio pronunciations of headwords.
Macmillan Dictionary
Audio pronunciation (British) of all headwords.

Encyclopedias

Canadian Encyclopedia This link opens in a new window
The online version of the Canadian encyclopedia.
Encyclopaedia Britannica This link opens in a new window
An excellent general encyclopedia; great for finding good quality background information on almost any topic.
Encyclopedia of British Columbia This link opens in a new window
Provides background and introductory information on British Columbia.

Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
The largest encyclopedia online. Use as a starting point only - articles can be edited and written by ANYONE, so they may have errors in them.

The World Book Encyclopedia
General encyclopedia with information on many topics and usually lots of pictures.

Maps

"The vision of Maps-For-Free is to offer free worldwide relief maps and other layers which can easily be integrated into existing map projects.

MFF-maps are released under Creative Commons CC0. You are free to adapt and use the relief maps and relief layer for commercial purposes without attributing the original author or source. Although not required, a link to maps-for-free.com is appreciated."

Maps of Canada

The Perry-Castaneda map directory at the University of Texas - Austin provides links to hundreds of maps for many countries in the world. On their homepage, you can find a list of maps relating to hot topics, from a variety of sources.

National Atlas of Canada

A large selection of geographic, economic, historical, environmental and social maps of Canada, as well as some international maps.