Are there any websites that can help me find words if I type in their meanings?

[rosesformoi]

I should probably explain!

I am one of these people that always tries to explain myself, I constantly forget the word (you know when it's on the tip of the tongue...) but always remember the meaning.

For instance right now I am trying to explain to a friend why I would be bad at long distance relationships online, because I am such a ....... ? (a person who needs human touch/someone who needs to be in a persons presence to truly appreciate our relationship).

What is the word? lol.

I do this so often though you guys would get sick of me, so I'm wondering if there is a site that helps you out.
Anybody?

[Polly1958]

Tactile?

[Ankou]

Well you could just say 'I am a person who needs human touch/someone who needs to be in a persons presence to truly appreciate our relationship'. Nothing wrong with that.

Alternatively you could try a thesaurus. Not sure there is a word as such, maybe 'physical contact/affection or intimacy'.

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/intimacy

[Quizmonkey]

Forget the net and buy a copy of The Reverse Dictionary which is just that: you look up the definition and it tells you the word. It's a genius book!

[rosesformoi]

Thanks Quiz Monkey!

[swedeheart]

That sounds interesting, Quizmonkey but I don't quite understand how it works, and as I'm the same way as rosesformoi I'd really like to understand this. Using rosesformoi's example as an example... how would (s)he find for instance the word tactile or physical or sensuous if (s)he couldn't think of any of those words in the first place? Where would she even start? I'm not questioning the accuracy of your information, mind, just asking to have it explained please.

[Quizmonkey]

Tricky to explain, Swede - but believe me, I've used it for years, mostly in a crossword context! In that example you would start with a keyword from your definition: look up 'touch' and it would have a list of subheads (which are, in effect, the definitions) for example: Liking or responding to touch: tactile. Impossible to touch: intangible, etc etc (I'm making these up incidentally!). Obviously it can't work for every situation but it usually comes up trumps. I knew there was a word meaning sword-shaped once, and there under 'sword' was: Shaped like a sword: ensate.

[swedeheart]

Sounds absolutely brilliant, Quizmonkey, thanks for explaining it so well. Couple of years ago I couldn't find the word (in Swedish, my own language!) for "paper clip" and I remember the panic before it came back to me - during those hours I had mad fantasies about creating an image based dictionary but I never did figure out how it would work! A former colleague of mine is even worse, she was only forty-something when one day she was telling me about some incident and suddenly she got that look you get when you're trying to recall a word - only in this case it was her husband's name she couldn't remember...