ASL Dictionary 

Our mission is to serve the needs of the ASL Educational Community. We strive to provide free, easy-to-use reference and learning tools to enhance in-classroom learning for ASL Educators and their Students.

We bring specialized resources to enhance
academic achievement

We have moved all our content to our mobile app. 

This site consists of authentic sign language used by bilingual and monolingual culturally Deaf and codas. The creator is an ASL instructor and native signer -- born and raised in culturally Deaf family and community. This work is a labor of love and passion for sign language. ...

Our K - 12 educational content is organized to save you time, frustration and search engine overload as you choose from our lesson plans, teaching and study notes, and printable worksheets that have been used with great success in homes and classrooms world-wide. Topics ranging from American Sign Language (ASL),grammar and fractions, are listed by subject and grade on our free Lesson PlansPage. 

A living language evolves to meet the ever changing needs of the people who use it. Lexicography, (the making of dictionaries), is like painting sunsets. By the time the paint dries the subject has changed.  American Sign Language is constantly adapting to the needs of Deaf people, our families, and those with whom we associate.

To use this dictionary, at the top of this page click the first letter of the word you are seeking.  That will load the links into the left hand side of the page.  Then scroll down to the word you are looking for and click on it. Not all words are there (yet) but I add more and more as time goes on.

Best wishes in your ASL endeavors.
Cordially,
- Dr. Bill

Welcome to Michigan State University's ASL Browser web site, an online American Sign Language (ASL) browser where you can look up video of thousands of ASL signs and learn interesting things about them.

This web site was created in 1997 to provide an online sign language resource. The web site contains a sample of the material found on the award winning Personal Communicator CD-ROM developed at Michigan State University. Unfortunately, the CD-ROM is out-of-date and no longer available. Check out Signing Savvy for a similar, but newer, product.

Here are a few American Sign Language terms to help those of you who are trying to communicate with a person who signs, but does not hear. New word definitions are being added, and this will soon bring the total number of ASL terms to more than 1270!   Also included is the basic alphabet and numbers 1-10. 
 

This dictionary has both animated and text definitions. The text definitions also have letter or number sign images to aid in visualizing the sign. This will allow you to quickly locate a word, read how to sign the word, and choose to view the animated sign if you wish.