MuchSearchOne input, every siteThe free encyclopedia, 6M+ articles
The fastest orientation on an unfamiliar topic, with footnotes that lead to primary sources. Cite the footnote, never the article, in serious work.
MuchSearch · Reference
Reference Search — Wikipedia, Quora, WolframAlpha
Search Wikipedia, Quora, WolframAlpha, Britannica and dictionaries from one input for definitions and facts.
8 search sourcesType once, search manyFree, no sign-up
Multi-search
Type once, pick a source
Switch sources to compare results without retyping your query.
Use legal, healthy keywords. MuchSearch passes your query to the destination site; results and content live there.
All sources
Reference sources
Open a source directly, or type keywords and search it right here.
Q&A with expert answers
Practitioner answers with names and credentials attached, mixed with self-promotion. Useful for “what is it like to work as”, not for facts.
Computational answers: math & data
Computational answers for maths, units, dates and data — it calculates rather than describes. The right tool when the question has a number in it.
Expert-written encyclopedia
Edited by named contributors and reviewed, with a shallower but more stable article base than Wikipedia. Good for a citable overview.
Definitions, synonyms, word history
Definitions, synonyms and etymology, with a decent thesaurus attached. Check the example sentences for register before using a word in formal writing.
America's trusted dictionary
The US reference standard, with usage notes that explain disputed cases rather than just defining them. Better than most dictionaries on controversy.
Slang, memes, internet culture
Slang, memes and regional usage that no formal dictionary covers. Crowd-voted and unreliable for meaning, indispensable for decoding.
Step-by-step how-to guides
Step-by-step guides for practical tasks, with illustrations and warnings. Quality varies by topic; treat it as a checklist, not an authority.
About the Reference channel
Reference search is for the question that has a correct answer: a definition, a date, a calculation, a standard. The trick is knowing which reference actually owns the answer — an encyclopaedia for background, a dictionary for usage, a computational engine for anything with units or variables, and a Q&A site for the messy practical version.
Search the term, not the sentence. Then check the reference’s own citations: Wikipedia’s footnote list and Britannica’s contributor notes are where the actual authority sits. For anything involving numbers, units or dates, prefer a computational engine to prose — and for slang or regional usage, accept that the crowd-sourced dictionary is the only realistic source.
Reference search — frequently asked questions
Can I cite Wikipedia in academic work?
Not directly. Use its footnotes to reach the primary source, then cite that. Wikipedia is a finding aid; the citation at the bottom of the paragraph is the evidence.
Which dictionary should I use for American vs British English?
Merriam-Webster for US usage, and a British dictionary such as Collins or Oxford for UK spelling and idiom. Dictionary.com sits in between and flags both.
What is WolframAlpha actually good for?
Anything computable: unit conversion, date arithmetic, equation solving, statistics on a dataset, plot generation. It is weak at interpretation and context.
Are Quora answers trustworthy?
Treat them as anecdote with a name attached. Credentials help, but verify any factual claim independently — the platform has no editorial review.