dictionary.com describes itself as "The world's leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years!". It is built on WordPress, registered in 1995, served from Toronto, Canada. It has a valid HTTPS certificate, 4 of 6 common security headers, 1 tracking script.
What is dictionary.com about?
The words appearing most often on the homepage, excluding common filler, are
a rough indication of subject matter rather than a description of the business:
- words ×4
- dictionary ×4
- word ×4
- featured ×3
- world ×2
- popular ×2
- october ×2
- articles ×2
- origins ×2
- bless ×2
Does dictionary.com publish the usual trust pages?
None of about, contact, privacy or terms could be found at their usual addresses.
That is common for small or single-purpose sites, and it is also what a disposable
site looks like, so it is worth noting rather than concluding from.
These were checked at conventional paths only, so a site using different URLs may
publish them elsewhere.
How does dictionary.com compare with other domains analysed here?
Measured against the 81 domains in this index. This is a
small, self-selected sample — the domains people happened to look up — not a
representative sample of the web.
| Response time | Faster than 84% of them (median 491ms) |
|---|---|
| Security headers | More than 81% of them |
| Domain age | Older than 91% of them |
Related domains in this index
Analysed domains sharing the same network (AS13335 Cloudflare, Inc.):
Sharing a network means sharing a host or CDN. It implies nothing about a
relationship between the sites themselves.
Analysed domains built on a similar stack:
Other analysed domains served from the same country:
When was dictionary.com registered?
dictionary.com was registered on 14 May 1995, which makes it about 31 years old.
A registration this old means the domain has been renewed repeatedly, which costs money every year and is not something abandoned or disposable projects tend to do.
The registrar of record is 101domain GRS Limited.
Registration runs until 15 May 2027.
The domain carries 1 registry lock, which blocks unauthorised transfer or deletion.
| Registered | 14 May 1995 |
|---|---|
| Expires | 15 May 2027 |
| Registrar | 101domain GRS Limited |
| Registry status | client transfer prohibited |
Where is dictionary.com hosted?
The first address resolves to infrastructure in Toronto, Canada.
The network is operated by Cloudflare, Inc. (AS13335 Cloudflare, Inc.).
Hosting location describes where the responding server sits, not where the business is. A CDN will report its nearest edge rather than the origin.
What is dictionary.com running on?
dictionary.com exposes 3 identifiable technologies: WordPress, Cloudflare, Google Tag Manager.
WordPress is identifiable from its asset paths, so the platform is public knowledge regardless of whether the version is hidden. That matters mainly for patching discipline: known-platform sites are scanned automatically and constantly.
Cloudflare sits in front of the origin, so the server header, IP addresses and response timing describe the edge rather than the machine actually running the site.
Visitor tracking is present (Google Tag Manager), so this homepage is not cookie-free.
- WordPress
- Cloudflare
- Google Tag Manager
How does the homepage respond?
The server answered with HTTP 200 over
HTTPS.
At 135ms to first byte this response is fast for a homepage measured from a single European location.
The HTML weighs 64KB, which is ordinary for a homepage.
The HTML is compressed with gzip.
| Server header | cloudflare |
|---|---|
| Compression | gzip |
| Page size | 65,682 bytes |
| Declared language | en |
| Mobile viewport | declared |
What does the homepage say about itself?
The title is 56 characters, inside the range that displays without truncation.
A meta description of 159 characters is present.
1 of 27 images carry no alt attribute, which leaves them unreadable to screen readers and uninterpretable to image search.
| Title | Meanings & Definitions of English Words | Dictionary.com (56 chars) |
|---|---|
| Meta description | The world's leading online dictionary: English definitions, synonyms, word origins, example sentences, word games, and more. A trusted authority for 25+ years! (159 chars) |
| H1 | Dictionary.com (1 on the page) |
| Canonical | https://www.dictionary.com |
| Open Graph title | not set |
| Headings / images | 3 H2s, 27 images (1 without alt text) |
Is dictionary.com served over a valid certificate?
The HTTPS certificate is issued by Google Trust Services and is
valid until 2026-11-27, which is 52 days from the date of this check. It covers
2 hostnames.
- dictionary.com
- *.dictionary.com
The certificate has 52 days left to run.
It covers 2 hostnames, so it was issued for this site specifically.
Which security headers does it set?
4 of 6 are set (HSTS, Content Security Policy, X-Content-Type-Options, X-Frame-Options). Absent: Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy.
| Header | Set | Value |
|---|---|---|
| HSTS | yes | max-age=31536000; includeSubDomains; preload |
| Content Security Policy | yes | frame-ancestors 'self' |
| X-Content-Type-Options | yes | nosniff |
| X-Frame-Options | yes | SAMEORIGIN |
| Referrer-Policy | no | — |
| Permissions-Policy | no | — |
How is DNS configured for dictionary.com?
| IP addresses | 104.18.42.126, 172.64.145.130, 2a06:98c1:3101::6812:2a7e, 2a06:98c1:3108::ac40:9182 |
|---|---|
| Reverse DNS | 104.18.42.126, 172.64.145.130 |
| Name servers | gabe.ns.cloudflare.com, gail.ns.cloudflare.com |
| Mail (MX) | mxa.global.inbound.cf-emailsecurity.net (pri 1), mxb.global.inbound.cf-emailsecurity.net (pri 5) |
| SPF | v=spf1 redirect=dictionary.com.hosted.spf-report.com |
| TXT records | 23 |
dictionary.com resolves to 4 addresses, which indicates load balancing or a CDN rather than a single origin server.
Mail is handled by 2 exchangers.
An SPF record is published, giving receiving servers a rule for which hosts may send as this domain.
Reverse DNS resolves to 104.18.42.126, 172.64.145.130, which usually names the hosting provider.
Who runs DNS and mail for dictionary.com?
DNS is operated by Cloudflare rather than self-hosted name servers.
Mail exchangers point at hosts that do not match any major provider, which usually means self-hosted or niche-provider mail.
The domain publishes AAAA records and accepts connections over IPv6.
What else is worth noting about dictionary.com?
14 of 15 externally hosted scripts carry no subresource integrity hash. If one of those hosts were compromised, the replacement script would run with full access to the page.
Can dictionary.com be spoofed in email?
DMARC is set to reject, the strictest setting: mail that fails authentication is refused outright. This is the configuration that actually stops domain spoofing.
No CAA records are published, so any certificate authority may issue a certificate for this domain.
The zone is not DNSSEC-signed. That is still the norm for most domains, but it means DNS answers cannot be cryptographically verified.
What else does dictionary.com publish?
A security.txt file is published, giving security researchers a documented way to report vulnerabilities. Very few sites bother.
An ads.txt file is published with 1539 entries, which means the site sells programmatic advertising and has declared who may resell its inventory.
An app-ads.txt file is also published, which indicates mobile app inventory alongside the website.
What does robots.txt allow?
robots.txt is 566 bytes and names
7 user-agent groups.
It does not blanket-disallow general crawlers.
Sitemaps declared:
- https://www.dictionary.com/sitemap_index.xml
AI crawler policy
| Crawler | Policy |
|---|---|
| gptbot | blocked |
| ccbot | blocked |
| applebot-extended | blocked |
1 sitemap is declared in robots.txt, which gives crawlers a direct list of URLs.
Every named AI crawler is blocked (gptbot, ccbot, applebot-extended). This domain has opted out of AI training and AI answer surfaces wholesale.
What structured data does the homepage publish?
- Organization
The homepage publishes 1 structured data type: Organization.
What does dictionary.com load from third parties?
The homepage pulls resources from 13 third-party hosts (btloader.com, c.amazon-adsystem.com, cadmus.script.ac, cmas.sdcdns.com, fonts.googleapis.com, fonts.gstatic.com). Each one sees the visitor IP and user agent on every page load.
No cookies are set on first load.
The page links or refers to X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.
Does dictionary.com settle on one address?
Plain HTTP redirects to HTTPS, so visitors who type the bare address still land on the secure version.
Both dictionary.com and www.dictionary.com answer with 200 and neither redirects to the other. Search engines therefore see two complete copies of the site, and link equity is split between them unless a canonical tag resolves it.
How easily can dictionary.com be crawled?
A sitemap index is served at https://www.dictionary.com/sitemap_index.xml listing 10 entries.
A deliberately invalid URL correctly returns HTTP 404, so missing pages will not be indexed.
What tracking does dictionary.com run?
1 tracking script detected: Google Tag Manager.
A consent platform is in place (Quantcast), so in the EU and UK these should only fire after the visitor agrees.
How does dictionary.com look when shared?
No Open Graph or Twitter Card tags are present. Links shared to social platforms will fall back to whatever the platform can scrape, usually just a bare URL.
How are images, fonts and scripts handled?
27 images on the homepage, 23 of them lazy-loaded (85%).
All image references use JPEG, PNG or GIF. WebP or AVIF typically cut image weight substantially at the same visual quality.
No srcset attributes are used, so every device is served the same image size regardless of screen.
Fonts are loaded from Google Fonts, which means every page view also contacts Google. Self-hosting removes that dependency.
The page pulls 6 external stylesheets and 16 external scripts, with 8 carrying defer or async.
Responses carry Cloudflare edge headers, so content is served from a CDN rather than straight from the origin.
Is dictionary.com accessible and current?
The page uses 6 landmark elements and 8 ARIA attributes.
There are 1 form inputs but only 0 label elements, so some fields may be unlabelled for screen readers.
No skip-to-content link was found, which keyboard users rely on to bypass navigation.
Can search engines index dictionary.com?
Nothing on the homepage prevents indexing: no noindex is set in the robots meta tag or the X-Robots-Tag header.
The homepage carries 29 internal and 27 external links across 21 outside hosts.
Visible text is only 3.2% of the HTML, which indicates the page is assembled in the browser rather than served as content.
How is dictionary.com delivered?
The HTML is served with Cache-Control: public, max-age=300, s-maxage=600, stale-while-revalidate=60.
HTTP/3 is advertised via alt-svc, so modern browsers will upgrade to QUIC after the first visit.
Frequently asked questions
Does dictionary.com set the usual HTTP security headers?
It sets 4 of 6. The ones not present are: Referrer-Policy, Permissions-Policy.
Does dictionary.com allow AI crawlers?
No — robots.txt blocks gptbot, ccbot, applebot-extended.
What is dictionary.com built with?
The homepage exposes these fingerprints: WordPress, Cloudflare, Google Tag Manager. A site behind a CDN or rendered server-side may use more than it reveals.
Where does this data come from?
Every figure was measured by our own server on 5 October 2026: DNS lookups, one HTTPS request to the homepage, a TLS handshake and a request for robots.txt. No third-party SEO API is involved.
Is any of this traffic or authority data?
No. Traffic, authority and ranking figures cannot be measured by inspecting a domain, only modelled. Everything here is a direct observation.
I own dictionary.com and want this page removed.
Ask through the contact page on this site, from an address at the domain, and the report will be taken down. It only ever shows what the domain already serves publicly.
Analysed 5 October 2026.
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