You know when you know there’s a word, but you can’t for the life of you think of it? I give you the OneLook Reverse Dictionary.

Here’s the description:

“OneLook’s reverse dictionary lets you describe a concept and get back a list of words and phrases related to that concept. Your description can be a few words, a sentence, a question, or even just a single word.”

The site offers this example from the world of law: Enter the query, “being tried twice for the same crime,” and get back a list of results headed by “double jeopardy.”

I tried “the protagonist in Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Top among the results: Robert Jordan.

The reverse dictionary is part of OneLook Dictionary Search, a search engine that claims to index more than 5 million words in more than 900 online dictionaries.

Never again look cross at a crossword puzzle.

Photo of Bob Ambrogi Bob Ambrogi

Bob is a lawyer, veteran legal journalist, and award-winning blogger and podcaster. In 2011, he was named to the inaugural Fastcase 50, honoring “the law’s smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries and leaders.” Earlier in his career, he was editor-in-chief of several legal publications, including The National Law Journal, and editorial director of ALM’s Litigation Services Division.