FT adds financial dictionary to site

The Financial Times announced Tuesday the launch of the Financial Times Lexicon, a dedicated glossary of financial terms.

The online glossary is free and has more than 10,000 entries, the capability to join discussions with other readers and the opportunity to suggest new terms.

With content sourced from the Financial Times and Longman Business Dictionaries, the Financial Times Lexicon allows users to search for specific business terms and find definitions online. It is integrated into FT.com content with select phrases from Financial Times editorial highlighted with a link to definitions on Lexicon.

“FT Lexicon is another example of innovative thinking from FT.com and one that has been developed with our users in mind,” said Rob Grimshaw, managing director of FT.com, in a statement. “FT Lexicon allows readers to collaborate with leading Financial Times journalists and add to the glossary of financial terms, building a resource that will appeal to many web users.”

Once a user has searched for a specific term, examples of articles where the phrase has been used are also listed to view the term in context. The latest terms are listed on the Financial Times Lexicon homepage, in addition to most viewed and recently viewed phrases. The most relevant phrases to the current news agenda are also listed on the homepage in the “In the News” section regularly updated by the Financial Times editorial team.

Additional features include the option to comment and add feedback on existing phrases, or suggest new phrases. Users are also given the option to share definitions with friends by e-mail and social bookmarking through Facebook and Digg, for example. Phrases are updated on a rolling basis and can be added to watch lists and tracked by users when updated.  Additional RSS feeds can also be established to monitor for “term of the day.”