Try "A Visual Dictionary of Architecture" by Ching

a nice cheap, well-designed, and clever one is 'design language' by tim mccreight. fits in your back pocket, not that i know any reason you'd need to carry it with you.

here

(I don't mean to come down on you like a ton of bricks, but DO buy an English language dictionary too to know how to spell "recommend". I know I am exposing myself here, because I, too, have serious problems with spelling/typos but I am quite anal about perfect spelling. Just a friendly suggestion: if you have doubts about the spelling of a certain word either don't use it, or look it up.)

Penguin Dictionary is fine. Metapolis is definitely worth a mention, though perhaps not quite what you're after. Oh yeah, and the OED could help out no end.

true - metapolis is an architects dictionary for architects. probably not something the layman would find particularly helpful. But I think it's cool and I'm all about pimping cool shit.

Thank you for your comment and advice.

does anyone know of one online for free like dictionary.com? i need one right now.

maybe not what you're looking for, but tom porters 'archispeak' is quite useful.

holz's brain!

wait, it's actually become a huge hinderance.

s,m,l,xl

I really hated that Metapolis dictionary...felt like a complete waste of money.

For the old stuff, like if you want to know what the public hall of a Greek town was called (ekklesiasterion), get Cyril M. Harris' Illustrated Dictionary of Historic Architecture. Beautifully illustrated and not expensive.