All things reference. Be sure to try the Visual Thesaurus; the link is on the left-hand side of the home page, near other basic tools such as a dictionary and calendar. Delve deeper and you could get overwhelmed by all the resources listed, but it's reasonably well organized so you shouldn't get lost.
First, a caveat. This is not a directory of the 50 greatest websites ever. Rather, it's a tally of the best sites launched or piqued our interest in some way since last year's list. Think of it as our round-up of 50 nifty links we think you should check out. So get clicking!