In a deal announced today, Ask is acquiring Dictionary.com, Thesaurus.com and Reference.com in its acquisition of Lexico Publishing Group.

Terms of the deal aren't being disclosed.

With the addition of the widely used reference tools, Ask hopes to make more money showing ads to people looking for answers to basic questions.

When Ask trimmed its work force by about eight percent in March as part of a shake-up, the company's officials indicated the search engine had decided to would return to its roots as answering straightforward questions.

Ask officials also said the search engine would start catering to its core audience of women.