What the word dictionary mean

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

This is a question our experts keep getting from time to time. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested!


Asked by: Joanie Fay

Score: 4.7/5
(44 votes)

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically, which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc.. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

What does the word dictionary mean in English?

1 : a reference source in print or electronic form containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactic and idiomatic uses.

What is a dictionary example?

A dictionary is defined as a list of words or articles that refer to a specific subject. An example of dictionary is a book with English to Italian translations. An example of dictionary is a book with legal codes and regulations. noun. 52.

What is the basic meaning in a dictionary?

1a : of, relating to, or forming the base or essence : fundamental basic truths. b : concerned with fundamental scientific principles : not applied basic research. 2 : constituting or serving as the basis or starting point a basic set of tools. 3a : of, relating to, containing, or having the character of a chemical …

What does literally mean dictionary?

What does the word mean literally? in a literal manner; word for word: to translate literally. actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy: The city was literally destroyed.

37 related questions found

What is the best definition of a literal?

1 : following the ordinary or usual meaning of the words I’m using the word in its literal, not figurative, sense. 2 : true to fact She gave a literal account of what she saw. Other Words from literal. literally adverb. literalness noun.

What is the new definition of literally?

Gizmodo has discovered Google’s definition for literally includes this: “Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling.” But it doesn’t end with Google. Merriam-Wesbter and Cambridge dictionaries have also added the informal, non-literal definition.

What is the full meaning of the Basic?

BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use.

What are examples of basic?

The definition of basic is something that is essential, or something with a pH level higher than 7. An example of basic is flour in a recipe for bread. An example of basic is sodium hydrochloride.

What type of word is basic?

basic used as an adjective:

necessary, essential for life or some process. «Flour is a basic ingredient of bread.» elementary, simple, fundamental, merely functional.

What is a dictionary and give suitable example of it?

A dictionary is a reference book or online resource containing an alphabetical list of words, with the information given for each word. Etymology: From the Latin, «to say»

What’s an example of an example?

Example is defined as something or someone that is used as a model. An example of the word «example» is a previously baked pie shown to a cooking class. An example of the word «example» is 2×2=4 used to show multiplication. … The squirrel, an example of a rodent; introduced each new word with examples of its use.

What are the types of dictionaries?

TYPES OF DICTIONARY:

  • Bilingual Dictionary.
  • Monolingual Dictionary.
  • Etymological Dictionary.
  • Crossword Dictionary.
  • Rhyming Dictionary.
  • Mini-Dictionary.
  • Pocket Dictionary.
  • Thesaurus.

Why is the word dictionary in the dictionary?

Why are dictionaries called dictionaries? One could argue that dictionaries are called as such because they tell the user how to say things. Or you could say that the Latin word dictio means ‘a word’, and so a dictionary might be seen as a compendium of words.

What is dictionary used for?

A dictionary is used to describe the meaning of a word. A thesaurus is used to group different words with the same meaning (synonyms) and similar words. For example, looking up the word «computer» in a dictionary would define the word like what is found on our computer definition.

How do dictionaries define words?

To be included in a Merriam-Webster dictionary, a word must be used in a substantial number of citations that come from a wide range of publications over a considerable period of time. Specifically, the word must have enough citations to allow accurate judgments about its establishment, currency, and meaning.

What are 5 examples of bases?

Some common strong Arrhenius bases include:

  • Potassium hydroxide (KOH)
  • Sodium hydroxide (NaOH)
  • Barium hydroxide (Ba(OH)2)
  • Caesium hydroxide (CsOH)
  • Strontium hydroxide (Sr(OH)2)
  • Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2)
  • Lithium hydroxide (LiOH)
  • Rubidium hydroxide (RbOH)

What makes a girl Basic?

What does basic mean? In slang, basic characterizes someone or something as unoriginal, unexceptional, and mainstream. A basic girl—or basic bitch as she is often insulted—is said to like pumpkin spice lattes, UGG boots, and taking lots of selfies, for instance.

What are examples of bases in everyday life?

Examples of Everyday Bases

  • Drain cleaner.
  • Laundry detergent.
  • Lubricating grease.
  • Alkaline batteries.
  • Soaps and bath products.
  • Sugar.
  • Baking soda.

What is basic in Tagalog?

Translation for word Basic in Tagalog is : batayan.

Does basic mean simple?

You can use basic to describe something that is very simple in style and has only the most necessary features, without any luxuries.

How do you use basic in a sentence?

of or denoting or of the nature of or containing a base.

  1. He can’t grasp the basic concepts of mathematics.
  2. The basic idea is simple.
  3. I really need to get some basic financial advice.
  4. Freedom of expression is a basic human right.
  5. The basic unit of society is the family.
  6. Contact with other people is a basic human need.

Does literally mean figuratively now?

Literally, of course, means something that is actually true: “Literally every pair of shoes I own was ruined when my apartment flooded.” When we use words not in their normal literal meaning but in a way that makes a description more impressive or interesting, the correct word, of course, is “figuratively.”

Is the meaning of literally changing?

Literally the most misused word in the language has officially changed definition. Now as well as meaning «in a literal manner or sense; exactly: ‘the driver took it literally when asked to go straight over the traffic circle‘», various dictionaries have added its other more recent usage.

How do you properly use literally?

In its standard use literally means ‘in a literal sense, as opposed to a non-literal or exaggerated sense’, for example: I told him I never wanted to see him again, but I didn’t expect him to take it literally. They bought the car and literally ran it into the ground.


Asked by: Joanie Fay

Score: 4.7/5
(44 votes)

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically, which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc.. It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.

What does the word dictionary mean in English?

1 : a reference source in print or electronic form containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactic and idiomatic uses.

What is a dictionary example?

A dictionary is defined as a list of words or articles that refer to a specific subject. An example of dictionary is a book with English to Italian translations. An example of dictionary is a book with legal codes and regulations. noun. 52.

What is the basic meaning in a dictionary?

1a : of, relating to, or forming the base or essence : fundamental basic truths. b : concerned with fundamental scientific principles : not applied basic research. 2 : constituting or serving as the basis or starting point a basic set of tools. 3a : of, relating to, containing, or having the character of a chemical …

What does literally mean dictionary?

What does the word mean literally? in a literal manner; word for word: to translate literally. actually; without exaggeration or inaccuracy: The city was literally destroyed.

37 related questions found

What is the best definition of a literal?

1 : following the ordinary or usual meaning of the words I’m using the word in its literal, not figurative, sense. 2 : true to fact She gave a literal account of what she saw. Other Words from literal. literally adverb. literalness noun.

What is the new definition of literally?

Gizmodo has discovered Google’s definition for literally includes this: “Used to acknowledge that something is not literally true but is used for emphasis or to express strong feeling.” But it doesn’t end with Google. Merriam-Wesbter and Cambridge dictionaries have also added the informal, non-literal definition.

What is the full meaning of the Basic?

BASIC (Beginners’ All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use.

What are examples of basic?

The definition of basic is something that is essential, or something with a pH level higher than 7. An example of basic is flour in a recipe for bread. An example of basic is sodium hydrochloride.

What type of word is basic?

basic used as an adjective:

necessary, essential for life or some process. «Flour is a basic ingredient of bread.» elementary, simple, fundamental, merely functional.

What is a dictionary and give suitable example of it?

A dictionary is a reference book or online resource containing an alphabetical list of words, with the information given for each word. Etymology: From the Latin, «to say»

What’s an example of an example?

Example is defined as something or someone that is used as a model. An example of the word «example» is a previously baked pie shown to a cooking class. An example of the word «example» is 2×2=4 used to show multiplication. … The squirrel, an example of a rodent; introduced each new word with examples of its use.

What are the types of dictionaries?

TYPES OF DICTIONARY:

  • Bilingual Dictionary.
  • Monolingual Dictionary.
  • Etymological Dictionary.
  • Crossword Dictionary.
  • Rhyming Dictionary.
  • Mini-Dictionary.
  • Pocket Dictionary.
  • Thesaurus.

Why is the word dictionary in the dictionary?

Why are dictionaries called dictionaries? One could argue that dictionaries are called as such because they tell the user how to say things. Or you could say that the Latin word dictio means ‘a word’, and so a dictionary might be seen as a compendium of words.

What is dictionary used for?

A dictionary is used to describe the meaning of a word. A thesaurus is used to group different words with the same meaning (synonyms) and similar words. For example, looking up the word «computer» in a dictionary would define the word like what is found on our computer definition.

How do dictionaries define words?

To be included in a Merriam-Webster dictionary, a word must be used in a substantial number of citations that come from a wide range of publications over a considerable period of time. Specifically, the word must have enough citations to allow accurate judgments about its establishment, currency, and meaning.

What are 5 examples of bases?

Some common strong Arrhenius bases include:

  • Potassium hydroxide (KOH)
  • Sodium hydroxide (NaOH)
  • Barium hydroxide (Ba(OH)2)
  • Caesium hydroxide (CsOH)
  • Strontium hydroxide (Sr(OH)2)
  • Calcium hydroxide (Ca(OH)2)
  • Lithium hydroxide (LiOH)
  • Rubidium hydroxide (RbOH)

What makes a girl Basic?

What does basic mean? In slang, basic characterizes someone or something as unoriginal, unexceptional, and mainstream. A basic girl—or basic bitch as she is often insulted—is said to like pumpkin spice lattes, UGG boots, and taking lots of selfies, for instance.

What are examples of bases in everyday life?

Examples of Everyday Bases

  • Drain cleaner.
  • Laundry detergent.
  • Lubricating grease.
  • Alkaline batteries.
  • Soaps and bath products.
  • Sugar.
  • Baking soda.

What is basic in Tagalog?

Translation for word Basic in Tagalog is : batayan.

Does basic mean simple?

You can use basic to describe something that is very simple in style and has only the most necessary features, without any luxuries.

How do you use basic in a sentence?

of or denoting or of the nature of or containing a base.

  1. He can’t grasp the basic concepts of mathematics.
  2. The basic idea is simple.
  3. I really need to get some basic financial advice.
  4. Freedom of expression is a basic human right.
  5. The basic unit of society is the family.
  6. Contact with other people is a basic human need.

Does literally mean figuratively now?

Literally, of course, means something that is actually true: “Literally every pair of shoes I own was ruined when my apartment flooded.” When we use words not in their normal literal meaning but in a way that makes a description more impressive or interesting, the correct word, of course, is “figuratively.”

Is the meaning of literally changing?

Literally the most misused word in the language has officially changed definition. Now as well as meaning «in a literal manner or sense; exactly: ‘the driver took it literally when asked to go straight over the traffic circle‘», various dictionaries have added its other more recent usage.

How do you properly use literally?

In its standard use literally means ‘in a literal sense, as opposed to a non-literal or exaggerated sense’, for example: I told him I never wanted to see him again, but I didn’t expect him to take it literally. They bought the car and literally ran it into the ground.

a dictionary that has a thumb index — словарь с указателем на обрезе в виде вырезов  
a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms — словарь синонимов и антонимов  
bilingual dictionary — двуязычный словарь  
an encyclopedic dictionary — энциклопедический словарь  
abridged dictionary — сокращённая версия (крупного) словаря  
desk dictionary — однотомный словарь  
biographical dictionary — биографический словарь  
collegiate / college dictionary — словарь для студентов высших учебных заведений  
dialect dictionary — диалектный словарь  
etymological dictionary — этимологический словарь  
dictionary search — поиск в словаре (напр. пароля)  
consult a dictionary — искать нужное слово в словаре; искать слово в словаре; заглянуть в словарь  

Look it up in the dictionary.

Посмотри (это) в словаре.

Look the word up in your dictionary.

Посмотрите это слово у себя в словаре.

I am in want of a good dictionary.

Мне нужен хороший словарь.

Have you consulted a dictionary?

Ты сверился со словарём?

You should consult the dictionary.

Вам следует свериться со словарём.

The dictionary tries to tell you what words mean.

Словарь пытается показать вам, что значат слова.

She recommended me a good dictionary.

Она порекомендовала мне хороший словарь.

ещё 23 примера свернуть

…this Italian-English pocket dictionary is an abridgment of the hardback edition…

…a dictionary provides lexical information—it tells you what the word “cat” means, not all there is to know about cats…

Для того чтобы добавить вариант перевода, кликните по иконке , напротив примера.

A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, etc.[1][2][3] It is a lexicographical reference that shows inter-relationships among the data.[4]

Dictionary definition entries

A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries include words in specialist fields, rather than a complete range of words in the language. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed[citation needed] to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types.[5] There are other types of dictionaries that do not fit neatly into the above distinction, for instance bilingual (translation) dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms (thesauri), and rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a general purpose monolingual dictionary.[6]

There is also a contrast between prescriptive or descriptive dictionaries; the former reflect what is seen as correct use of the language while the latter reflect recorded actual use. Stylistic indications (e.g. «informal» or «vulgar») in many modern dictionaries are also considered by some to be less than objectively descriptive.[7]

The first recorded dictionaries date back to Sumerian times around 2300 BCE, in the form of bilingual dictionaries, and the oldest surviving monolingual dictionaries are Chinese dictionaries c. 3rd century BCE. The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written in 1604, and monolingual dictionaries in other languages also began appearing in Europe at around this time. The systematic study of dictionaries as objects of scientific interest arose as a 20th-century enterprise, called lexicography, and largely initiated by Ladislav Zgusta.[6] The birth of the new discipline was not without controversy, with the practical dictionary-makers being sometimes accused by others of having an «astonishing» lack of method and critical-self reflection.[8]

History

Catalan-Latin dictionary from the year 1696 with more than 1000 pages. Gazophylacium Dictionary.

The oldest known dictionaries were cuneiform tablets with bilingual Sumerian–Akkadian wordlists, discovered in Ebla (modern Syria) and dated to roughly 2300 BCE, the time of the Akkadian Empire.[9][10][11] The early 2nd millennium BCE Urra=hubullu glossary is the canonical Babylonian version of such bilingual Sumerian wordlists. A Chinese dictionary, the c. 3rd century BCE Erya, is the earliest surviving monolingual dictionary; and some sources cite the Shizhoupian (probably compiled sometime between 700 BCE to 200 BCE, possibly earlier) as a «dictionary», although modern scholarship considers it a calligraphic compendium of Chinese characters from Zhou dynasty bronzes.[citation needed] Philitas of Cos (fl. 4th century BCE) wrote a pioneering vocabulary Disorderly Words (Ἄτακτοι γλῶσσαι, Átaktoi glôssai) which explained the meanings of rare Homeric and other literary words, words from local dialects, and technical terms.[12] Apollonius the Sophist (fl. 1st century CE) wrote the oldest surviving Homeric lexicon.[10] The first Sanskrit dictionary, the Amarakośa, was written by Amarasimha c. 4th century CE. Written in verse, it listed around 10,000 words. According to the Nihon Shoki, the first Japanese dictionary was the long-lost 682 CE Niina glossary of Chinese characters. The oldest existing Japanese dictionary, the c. 835 CE Tenrei Banshō Meigi, was also a glossary of written Chinese. In Frahang-i Pahlavig, Aramaic heterograms are listed together with their translation in the Middle Persian language and phonetic transcription in the Pazend alphabet. A 9th-century CE Irish dictionary, Sanas Cormaic, contained etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words. In the 12th century, The Karakhanid-Turkic scholar Mahmud Kashgari finished his work «Divan-u Lügat’it Türk», a dictionary about the Turkic dialects, but especially Karakhanid Turkic. His work contains about 7500 to 8000 words and it was written to teach non Turkic Muslims, especially the Abbasid Arabs, the Turkic language.[13] Al-Zamakhshari wrote a small Arabic dictionary called «Muḳaddimetü’l-edeb» for the Turkic-Khwarazm ruler Atsiz.[14] In the 14th century, the Codex Cumanicus was finished and it served as a dictionary about the Cuman-Turkic language. While in Mamluk Egypt, Ebû Hayyân el-Endelüsî finished his work «Kitâbü’l-İdrâk li-lisâni’l-Etrâk», a dictionary about the Kipchak and Turcoman languages spoken in Egypt and the Levant.[15] A dictionary called «Bahşayiş Lügati», which is written in old Anatolian Turkish, served also as a dictionary between Oghuz Turkish, Arabic and Persian. But it is not clear who wrote the dictionary or in which century exactly it was published. It was written in old Anatolian Turkish from the Seljuk period and not the late medieval Ottoman period.[16] In India around 1320, Amir Khusro compiled the Khaliq-e-bari, which mainly dealt with Hindustani and Persian words.[17]

The French-language Petit Larousse is an example of an illustrated dictionary.

Arabic dictionaries were compiled between the 8th and 14th centuries CE, organizing words in rhyme order (by the last syllable), by alphabetical order of the radicals, or according to the alphabetical order of the first letter (the system used in modern European language dictionaries). The modern system was mainly used in specialist dictionaries, such as those of terms from the Qur’an and hadith, while most general use dictionaries, such as the Lisan al-`Arab (13th century, still the best-known large-scale dictionary of Arabic) and al-Qamus al-Muhit (14th century) listed words in the alphabetical order of the radicals. The Qamus al-Muhit is the first handy dictionary in Arabic, which includes only words and their definitions, eliminating the supporting examples used in such dictionaries as the Lisan and the Oxford English Dictionary.[18]

In medieval Europe, glossaries with equivalents for Latin words in vernacular or simpler Latin were in use (e.g. the Leiden Glossary). The Catholicon (1287) by Johannes Balbus, a large grammatical work with an alphabetical lexicon, was widely adopted. It served as the basis for several bilingual dictionaries and was one of the earliest books (in 1460) to be printed. In 1502 Ambrogio Calepino’s Dictionarium was published, originally a monolingual Latin dictionary, which over the course of the 16th century was enlarged to become a multilingual glossary. In 1532 Robert Estienne published the Thesaurus linguae latinae and in 1572 his son Henri Estienne published the Thesaurus linguae graecae, which served up to the 19th century as the basis of Greek lexicography. The first monolingual Spanish dictionary written was Sebastián Covarrubias’s Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, published in 1611 in Madrid, Spain.[19] In 1612 the first edition of the Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca, for Italian, was published. It served as the model for similar works in French and English. In 1690 in Rotterdam was published, posthumously, the Dictionnaire Universel by Antoine Furetière for French. In 1694 appeared the first edition of the Dictionnaire de l’Académie française (still published, with the ninth edition not complete as of 2021). Between 1712 and 1721 was published the Vocabulario portughez e latino written by Raphael Bluteau. The Real Academia Española published the first edition of the Diccionario de la lengua española (still published, with a new edition about every decade) in 1780; their Diccionario de Autoridades, which included quotes taken from literary works, was published in 1726. The Totius Latinitatis lexicon by Egidio Forcellini was firstly published in 1777; it has formed the basis of all similar works that have since been published.

The first edition of A Greek-English Lexicon by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott appeared in 1843; this work remained the basic dictionary of Greek until the end of the 20th century. And in 1858 was published the first volume of the Deutsches Wörterbuch by the Brothers Grimm; the work was completed in 1961. Between 1861 and 1874 was published the Dizionario della lingua italiana by Niccolò Tommaseo. Between 1862 and 1874 was published the six volumes of A magyar nyelv szótára (Dictionary of Hungarian Language) by Gergely Czuczor and János Fogarasi. Émile Littré published the Dictionnaire de la langue française between 1863 and 1872. In the same year 1863 appeared the first volume of the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal which was completed in 1998. Also in 1863 Vladimir Ivanovich Dahl published the Explanatory Dictionary of the Living Great Russian Language. The Duden dictionary dates back to 1880, and is currently the prescriptive source for the spelling of German. The decision to start work on the Svenska Akademiens ordbok was taken in 1787.[20]

English dictionaries in Britain

The earliest dictionaries in the English language were glossaries of French, Spanish or Latin words along with their definitions in English. The word «dictionary» was invented by an Englishman called John of Garland in 1220 – he had written a book Dictionarius to help with Latin «diction».[21] An early non-alphabetical list of 8000 English words was the Elementarie, created by Richard Mulcaster in 1582.[22][23]

The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written by English schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey in 1604.[2][3] The only surviving copy is found at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. This dictionary, and the many imitators which followed it, was seen as unreliable and nowhere near definitive. Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield was still lamenting in 1754, 150 years after Cawdrey’s publication, that it is «a sort of disgrace to our nation, that hitherto we have had no… standard of our language; our dictionaries at present being more properly what our neighbors the Dutch and the Germans call theirs, word-books, than dictionaries in the superior sense of that title.»[24]

In 1616, John Bullokar described the history of the dictionary with his «English Expositor». Glossographia by Thomas Blount, published in 1656, contains more than 10,000 words along with their etymologies or histories. Edward Phillips wrote another dictionary in 1658, entitled «The New World of English Words: Or a General Dictionary» which boldly plagiarized Blount’s work, and the two criticised each other. This created more interest in the dictionaries. John Wilkins’ 1668 essay on philosophical language contains a list of 11,500 words with careful distinctions, compiled by William Lloyd.[25] Elisha Coles published his «English Dictionary» in 1676.

It was not until Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) that a more reliable English dictionary was produced.[3] Many people today mistakenly believe that Johnson wrote the first English dictionary: a testimony to this legacy.[2][26] By this stage, dictionaries had evolved to contain textual references for most words, and were arranged alphabetically, rather than by topic (a previously popular form of arrangement, which meant all animals would be grouped together, etc.). Johnson’s masterwork could be judged as the first to bring all these elements together, creating the first «modern» dictionary.[26]

Johnson’s dictionary remained the English-language standard for over 150 years, until the Oxford University Press began writing and releasing the Oxford English Dictionary in short fascicles from 1884 onwards.[3][27] It took nearly 50 years to complete this huge work, and they finally released the complete OED in twelve volumes in 1928.[27] One of the main contributors to this modern dictionary was an ex-army surgeon, William Chester Minor, a convicted murderer who was confined to an asylum for the criminally insane.[28]

The OED remains the most comprehensive and trusted English language dictionary to this day, with revisions and updates added by a dedicated team every three months.

American English dictionaries

In 1806, American Noah Webster published his first dictionary, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language.[3] In 1807 Webster began compiling an expanded and fully comprehensive dictionary, An American Dictionary of the English Language; it took twenty-seven years to complete. To evaluate the etymology of words, Webster learned twenty-six languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic, and Sanskrit.

Webster completed his dictionary during his year abroad in 1825 in Paris, France, and at the University of Cambridge. His book contained seventy thousand words, of which twelve thousand had never appeared in a published dictionary before. As a spelling reformer, Webster believed that English spelling rules were unnecessarily complex, so his dictionary introduced spellings that became American English, replacing «colour» with «color», substituting «wagon» for «waggon», and printing «center» instead of «centre». He also added American words, like «skunk» and «squash,» which did not appear in British dictionaries. At the age of seventy, Webster published his dictionary in 1828; it sold 2500 copies. In 1840, the second edition was published in two volumes. Webster’s dictionary was acquired by G & C Merriam Co. in 1843, after his death, and has since been published in many revised editions. Merriam-Webster was acquired by Encyclopedia Britannica in 1964.

Controversy over the lack of usage advice in the 1961 Webster’s Third New International Dictionary spurred publication of the 1969 The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, the first dictionary to use corpus linguistics.

Types

In a general dictionary, each word may have multiple meanings. Some dictionaries include each separate meaning in the order of most common usage while others list definitions in historical order, with the oldest usage first.[29]

In many languages, words can appear in many different forms, but only the undeclined or unconjugated form appears as the headword in most dictionaries. Dictionaries are most commonly found in the form of a book, but some newer dictionaries, like StarDict and the New Oxford American Dictionary are dictionary software running on PDAs or computers. There are also many online dictionaries accessible via the Internet.

Specialized dictionaries

According to the Manual of Specialized Lexicographies, a specialized dictionary, also referred to as a technical dictionary, is a dictionary that focuses upon a specific subject field, as opposed to a dictionary that comprehensively contains words from the lexicon of a specific language or languages. Following the description in The Bilingual LSP Dictionary, lexicographers categorize specialized dictionaries into three types: A multi-field dictionary broadly covers several subject fields (e.g. a business dictionary), a single-field dictionary narrowly covers one particular subject field (e.g. law), and a sub-field dictionary covers a more specialized field (e.g. constitutional law). For example, the 23-language Inter-Active Terminology for Europe is a multi-field dictionary, the American National Biography is a single-field, and the African American National Biography Project is a sub-field dictionary. In terms of the coverage distinction between «minimizing dictionaries» and «maximizing dictionaries», multi-field dictionaries tend to minimize coverage across subject fields (for instance, Oxford Dictionary of World Religions and Yadgar Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms)[30] whereas single-field and sub-field dictionaries tend to maximize coverage within a limited subject field (The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology).

Another variant is the glossary, an alphabetical list of defined terms in a specialized field, such as medicine (medical dictionary).

Defining dictionaries

The simplest dictionary, a defining dictionary, provides a core glossary of the simplest meanings of the simplest concepts. From these, other concepts can be explained and defined, in particular for those who are first learning a language. In English, the commercial defining dictionaries typically include only one or two meanings of under 2000 words. With these, the rest of English, and even the 4000 most common English idioms and metaphors, can be defined.

Prescriptive vs. descriptive

Lexicographers apply two basic philosophies to the defining of words: prescriptive or descriptive. Noah Webster, intent on forging a distinct identity for the American language, altered spellings and accentuated differences in meaning and pronunciation of some words. This is why American English now uses the spelling color while the rest of the English-speaking world prefers colour. (Similarly, British English subsequently underwent a few spelling changes that did not affect American English; see further at American and British English spelling differences.)[31]

Large 20th-century dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Webster’s Third are descriptive, and attempt to describe the actual use of words. Most dictionaries of English now apply the descriptive method to a word’s definition, and then, outside of the definition itself, provide information alerting readers to attitudes which may influence their choices on words often considered vulgar, offensive, erroneous, or easily confused.[32] Merriam-Webster is subtle, only adding italicized notations such as, sometimes offensive or stand (nonstandard). American Heritage goes further, discussing issues separately in numerous «usage notes.» Encarta provides similar notes, but is more prescriptive, offering warnings and admonitions against the use of certain words considered by many to be offensive or illiterate, such as, «an offensive term for…» or «a taboo term meaning…».

Because of the widespread use of dictionaries in schools, and their acceptance by many as language authorities, their treatment of the language does affect usage to some degree, with even the most descriptive dictionaries providing conservative continuity. In the long run, however, the meanings of words in English are primarily determined by usage, and the language is being changed and created every day.[33] As Jorge Luis Borges says in the prologue to «El otro, el mismo»: «It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature.»

Sometimes the same dictionary can be descriptive in some domains and prescriptive in others. For example, according to Ghil’ad Zuckermann, the Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary is «at war with itself»: whereas its coverage (lexical items) and glosses (definitions) are descriptive and colloquial, its vocalization is prescriptive. This internal conflict results in absurd sentences such as hi taharóg otí kshetiré me asíti lamkhonít (she’ll tear me apart when she sees what I’ve done to the car). Whereas hi taharóg otí, literally ‘she will kill me’, is colloquial, me (a variant of ma ‘what’) is archaic, resulting in a combination that is unutterable in real life.[34]

Historical dictionaries

A historical dictionary is a specific kind of descriptive dictionary which describes the development of words and senses over time, usually using citations to original source material to support its conclusions.[35]

Dictionaries for natural language processing

In contrast to traditional dictionaries, which are designed to be used by human beings, dictionaries for natural language processing (NLP) are built to be used by computer programs. The final user is a human being but the direct user is a program. Such a dictionary does not need to be able to be printed on paper. The structure of the content is not linear, ordered entry by entry but has the form of a complex network (see Diathesis alternation). Because most of these dictionaries are used to control machine translations or cross-lingual information retrieval (CLIR) the content is usually multilingual and usually of huge size. In order to allow formalized exchange and merging of dictionaries, an ISO standard called Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) has been defined and used among the industrial and academic community.[36]

Other types

  • Bilingual dictionary
  • Collegiate dictionary (American)
  • Learner’s dictionary (mostly British)
  • Electronic dictionary
  • Encyclopedic dictionary
  • Monolingual learner’s dictionary
    • Advanced learner’s dictionary
  • By sound
    • Rhyming dictionary
  • Reverse dictionary (Conceptual dictionary)
  • Visual dictionary
  • Satirical dictionary
  • Phonetic dictionary

Pronunciation

In many languages, such as the English language, the pronunciation of some words is not consistently apparent from their spelling. In these languages, dictionaries usually provide the pronunciation. For example, the definition for the word dictionary might be followed by the International Phonetic Alphabet spelling (in British English) or (in American English). American English dictionaries often use their own pronunciation respelling systems with diacritics, for example dictionary is respelled as «dĭkshə-nĕr′ē» in the American Heritage Dictionary.[37] The IPA is more commonly used within the British Commonwealth countries. Yet others use their own pronunciation respelling systems without diacritics: for example, dictionary may be respelled as DIK-shə-nerr-ee. Some online or electronic dictionaries provide audio recordings of words being spoken.

Examples

Major English dictionaries

  • A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson (prescriptive)
  • The American College Dictionary by Clarence L. Barnhart
  • The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
  • Black’s Law Dictionary, a law dictionary
  • Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
  • Canadian Oxford Dictionary
  • Century Dictionary
  • Chambers Dictionary
  • Collins English Dictionary
  • Concise Oxford English Dictionary
  • Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English / Longman
  • Macmillan Dictionary
  • Macquarie Dictionary, a dictionary of Australian English
  • Merriam-Webster, a dictionary of American English
  • Oxford Dictionary of English
  • Oxford English Dictionary (descriptive) (well-known as OED/O.E.D.)
  • Random House Dictionary of the English Language
  • Webster’s New World Dictionary (especially the college edition, used as the official desk dictionary of many American press journalists)

Dictionaries of other languages

Histories and descriptions of the dictionaries of other languages on Wikipedia include:

  • Arabic dictionaries
  • Chinese dictionaries
  • Dehkhoda Dictionary (Persian Language)
  • Dutch dictionaries
  • French dictionaries
  • German dictionaries
  • Japanese dictionaries
  • Polish dictionaries
  • Scottish Gaelic dictionaries
  • Scottish Language Dictionaries
  • Sindhi Language Dictionaries

Online dictionaries

The age of the Internet brought online dictionaries to the desktop and, more recently, to the smart phone. David Skinner in 2013 noted that «Among the top ten lookups on Merriam-Webster Online at this moment are holistic, pragmatic, caveat, esoteric and bourgeois. Teaching users about words they don’t already know has been, historically, an aim of lexicography, and modern dictionaries do this well.»[38]

There exist a number of websites which operate as online dictionaries, usually with a specialized focus. Some of them have exclusively user driven content, often consisting of neologisms. Some of the more notable examples are given in List of online dictionaries and Category:Online dictionaries.

See also

  •   Books portal
  • Comparison of English dictionaries
  • Centre for Lexicography
  • COBUILD, a large corpus of English text
  • Corpus linguistics
  • DICT, the dictionary server protocol
  • Dictionary Society of North America
  • Fictitious entry
  • Foreign language writing aid
  • Lexicographic error
  • Lists of dictionaries
  • Thesaurus
  • Dreaming of Words

Notes

  1. ^ Webster’s New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, 2002
  2. ^ a b c Nordquist, Richard (August 9, 2019). «The Features, Functions, and Limitations of Dictionaries». ThoughtCo. Archived from the original on May 26, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e «Dictionary». Britannica. Archived from the original on July 8, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  4. ^ Nielsen, Sandro (2008). «The Effect of Lexicographical Information Costs on Dictionary Naming and Use». Lexikos. 18: 170–189. ISSN 1684-4904.
  5. ^ A Practical Guide to Lexicography, Sterkenburg 2003, pp. 155–157
  6. ^ a b A Practical Guide to Lexicography, Sterkenburg 2003, pp. 3–4
  7. ^ A Practical Guide to Lexicography, Sterkenburg 2003, p. 7
  8. ^ R. R. K. Hartmann (2003). Lexicography: Dictionaries, compilers, critics, and users. Routledge. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-415-25366-6.
  9. ^ «DCCLT – Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Lexical Texts». oracc.museum.upenn.edu. Retrieved 2022-03-01.
  10. ^ a b Dictionary – MSN Encarta. Archived from the original on 2009-10-29.
  11. ^ Jackson, Howard (2022-02-24). The Bloomsbury Handbook of Lexicography. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-18172-4.
  12. ^ Peter Bing (2003). «The unruly tongue: Philitas of Cos as scholar and poet». Classical Philology. 98 (4): 330–348. doi:10.1086/422370. S2CID 162304317.
  13. ^ Besim Atalay, Divanü Lügat-it Türk Dizini, TTK Basımevi, Ankara, 1986
  14. ^ Zeki Velidi Togan, Zimahşeri’nin Doğu Türkçesi İle Mukaddimetül Edeb’i
  15. ^ Ahmet Caferoğlu, Kitab Al Idrak Li Lisan Al Atrak, 1931
  16. ^ Bahşāyiş Bin Çalıça, Bahşayiş Lügati: Hazırlayan: Fikret TURAN, Ankara 2017,
  17. ^ Rashid, Omar. «Chasing Khusro». The Hindu. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
  18. ^ «Ḳāmūs», J. Eckmann, Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., Brill
  19. ^ Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, edición integral e ilustrada de Ignacio Arellano y Rafael Zafra, Madrid, Iberoamericana-Vervuert, 2006, pg. XLIX.
  20. ^ «OSA – Om svar anhålles». g3.spraakdata.gu.se. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  21. ^ Mark Forsyth. The etymologicon. // Icon Books Ltd. London N79DP, 2011. p. 128
  22. ^ «1582 – Mulcaster’s Elementarie». www.bl.uk. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  23. ^ A Brief History of English Lexicography Archived 2008-03-09 at the Wayback Machine, Peter Erdmann and See-Young Cho, Technische Universität Berlin, 1999.
  24. ^ Jack Lynch, «How Johnson’s Dictionary Became the First Dictionary» (delivered 25 August 2005 at the Johnson and the English Language conference, Birmingham) Retrieved July 12, 2008,
  25. ^ John P. Considine (27 March 2008). Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe: Lexicography and the Making of Heritage. Cambridge University Press. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-521-88674-1. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  26. ^ a b «Lynch, «How Johnson’s Dictionary Became the First Dictionary»«. andromeda.rutgers.edu. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  27. ^ a b «Oxford Dictionary Debuts». History. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  28. ^ Simon Winchester, The Surgeon of Crowthorne.
  29. ^ «Language Core Reference Sources – Texas State Library». Archived from the original on 2010-04-25. Retrieved 2010-08-22.
  30. ^ Times, The Sindh (24 February 2015). «The first English to Einglish and Sindhi Dictionary of Computer and Internet Terms published – The Sindh Times». Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 13 October 2017.
  31. ^ Phil Benson (2002). Ethnocentrism and the English Dictionary. Taylor & Francis. pp. 8–11. ISBN 9780203205716.
  32. ^ Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade; Wim van der Wurff (2009). Current Issues in Late Modern English. Peter Lang. pp. 41–42. ISBN 9783039116607.
  33. ^ Ned Halley, The Wordsworth Dictionary of Modern English Grammar (2005), p. 84
  34. ^ Zuckermann, Ghil’ad (1999). Review of the Oxford English-Hebrew Dictionary, International Journal of Lexicography 12.4, pp. 325-346.
  35. ^ See for example Toyin Falola, et al. Historical dictionary of Nigeria (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018) excerpt
  36. ^ Imad Zeroual, and Abdelhak Lakhouaja, «Data science in light of natural language processing: An overview.» Procedia Computer Science 127 (2018): 82-91 online.
  37. ^ «dictionary». The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (5th ed.). HarperCollins.
  38. ^ Skinner, David (May 17, 2013). «The Role of a Dictionary». Opinionator. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2013-05-18. Retrieved 2020-08-13.

References

  • Bergenholtz, Henning; Tarp, Sven, eds. (1995). Manual of Specialised Lexicography: The Preparation of Specialised Dictionaries. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing. ISBN 90-272-1612-6.
  • Erdmann, Peter; Cho, See-Young. «A Brief History of English Lexicography». Technische Universität Berlin. Archived from the original on 9 March 2008. Retrieved 17 December 2010.
  • Landau, Sidney I. (2001) [1984]. Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-78040-3.
  • Nielsen, Sandro (1994). The Bilingual LSP Dictionary: Principles and Practice for Legal Language. Tübingeb: Gunter Narr. ISBN 3-8233-4533-8.
  • Nielsen, Sandro (2008). «The Effect of Lexicographical Information Costs on Dictionary Making and Use». Lexikos. 18: 170–189. ISSN 1684-4904.
  • Atkins, B.T.S. & Rundell, Michael (2008) The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-927771-1
  • Winchester, Simon (1998). The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 0-06-099486-X. (published in the UK as The Surgeon of Crowthorne).
  • P. G. J. van Sterkenburg, ed. (2003). A practical guide to lexicography. John Benjamins Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-58811-381-8.

Further reading

  • Guy Jean Forgue, «The Norm in American English», Revue Française d’Etudes Americaines, Nov 1983, Vol. 8 Issue 18, pp. 451–461. An international appreciation of the importance of Webster’s dictionaries in setting the norms of the English language.

External links

  • Dictionary at Curlie
  • Glossary of dictionary terms by the Oxford University Press
  •   Texts on Wikisource:
    • «Dictionary». Collier’s New Encyclopedia. 1921.
    • «Dictionary». Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). 1911.
    • «Dictionary». New International Encyclopedia. 1905.
    • Wikisource:Language (directory of language-related works on Wikisource – includes dictionaries)

Get the most trusted, up-to-date definitions from Merriam-Webster. Find word meaning, pronunciation, origin, synonyms, and more.

Looking for synonyms & antonyms instead? Browse the Thesaurus

1

: a reference source in print or electronic form containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactic and idiomatic uses

2

: a reference book listing alphabetically terms or names important to a particular subject or activity along with discussion of their meanings and applications

3

: a reference book listing alphabetically the words of one language and showing their meanings or translations in another language

4

: a computerized list (as of items of data or words) used for reference (as for information retrieval or word processing)

Synonyms

Example Sentences

Famed for his dictionary, «Rambler» essays and The Lives of the English Poets, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) remains one of the most-quoted and carefully observed authors who ever lived.


Publishers Weekly, 21 July 2008


I still read relatively slowly in Yiddish, with frequent recourse to a dictionary, and my first year of graduate school found me at my desk till two or three in the morning every night …


Aaron Lansky, Outwitting History, 2004



Look it up in the dictionary.



try to develop the habit of going to the dictionary whenever you encounter an unfamiliar word

Recent Examples on the Web

From atop a desk the size of a French church door, Li extracted her favorite dictionary, Samuel Johnson’s 1755 Dictionary of the English Language, from a topography of books permanently unshelved.


Alexandra Kleeman, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2022





No need to turn to the dictionary for this one.


Dallas News, 9 Aug. 2022





Which word in the dictionary is spelled incorrectly?


Lauren Wellbank, Woman’s Day, 1 Mar. 2023





And maybe some obscurity from the depths of the dictionary would be desperation only.


James Brown, USA TODAY, 19 Feb. 2023





One aim of the dictionary is to do a better job acknowledging the contributions Black Americans have made to the English language.


Erika Page, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Sep. 2022





And for the third year running, our 19th sliver of the dictionary is still in the H’s.


Pat Myers, Washington Post, 18 Aug. 2022





Another dictionary, Merriam-Webster, also selected pandemic as its word of the year earlier Monday.


Arkansas Online, 30 Nov. 2020





Manam Hpang, author of an English-Kachin-Burmese dictionary, said the Kachin had an acute sense of persecution as Christians in a Buddhist land.


Razib Khan, Discover Magazine, 8 Apr. 2013



See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘dictionary.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Medieval Latin dictiōnārium, name for an alphabetized guide to the Vulgate, earlier dictiōnārius, name for a Latin textbook in which words are grouped by topic (apparently coined by its author, the 13th-century English-born university teacher John of Garland), from Latin dictiōn-, dictiō «speech, (in grammar) word, expression» + -ārius, -ārium -ary entry 1 — more at diction

First Known Use

1526, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Time Traveler

The first known use of dictionary was
in 1526

Dictionary Entries Near dictionary

Cite this Entry

“Dictionary.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dictionary. Accessed 14 Apr. 2023.

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More from Merriam-Webster on dictionary

Last Updated:
2 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

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Merriam-Webster unabridged

  • Abaza: ажвар (ažʷar)
  • Abkhaz: ажәар (aẑʷar)
  • Adyghe: гущыӏалъ (gʷuśəʼaalˢ)
  • Afrikaans: woordeboek (af)
  • Akan: please add this translation if you can
  • Albanian: fjalor (sq) m
  • Alemannic German: Wärterbüach, Wörterbuch, Läxikon
  • American Sign Language: D@NearPalm-PalmDown-OpenB@CenterChesthigh-PalmUp CirclesMidlineContact
  • Amharic: መዝገበ ቃላት (am) (mäzgäbä ḳalat)
  • Arabic: قَامُوس (ar) m (qāmūs), مُعْجَم (ar) m (muʕjam)
  • Aragonese: diccionario m
  • Aramaic: לכסיקון(leksiqon)
    Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܦܘܫܩ ܡܠܐ(pušāq millē), ܠܟܣܝܩܘܢ(liksīqon)
    Classical Syriac: ܠܟܣܝܩܘܢ(leksīqōn)
  • Armenian: բառարան (hy) (baṙaran), բառգիրք (hy) (baṙgirkʿ) (rare)
    Old Armenian: բառգիրք (baṙgirkʿ)
  • Aromanian: dictsiunar m, glusar n, lexico m
  • Assamese: অভিধান (obhidhan)
  • Asturian: diccionariu (ast) m
  • Avar: словарь (slowarʲ), къамус (qxʼamus) (dated)
  • Aymara: aru pirwa
  • Azerbaijani: sözlük (az), lüğət (az)
    Arabic: سوزلک‎, لوغت
    Cyrillic: сөзлүк, лүғәт
  • Bashkir: һүҙлек (hüðlek)
  • Basque: hiztegi (eu)
  • Belarusian: сло́ўнік m (slóŭnik)
  • Bengali: অভিধান (bn) (obhidhan), ডিকশনারী (bn) (ḍikośnari), ডিকশনারি (bn) (ḍikośnari)
  • Bikol Central: diksyunaryo
  • Bourguignon: diccionâre m
  • Breton: geriadur (br) m
  • Bulgarian: ре́чник (bg) m (réčnik)
  • Burmese: အဘိဓာန် (my) (a.bhi.dhan)
  • Buryat: толи (toli)
  • Catalan: diccionari (ca) m
  • Cebuano: diksyonaryo
  • Chakma: 𑄇𑄧𑄙𑄖𑄢 (kadhātārā)
  • Cham:
    Eastern Cham: ꨁꨗꨤꩃ, inalang
    Western Cham: اينآلآڠ
  • Chamorro: diksinario, diksionario
  • Chechen: словарь (slowarʲ), дошам (došam), лугӏат (luğat)
  • Cherokee: ᏗᏕᏠᏆᏍᏙᏗ (didetloquasdodi)
  • Chinese:
    Cantonese: 字典 (zi6 din2), 詞典词典 (ci4 din2)
    Dungan: хуадян (huadi͡an), цыдян (cɨdi͡an), зыдян (zɨdi͡an) (character dictionary)
    Hakka: 字典 (sṳ-tién, si4 diên3)
    Mandarin: 字典 (zh) (zìdiǎn) (character dictionary), 詞典词典 (zh) (cídiǎn), 辭典辞典 (zh) (cídiǎn), 辭林辞林 (zh) (cílín) (alternative forms)
    Min Nan: 字典 (zh-min-nan) (lī-tián / jī-tián), 詞典词典 (sû-tián), 辭林辞林 (sû-lîm)
    Wu: 字典 (zr ti), 詞典词典 (zr ti)
  • Choctaw: tikshạneli
  • Chukchi: ысловар (yslovar), вэтгавкаԓекаԓ (vėtgavkaḷekaḷ)
  • Chuvash: словарь (slovarʹ), сӑмахсен кӗнеки (sămahsen k̬ĕnek̬i), сӑмахсар (sămahsar)
  • Cimbrian: bóartlibarn m, börtarpuach n
  • Cornish: gerlyver m
  • Corsican: dizziunariu (co) m
  • Crimean Tatar: luğat, qamus
  • Czech: slovník (cs) m, vokabulář (cs) m, lexikon m
  • Danish: ordbog (da) c
  • Dargwa: словарь (slovar’)
  • Dhivehi: ރަދީފު (dv) (radīfu), ބަސްފޮތް(basfot̊)
  • Dutch: woordenboek (nl) n, dictionaire (nl) m (formal)
  • Dzongkha: ཚིག་མཛོད (tshig mdzod)
  • Enets: словарь
  • Erzya: валкс (valks)
  • Esperanto: vortaro (eo)
  • Estonian: sõnaraamat (et), sõnastik (et)
  • Evenki: турэ̄рук (turə̄ruk)
  • Extremaduran: dicionariu m
  • Faroese: orðabók (fo) f
  • Finnish: sanakirja (fi)
  • Franco-Provençal: diccionèro m
  • French: dictionnaire (fr) m, dico (fr) m (informal)
    Middle French: dictionnaire m
  • Friulian: dizionari m
  • Fula:
    Adlam: 𞤧𞤢𞤺𞥆𞤭𞤼𞤮𞤪𞤣𞤫
    Roman: saggitorde
  • Gagauz: sözlük, laflık
  • Galician: dicionario (gl) m
  • Gallo: motiéer
  • Georgian: ლექსიკონი (ka) (leksiḳoni)
  • German: Wörterbuch (de) n, Diktionär (de) n or m (archaic), Dictionnaire (de) m or n
  • Greek: λεξικό (el) n (lexikó)
    Ancient: λέξεις f pl (léxeis), λεξῐκόν n (lexikón), γλῶσσαι f pl (glôssai)
  • Greenlandic: ordbogi (kl)
  • Guarani: ñe’ẽndy (gn)
  • Guerrero Amuzgo: tzoⁿ ‘tzítyui’ jñ’o
  • Gujarati: શબ્દકોશ (śabdakoś), અભિધાન (abhidhān)
  • Haitian Creole: diksyonè
  • Hausa: ƙamus (ha) m
  • Hawaiian: puke wehewehe ‘ōlelo
  • Hebrew: מילון מִלּוֹן (he) m (milón)
  • Hiligaynon: diksonaryo, kapulungan
  • Hindi: शब्दकोश (hi) m (śabdakoś), शब्दकोष (hi) m (śabdakoṣ), कोश (hi) m (koś), डिक्शनरी (ḍikśanrī), डिश्कनरी (hi) f (ḍiśkanrī), शब्दसंग्रह (hi) m (śabdasaṅgrah), शब्दवारिधि (hi) m (śabdavāridhi), अभिधान (hi) m (abhidhān), अभिधानमाला (hi) m (abhidhānmālā), लुग़त m (luġat), लुग़ात m (luġāt), लुगत (hi) m (lugat), लुगात (hi) m (lugāt), फरहंग (hi) m (pharhaṅg), निघंटु (hi) m (nighaṇṭu), क़ामूस m (qāmūs)
  • Hopi: lavaytutuveni
  • Hungarian: szótár (hu)
  • Hunsrik: Werterbuch n
  • Icelandic: orðabók (is) f
  • Ido: vortolibro (io), dicionario (io), lexiko (io), vortaro (io)
  • Igbo: nkowaokwu
  • Ilocano: diksionario
  • Indonesian: kamus (id), bausastra (id), logat (id) (obsolete)
  • Ingrian: sanakirja
  • Ingush: дошлорг (došlorg)
  • Interlingua: dictionario (ia)
  • Inuktitut: ᕿᒥᕐᕈᐊᑦ ᐅᓐᓂᖅᑐᖅ ᒥᑦᓯ ᑐᑭᐊ (qimirroat onniqtoq mitsi tokia)
  • Irish: foclóir (ga) m
  • Italian: dizionario (it) m, lessico (it) m, vocabolario (it) m
  • Japanese: 辞書 (ja) (じしょ, jisho), 字書 (ja) (じしょ, jisho), 辞典 (ja) (じてん, jiten), 字典 (ja) (じてん, jiten) (character dictionary), 字引 (ja) (じびき, jibiki) (character dictionary)
  • Javanese:
    Carakan: ꦧꦲꦸꦱꦱ꧀ꦠꦿ (bahusastra)
    Roman:bausastra
  • Kabardian: словарь (sloovaarʲ), слъэвар (slˢevaar), псалъалъэ (psaalˢaalˢe)
  • Kabyle: amawal
  • Kalmyk: толь (tolĭ)
  • Kannada: ನಿಘಂಟು (kn) (nighaṇṭu), ಅರ್ಥಕೋಶ (kn) (arthakōśa)
  • Kapampangan: talabaldugan
  • Karachay-Balkar: сёзлюк (sözlük)
  • Karakalpak: soʻzlik
  • Karelian: šanakirja, šanakniiga (South Karelian)
  • Kashubian: słowôrz m
  • Kavalan: ziting
  • Kazakh: сөздік (kk) (sözdık), лұғат (lūğat)
  • Khakas: сӧстік
  • Khmer: វចនានុក្រម (km) (vĕəʼcaʼnaanukrɑm), បទានុក្រម (km) (paʼtiənukrɑm), អក្ខរក្រម (km) (ʼakkhaʼraa krɑm)
  • Kikuyu: kamusi
  • Komi-Permyak: кывчукӧр (kyvćukör), кывкуд (kyvkud)
  • Komi-Zyrian: кывчукӧр (kyvćukör), кывкуд (kyvkud), (please verify) словар (slovar)
  • Korean: 사전 (辭典) (ko) (sajeon), 자서 (字書) (ko) (jaseo), 자전 (字典) (ko) (jajeon) (character dictionary), 옥편 (玉篇) (ko) (okpyeon) (dated)
  • Kumyk: сёзлюк (sözlük)
  • Kurdish:
    Central Kurdish: فەرھەنگ (ckb) (ferheng), وْشەنامە(wişename), وْشەدان(wişedan), قامووس(qamûs)
    Northern Kurdish: ferheng (ku) f, peyvname (ku) f, bêjename (ku) f, qamûs (ku) f
  • Kven: sanakirja
  • Kyrgyz: сөздүк (ky) (sözdük)
  • Ladin: dizioner m
  • Ladino: diksionario m
  • Lak: словарь
  • Lao: ວັດຈະນານຸກົມ (lo) (wat cha nā nu kom), ພົດຈະນານຸກົມ (phot cha nā nu kom)
  • Latgalian: vuordineica f
  • Latin: dictiōnārium (la) n, lexicon n
  • Latvian: vārdnīca (lv) f
  • Leonese: dicionariu m, palabreiru m
  • Lezgi: гафарган (gafargan)
  • Ligurian: dizionario m
  • Limburgish: waordebook (li) n, waorsbook n, diksjenaer (li) m
  • Lithuanian: žodynas (lt) m
  • Livonian: sõnārōntõz
  • Livvi: sanakniigu, sanakirju
  • Lombard: dizionari (lmo) m
  • Low German:
    Dutch Low German: woordenboek
    German Low German: Wöörbook n, Woordenbook n
  • Luhya: ekamusi
  • Luxembourgish: Dictionnaire (lb) m, Wierderbuch (lb) n
  • Lü: ᦈᦹᧈᦶᦑᧃ (ṫsue¹taen)
  • Macedonian: ре́чник (mk) m (réčnik), поимник m (poimnik), толковник m (tolkovnik), лексикон m (leksikon)
  • Malagasy: rakibolana (mg), diksionary (mg)
  • Malay: kamus (ms), buku katan, bausastera (ms)
    Ambonese Malay: kamus
  • Malayalam: നിഘണ്ടു (ml) (nighaṇṭu), കോശം (ml) (kōśaṃ), പദാവലി (ml) (padāvali), ശബ്ദകോശം (ml) (śabdakōśaṃ), ഡിക്ഷണറി (ḍikṣaṇaṟi)
  • Maltese: dizzjunarju (mt) m, miklem m, milsen m
  • Manchu: ᠪᡠᠯᡝᡴᡠ
    ᠪᡳᡨ᠌ᡥᡝ
    (buleku bithe), ᡥᡝᡵᡤᡝᠨ
    ᡴᠣᠣᠯᡳ
    ᠪᡳᡨ᠌ᡥᡝ
    (hergen kooli bithe), ᠪᡠᠯᡝᡴᡠ (buleku)
  • Mansi: словарь (slowarʹ)
  • Manx: fockleyr m
  • Maori: pukapuka taki kupu, papakupu (mi), tikinare
  • Mapudungun: hemvlcijka
  • Maranao: kamos
  • Marathi: शब्दकोष m (śabdakoṣ), विश्वकोष m (viśvakoṣ)
  • Mari:
    Eastern Mari: мутер (muter), словарь (slovar)
    Western Mari: лӹмдер (lÿmder)
  • Marshallese: tūkjinede
  • Mauritian Creole: diksioner
  • Meru: kamusi
  • Middle Persian: 𐭯𐭥𐭧𐭭𐭢(pʿḥng /frahang/)[[Category:|DICTIONARY]]
  • Mirandese: dicionairo m
  • Moksha: валкс (valks)
  • Mon: အဘိဓာန် (mnw)
  • Mongolian:
    Cyrillic: толь бичиг (mn) (tolʹ bičig), толь (mn) (tolʹ)
    Mongolian: ᠲᠣᠯᠢ
    ᠪᠢᠴᠢᠭ᠋
    (toli bičig), ᠲᠣᠯᠢ (toli)
  • Nahuatl: tlahtōltecpantiliztli (nah)
  • Nanai: словарь
  • Navajo: naaltsoos saad bee siʼánígíí
  • Naxi: ceeqdiai
  • Neapolitan: dezziunario m, dezziunàrio m
  • Nenets:
    Tundra Nenets: словарь
  • Nepali: शब्दकोश (ne) (śabdakoś), शब्दकोष (śabdakoṣ)
  • Newar: खँग्वःसफू (khãgwa:saphū)
    Newa: 𑐏𑑃𑐐𑑂𑐰𑑅𑐳𑐦𑐹 (khãgwaḥsaphū)
  • Nogai: соьзлик (sözlik)
  • Montagnais: aimun-mashinaikan
  • Norman: dictiounnaire m (Guernsey), dictionnaithe m (Jersey)
  • Norwegian:
    Bokmål: ordbok (no) m or f, leksikon (no) n (rare)
    Nynorsk: ordbok (nn) f, leksikon n (rare)
  • Occitan: diccionari (oc) m
  • Ojibwe: ikidowini-mazina’igan
  • Oriya: ଅଭିଧାନ (ôbhidhanô)
  • Oromo: galmee jechootaa
  • Ossetian:
    Digor: дзурдуат (ʒurdwat)
    Iron: дзырдуат (ʒyrdwat)
  • Ottoman Turkish: لغت(lüğat, lügat)
  • Papiamentu: dikshonario
  • Pashto: قاموس (ps) (qâmos), وييپانګه‎ f (wëyipânga)
  • Pennsylvania German: Waddebuch n
  • Persian: لغت‌نامه (fa) (loğat-nâme), فرهنگ (fa) (farhang), واژه‌نامه (fa) (vâže-nâme), لغت (fa) (loğat), قاموس (fa) (qâmus)
  • Piedmontese: dissiunari m
  • Plautdietsch: Wieedabuak n
  • Polish: słownik (pl) m inan, leksykon (pl) m, dykcjonarz (pl) m inan (archaic), mównik (pl) m inan (obsolete), wokabularz (pl) m inan (obsolete)
  • Portuguese: dicionário (pt) m
  • Punjabi: ਸ਼ਬਦਕੋਸ਼ (pa) (śabdakoś), ਡਿਕਸ਼ਨਰੀ (ḍikśanarī)
  • Quechua: simi qullqa
  • Romani:
    Balkan: avazari m (Bugurdži), dikcionari m (Ursari), lavustik f (Arli)
    Baltic: lavengiiri lilvari (Latvian), lavengiiro lil (Latvian), slovaŕo m (North Russian)
    Carpathian: alavengeri kenva, alavni keňva (East Slovak)
    Kalo Finnish: laavesko liin
    Sinte: rakêrpaskêro lil
    Vlax: alavari, alavar m (Lovari), dikcjonari m (Kalderash), rečniko m (Gurbet, Kalderash)
    Welsh: lavengo lil
  • Romanian: dicționar (ro) n, vorbar (ro) m or n (dated)
  • Romansch: pledari m, dicziunari m, vocabulari m, glossari m
  • Russian: слова́рь (ru) m inan (slovárʹ), лексико́н (ru) m inan (leksikón)
  • Rusyn: сло́вник m (slóvnyk)
  • Rwanda-Rundi: inkoranya class 9
  • Sakizaya: zitin
  • Sami:
    Inari: sänikirje
    Lule: báhkogirjje
    Northern: sátnegirji
    Skolt: sääʹnnǩeʹrjj
    Southern: baakoegærja
  • Samoan: lolomifefiloi
  • Samogitian: žuodīns m
  • Sanskrit: शब्दकोश (sa) m (śabdakośa), निघण्टु (sa) m (nighaṇṭu), अभिधान (sa) n (abhidhāna), शब्दसंग्रह (sa) m (śabdasaṃgraha)
  • Sardinian: dizionariu m
  • Scots: dictionar
  • Scottish Gaelic: faclair m
  • Seychellois Creole: diksyoner
  • Selkup: словарь, э̄җефат (Narym)
  • Serbo-Croatian:
    Cyrillic: ре̑чнӣк m, рје̑чнӣк m, сло̑внӣк m
    Roman: rȇčnīk (sh) m, rjȇčnīk (sh) m, slȏvnīk (sh) m
  • Shona: duramahwi, duramazwi
  • Shor: сӧстӱк (söstük)
  • Sicilian: dizziunariu (scn) m, vocabbulariu m
  • Silesian: dykcjůnoř m, dykcjōnorz m
  • Sindhi: (please verify) لُغَتُ (sd), کوش(koś), فَرھَنگَ(farhanga)
    Devanagari: लुग़ति (luġati), कोश (koś)
  • Sinhalese: ශබ්ද කෝෂය (śabda kōṣaya), ශබ්දකෝෂය (śabdakōṣaya)
  • Slovak: slovník (sk) m, lexikón m
  • Slovene: slovar (sl) m
  • Somali: qaamuus (so), abwan-ka
  • Sorbian:
    Lower Sorbian: słownik m
    Upper Sorbian: słownik m
  • Sotho: bukantswe (st) class 9, tikishinare class 9
  • Southern Altai: сӧзлик (sözlik)
  • Southern Ohlone: riica pappel
  • Spanish: diccionario (es) m
  • Sranan Tongo: wortubuku
  • Swabian: Werdrbuach
  • Swahili: kamusi (sw) class 5
  • Swazi: sichazamagama class 7
  • Swedish: ordbok (sv) c, ordlista (sv) c, lexikon (sv) n
  • Tabasaran: словарь (slovarʼ)
  • Tachawit: amawal (shy)
  • Tagalog: talatinigan (tl), talahuluganan (tl), diksyunaryo (tl), diksiyonaryo (tl)
  • Tajik: луғат (tg) (luġat), фарҳанг (tg) (farhang), қомус (qomus), луғатнома (luġatnoma), вожанома (vožanoma)
  • Tamil: அகரமுதலி (ta) (akaramutali), அகராதி (ta) (akarāti), நிகண்டு (ta) (nikaṇṭu)
  • Tashelhit: amawal
    Tifinagh: ⴰⵎⴰⵡⴰⵍ (amawal)
  • Tatar: сүзлек (tt) (süzlek)
  • Telugu: నిఘంటువు (te) (nighaṇṭuvu), పదకోశము (te) (padakōśamu), శబ్దకోశము (te) (śabdakōśamu)
  • Tetum: disionáriu
  • Thai: พจนานุกรม (th) (pót-jà-naa-nú-grom), ดิกชันนารี (dìk-chan-naa-rîi), ดิก (th) (dìk), ปทานุกรม (th) (bpà-taa-nú-grom)
  • Tibetan: ཚིག་མཛོད (tshig mdzod), ཚིག་གཞུང (tshig gzhung), མིང་མཛོད (ming mdzod), དག་ཡིག (dag yig)
  • Tigrinya: መዝገበ ቃላት (mäzgäbä ḳalat)
  • Tok Pisin: dikseneri (tpi)
  • Tongan: tikisinale
  • Tulu: ಕೋಶ (kōśa)
  • Turkish: sözlük (tr), lügat (tr) (obsolete)
  • Turkmen: sözlük
  • Tuvan: словарь (slovarʹ), сөстүк (söstük)
  • Udmurt: словарь (slovar), кыллюкам (kylľukam), кылсузьет (kylsuźjet)
  • Ukrainian: словни́к (uk) m (slovnýk)
  • Urdu: لغت (ur) f (luġat), ڈکشنری(ḍikśanrī), فرہنگ(farhang), شبدکوش‎ m (śabdkoś), قاموس (ur) m (qāmūs)
  • Uyghur: سۆزلۈك (ug) (sözlük)
    Cyrillic: луғәт (lughet)
  • Uzbek: lugʻat (uz), qomus (uz), soʻzlik (uz)
    Cyrillic: луғат (uz) (lugʻat), қомус (qomus), сўзлик (soʻzlik)
  • Venda: ṱhalusamaipfi
  • Venetian: disionario m, galepìn (vec) m
  • Veps: vajehnik
  • Vietnamese: từ điển (vi), tự điển (vi) (字典 (vi)) (dated, character dictionary)
  • Volapük: vödabuk (vo), vödasbuk (older term, now obsolete; compare Wörterbuch)
  • Votic: sõnatširjõ
  • Võro: synaraamat, sõnaraamat
  • Wallisian: tikisionalio
  • Walloon: motî (wa)
  • Welsh: geiriadur (cy) m
  • Frisian:
    North: wurdenbuk
    Saterland: Woudebouk n
    West: wurdboek (fy) n
  • Wolof: baatukaay, diksoneer
  • Xhosa: idikshinari class 9
  • Yakut: тылдьыт (tıljıt)
  • Yiddish: ווערטערבוך (yi) n (verterbukh)
  • Yoruba: àtúmọ̀-èdè
  • Zazaki: vatebend m, ferheng (diq)
  • Zhuang: sawloih, swzdenj
  • Zulu: isichazimazwi class 4, isichazamazwi class 7, idikishaneli

dic·tion·ar·y

 (dĭk′shə-nĕr′ē)

n. pl. dic·tion·ar·ies

1. A reference work containing an alphabetical list of words, with information given for each word, usually including meaning, pronunciation, and etymology.

2. A reference work containing an alphabetical list of words in one language with their translations in another language.

3. A reference work containing an alphabetical list of words in a particular category or subject with specialized information about them: a medical dictionary.

4. A list of words stored in machine-readable form for reference, as by spelling-checking software.


[Medieval Latin dictiōnārium, from Latin dictiō, dictiōn-, diction; see diction.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

dictionary

(ˈdɪkʃənərɪ; -ʃənrɪ)

n, pl -aries

1. (Library Science & Bibliography)

a. a reference resource, in printed or electronic form, that consists of an alphabetical list of words with their meanings and parts of speech, and often a guide to accepted pronunciation and syllabification, irregular inflections of words, derived words of different parts of speech, and etymologies

b. a similar reference work giving equivalent words in two or more languages. Such dictionaries often consist of two or more parts, in each of which the alphabetical list is given in a different language: a German-English dictionary.

2. (Library Science & Bibliography) a reference publication listing words or terms of a particular subject or activity, giving information about their meanings and other attributes: a dictionary of gardening.

3. (Library Science & Bibliography) a collection of information or examples with the entries alphabetically arranged: a dictionary of quotations.

[C16: from Medieval Latin dictiōnārium collection of words, from Late Latin dictiō word; see diction]

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

dic•tion•ar•y

(ˈdɪk ʃəˌnɛr i)

n., pl. -ar•ies.

1. a book containing a selection of the words of a language, usu. arranged alphabetically, with information about their meanings, pronunciations, etymologies, inflected forms, etc., expressed in either the same or another language.

2. a book giving information on particular subjects or on a particular class of words, names, or facts, usu. arranged alphabetically: a biographical dictionary.

3. a list of words used by a word-processing program to check spellings in text.

[1520–30; < Medieval Latin dictiōnārium,dictiōnārius < Late Latin dictiōn- word (see diction)]

Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.

dictionary

— Based on Latin dictio(n-), «mode of expression» or «word,» then dictionarius, «a repertory of words or phrases.»

See also related terms for mode.

Farlex Trivia Dictionary. © 2012 Farlex, Inc. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

dictionary

noun wordbook, vocabulary, glossary, encyclopedia, lexicon, concordance, word list, vocabulary list If you don’t know what it means, look it up in the dictionary.

Quotations
«Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true» [Dr. Johnson]
«When I feel inclined to read poetry I take down my Dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as that of sentences. The author may arrange the gems effectively, but their shape and lustre have been given by the attrition of the ages» [Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. The Autocrat’s Autobiography]
«dictionary: a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work» [Ambrose Bierce The Devil’s Dictionary]

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

dictionary

noun

An alphabetical list of words often defined or translated:

The American Heritage® Roget’s Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Translations

woordeboek

قاموسقَامُوسكِتاب معلومات مُرَتَّبَةٌ أبْجَدِيّامعجم

речник

diccionari

slovník

ordboghåndbogleksikonopslagsbog

vortaro

sõnaraamatsõnastik

sanakirja

कोशशब्दकोश

rječnik

szótár

kamus

orðabókorîabókuppsláttarrit

辞書

사전

dictionarium

žodynas

vārdnīca

dicţionar

slovník

slovar

ordboklexikon

พจนานุกรม

словник

từ điểntự điển

Collins Spanish Dictionary — Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

dictionary

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

dictionary

(ˈdikʃənəri) plural ˈdictionaries noun

1. a book containing the words of a language alphabetically arranged, with their meanings etc. This is an English dictionary.

2. a book containing other information alphabetically arranged. a dictionary of place-names.

Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.

dictionary

قَامُوس slovník ordbog Wörterbuch λεξικό diccionario sanakirja dictionnaire rječnik dizionario 辞書 사전 woordenboek ordbok słownik dicionário словарь ordbok พจนานุกรม sözlük từ điển 词典

Multilingual Translator © HarperCollins Publishers 2009

Princeton’s WordNetRate this definition:4.0 / 2 votes

  1. dictionary, lexiconnoun

    a reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them

WiktionaryRate this definition:4.0 / 5 votes

  1. dictionarynoun

    A reference work with a list of words from one or more languages, normally ordered alphabetically and explaining each word’s meaning and sometimes containing information on its etymology, usage, translations and other data.

  2. dictionarynoun

    An associative array, a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a physical dictionary.

  3. dictionaryverb

    To look up in a dictionary

  4. dictionaryverb

    To add to a dictionary

  5. dictionaryverb

    To appear in a dictionary

  6. Etymology: dictionarium, from dictionarius, from dictio, from dictus, perfect past participle of dico + -arium.

Samuel Johnson’s DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

  1. Dictionarynoun

    A book containing the words of any language in alphabetical order, with explanations of their meaning; a lexicon; a vocabulary; a word-book.

    Etymology: dictionarium, Latin.

    Some have delivered the polity of spirits, and left an account that they stand in awe of charms, spells, and conjurations; that they are afraid of letters and characters, notes and dashes, which, set together, do signify nothing; and not only in the dictionary of man, but in the subtler vocabulary of satan.
    Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errours, b. i. c. 10.

    Is it such a horrible fault to translate simulacra images? I see what a good thing it is to have a good catholick dictionary.
    Edward Stillingfleet.

    An army, or a parliament, is a collection of men; a dictionary, or nomenclature, is a collection of words.
    Isaac Watts.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:5.0 / 1 vote

  1. Dictionarynoun

    a book containing the words of a language, arranged alphabetically, with explanations of their meanings; a lexicon; a vocabulary; a wordbook

  2. Dictionarynoun

    hence, a book containing the words belonging to any system or province of knowledge, arranged alphabetically; as, a dictionary of medicine or of botany; a biographical dictionary

  3. Etymology: [Cf. F. dictionnaire. See Diction.]

FreebaseRate this definition:2.0 / 1 vote

  1. Dictionary

    A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon. According to Nielsen a dictionary may be regarded as a lexicographical product that is characterised by three significant features: it has been prepared for one or more functions; it contains data that have been selected for the purpose of fulfilling those functions; and its lexicographic structures link and establish relationships between the data so that they can meet the needs of users and fulfill the functions of the dictionary.
    A broad distinction is made between general and specialized dictionaries. Specialized dictionaries do not contain information about words that are used in language for general purposes—words used by ordinary people in everyday situations. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether lexicology and terminology are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed to be semasiological, mapping word to definition, while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be onomasiological, first identifying concepts and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types. There are other types of dictionaries that don’t fit neatly in the above distinction, for instance bilingual dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms, or rhyming dictionaries. The word dictionary is usually understood to refer to a monolingual general-purpose dictionary.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

  1. Dictionary

    dik′shun-a-ri, n. a book containing the words of a language alphabetically arranged, with their meanings, etymology, &c.: a lexicon: a work containing information on any department of knowledge, alphabetically arranged. [Low L. dictionarium. See Diction.]

U.S. National Library of MedicineRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

  1. Dictionary

    A reference book containing a list of words — usually in alphabetical order — giving information about form, pronunciation, etymology, grammar, and meaning. A foreign-language dictionary is an alphabetical list of words of one language with their meaning and equivalents in another language.

Editors ContributionRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

  1. dictionary

    An online reference of defined living language, terms, words and definitions.

    The dictionary definition is accurate, easy and simple.

    Submitted by MaryC on March 3, 2020  

British National Corpus

  1. Written Corpus Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word ‘DICTIONARY’ in Written Corpus Frequency: #2515

  2. Nouns Frequency

    Rank popularity for the word ‘DICTIONARY’ in Nouns Frequency: #1697

How to pronounce DICTIONARY?

How to say DICTIONARY in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of DICTIONARY in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of DICTIONARY in Pythagorean Numerology is: 1

Examples of DICTIONARY in a Sentence

  1. John Kelly:

    Sometimes United States just for fun, perhaps these lighter slang and pop culture newcomers to our dictionary reflect another important aspect of our time — a cautious optimism and a brighter mood about the future ahead after a trying 2020.

  2. Roberto Mukaro Borrero:

    The tweet by the Washington Redskins rings hollow to me. If the team was really interested in standing in solidarity for racial justice, they would change their name from the dictionary-defined racial slur they continue to use. As an indigenous person, I feel their tweet comes off as tone-deaf, not woke. Violence comes in many forms, some more subtle than others. Indigenous Peoples are not your mascots.

  3. Steven Wright:

    If a word in the dictionary were mispelled, how would we know

  4. Peter Sokolowski:

    We had no idea he was the original dictionary source of feminism. We don’t have a lot of evidence of what he was looking at.

  5. TommyZegan:

    I finally found True Love . . . in the dictionary.

Popularity rank by frequency of use


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Are we missing a good definition for DICTIONARY? Don’t keep it to yourself…

What does the word dictionary mean?

noun, plural dic·tion·ar·ies. a book giving information on particular subjects or on a particular class of words, names, or facts, usually arranged alphabetically: a biographical dictionary; a dictionary of mathematics.

What is the dictionary definition of thankfulness?

Aware and appreciative of a benefit; grateful. 2. Expressive of gratitude: a thankful smile. thank′ful·ly adv. thank′ful·ness n.

What is the dictionary definition of autobiography?

a history of a person’s life written or told by that person.

What’s the root word of autobiography?

Look at the word autobiography. … Auto– is the Greek root meaning “self,” bio— is the Greek root meaning “life,” and graph is the Greek root for “written.” Piece it together and an autobiography is written by a person about his own life. Take away the root “auto” and a biography is written about a life.

What is the root word of autobiography?

autobiography: This word is comprised of the prefix auto-, which comes from the Greek root word autos, which means «self.» A few GRE (and more difficult) words that come from this prolific prefix include autochthonous, automaton, autodidactic, and autonomous.

What does geo mean in Greek?

History and Etymology for geo— borrowed from Greek geō-, combining form of gê (Doric gâ) «earth, land, country,» perhaps contracted from gaîa «earth,» probably of pre-Greek substratal origin.

What is the root word that means blood?

hemo

What does the root word logy mean?

The Greek root word log meansword,’ and its variant suffixlogy means ‘study (of). ‘ Some common English words that use this root include biology, mythology, catalog, and prologue. Biology, of course, is the ‘study’ of life, whereas a prologue constitutes the ‘words‘ spoken to introduce a poem or novel.

What is logy in psychology?

(also —ology) Denoting a subject of study or interest. More example sentences. ‘psychology

What is the study of logy?

Also ‑ology. A subject of study or interest; speech or language. French ‑logie or medieval Latin ‑logia, from Greek logos, word or speech. Many examples relating to a field of study exist, of which a selection is given in the list below.

What does the root word Mort mean?

death

What is Mort short for?

Mort is a common masculine given name or nickname/hypocorism variant of Morton or Mortimer, particularly in the United States.

What is the root word of dangerous?

Something that is dangerous or very risky can be described with the adjective perilous. … The adjective perilous comes from the Latin word periculum, meaning dangerous. Words from the same root include peril, a noun meaning a dangerous situation, and imperil, a verb meaning to put in danger.

What does mortally mean?

1 : in a deadly or fatal manner : to death mortally wounded. 2 : to an extreme degree : intensely mortally afraid. Synonyms & Antonyms More Example Sentences Learn More about mortally.

Can you survive a mortal wound?

Not only must a mortal wound lead to death, but it must have led to death. … It means to say that whether or not the death was instantaneous, if you can pin it down to a particular wound, then that wound was mortal. And yes, mortal wound describes the wound itself.

What means peasant?

Meaning of peasant in English a person who owns or rents a small piece of land and grows crops, keeps animals, etc. on it, especially one who has a low income, very little education, and a low social position.

What means divine?

1 : of or relating to God or a god divine will. 2 : being in praise of God : religious, holy divine worship. 3 : like a god The pharaohs of ancient Egypt were considered divine.

What does divine mean spiritually?

A divinity is a religious being, like a god or angel. It’s also a word for the study of religion, which is studied at divinity school. If you know the word divine means holy or sacred, then you have a clue to the meaning of divinity, which can be a god or other religious being. Anything very holy is full of divinity.

What’s another word for divine?

What is another word for divine?

heavenly godlike
angelic celestial
godly beatific
deific mystical
supernatural deitylike

Does divine mean God?

Divine means relating to God or extremely good. … Given or inspired by God; holy; sacred.

Was Jesus human or divine?

The earliest Christians maintained that Jesus was a human being who was made God — a god — a divine being. Later they ended up saying that Jesus was born to the union of God and a mortal because the Holy Spirit came upon Mary and that’s how she conceived Jesus, so Jesus literally had God as his father.

What is divine origin?

The theory of divine rights of the kings also known as the Divine Origin theory is one of the oldest theory of the origin of the state. The supporters of this theory believed that the state doesn’t come into being by the people but it is the handiwork of God on the earth. …

Is divine a name?

Divine is a girl’s name which is a variant of Divina. Divine has religious implications and the name means ‘heavenly’ or ‘of heaven’.

Is Nino an Italian name?

Nino is considered to be an Italian masculine name that is in use throughout Italy as a diminutive form of several names such as Antonino, Giannino, Saturnino, Severino and all names ending in «-nino» as well as names such as Gaetano and Giovanni.

Who gave divine theory?

1287 – 1347), St Augustine (354-430), Duns Scotus ( c. 1265 — 1308), and John Calvin (1509-1564) have presented various forms of divine command theory. The theory generally teaches that moral truth does not exist independently of God and that divine commands determine morality.

Who gave the divine origin theory of King?

King James I of England (reigned 1603–25) was the foremost exponent of the divine right of kings, but the doctrine virtually disappeared from English politics after the Glorious Revolution (1688–89).

How do Kingdoms work?

A kingdom is a piece of land that is ruled by a king or a queen. A kingdom is often called a monarchy, which means that one person, usually inheriting their position by birth or marriage, is the leader, or head of state. … Most modern kings and queens do not control the government.

What is meant by divine theory of law?

Divine law comprises any body of law that is perceived as deriving from a transcendent source, such as the will of God or gods — in contrast to man-made law or to secular law. According with Angelos Chaniotis and Rudolph F.

1 : a book giving the meaning and usually the pronunciation of words listed in alphabetical order. 2 : a reference book explaining words of a particular subject listed in alphabetical order a medical dictionary. 3 : a book listing words of one language in alphabetical order with definitions in another language.

Contents

  • 1 What is called the dictionary meaning of a word?
  • 2 What the word actually means the dictionary definition?
  • 3 What are the 5 different parts of the dictionary?
  • 4 What is dictionary explain with example?
  • 5 Is actually a real word?
  • 6 Is Come a real word?
  • 7 How do you use actually correctly?
  • 8 What is a dictionary entry called?
  • 9 What is the first entry word in a dictionary?
  • 10 How do you create a dictionary?
  • 11 How do you create a dictionary in a list?
  • 12 What is dictionary explain the methods available in dictionary?
  • 13 How do you create an empty dictionary?
  • 14 How do you say really in British?
  • 15 How many words are in Oxford dictionary?
  • 16 How do you spell tomorrow in text?
  • 17 What is the past tense of sleep?
  • 18 What is a verb in Zulu?
  • 19 What is third form of come?
  • 20 What part of speech is believe?

The denotation of a word or phrase is its explicit or direct meaning.The connotation of a word or phrase is the associated or secondary meaning; it can be something suggested or implied by a word or thing, rather than being explicitly named or described.

What the word actually means the dictionary definition?

Definition of actually
1 : in act or in fact : really trying to find out what actually happened won’t actually arrive for an hour. 2 : in point of fact —used to suggest something unexpected was surprised to learn that she could actually speak German. Synonyms More Example Sentences Learn More About actually.

What are the 5 different parts of the dictionary?

This worksheet shows you the different parts of a dictionary definition, including entry word, guide words, pronunciation, part of speech, definition, and origin.

What is dictionary explain with example?

A dictionary is defined as a list of words or articles that refer to a specific subject. An example of dictionary is a book with English to Italian translations.A reference work containing an alphabetical list of words, with information given for each word, usually including meaning, pronunciation, and etymology.

Is actually a real word?

Actually is an adverb that means “really.”

Is Come a real word?

Word forms: 3rd person singular present tense comes , present participle coming , past tense came language note: The form come is used in the present tense and is the past participle. Come is used in a large number of expressions which are explained under other words in this dictionary.

How do you use actually correctly?

The adverb actually is usually at the beginning or end of a sentence or before a verb.

  1. Actually, I can’t make it tonight after all.
  2. I can’t make it tonight, actually.
  3. I can’t believe she actually said that.

What is a dictionary entry called?

1. dictionary entry – the entry in a dictionary of information about a word. lexical entry. headword – a word placed at the beginning of a line or paragraph (as in a dictionary entry) citation form, entry word, main entry word – the form of a word that heads a lexical entry and is alphabetized in a dictionary.

What is the first entry word in a dictionary?

Ask anyone which word comes first in an English dictionary, and they will assuredly answer “aardvark“.

How do you create a dictionary?

On a separate piece of paper, organize your words so that they’ll be easier to find. Organize them by the first letter of the word, then the second, then the third, etc. Edit your rough draft. To ensure that you have a good dictionary, go through your paper and correct any mistakes.

How do you create a dictionary in a list?

To convert a list to a dictionary using the same values, you can use the dict. fromkeys() method. To convert two lists into one dictionary, you can use the Python zip() function. The dictionary comprehension lets you create a new dictionary based on the values of a list.

What is dictionary explain the methods available in dictionary?

Table of Python Dictionary Methods

Functions Name Description
popitem() Returns and removes the key-value pair from the dictionary
setdefault() Returns the value of a key if the key is in the dictionary else inserts the key with a value to the dictionary
update() Updates the dictionary with the elements from another dictionary

How do you create an empty dictionary?

An empty dictionary can be created by just placing to curly braces{}.

How do you say really in British?

Break ‘actually’ down into sounds: [AK] + [CHUH] + [LEE] – say it out loud and exaggerate the sounds until you can consistently produce them.

How many words are in Oxford dictionary?

171,476
Oxford Dictionary has 273,000 headwords; 171,476 of them being in current use, 47,156 being obsolete words and around 9,500 derivative words included as subentries.

How do you spell tomorrow in text?

There are two common ways to abbreviate tomorrow. They are, tmw. tmrw.

What is the past tense of sleep?

Slept
Slept is the past tense and past participle of sleep.

What is a verb in Zulu?

Zulu verbs are words that convey action (bring, read, walk, run), or a state of being (exist, stand). In most languages a verb may agree with the person, gender, and/or number of some of its arguments, such as its subject, or object.

What is third form of come?

Base form ( First Form ) : Come. Past Simple ( Second Form ) : Came. Past Participle ( Third Form ) : Come. 3rd Person Signular : Comes. Present Participle/Gerund : Coming.

What part of speech is believe?

verb
believe is a verb, belief is a noun, believable is an adjective:I don’t believe you.

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