dictionary

A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meanings or senses, oftentimes also containing information on its etymology, pronunciation, usage, semantic relations, translations, as well as other relevant information.

Noun

  1. A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meanings or senses, oftentimes also containing information on its etymology, pronunciation, usage, semantic relations, translations, as well as other relevant information.
    • If you want to know the meaning of a word, look it up in the dictionary.
    • But what other kind(s) of syntactic information should be included in Lexical Entries? Traditional dictionaries such as Hornby's (1974) Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English include not only categorial...

    Hypernyms: wordbook

    Coordinate Terms: thesaurus

  2. A reference work on a particular subject or activity in which the entries are arranged alphabetically; an alphabetical encyclopedia.
    • a law dictionary
    • a dictionary of sports
  3. A person or thing regarded as a repository or compendium of information.
  4. The collection of words used or understood by a particular person; vocabulary.
  5. A synchronic dictionary of a standardised language held to only contain words that are properly part of the language.
    • Look it up in the dictionary, and what do you find? - 1930, Norman Lindsay, chapter 6, in Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, section I, page 106:
    • By 1986 the name Walkman was included as a word in the English dictionary. - 2019, John Hughes, Life Pre-Intermediate Student's Book, National Geographic Learning, page 188:
  6. An associative array, or a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a dictionary (noun sense 1).
    • User calls RouteCollection.GetVirtualPath, passing in a RequestContext, a dictionary of values, and an optional route name used to select the correct route to generate the URL. - 2011, Jon Galloway, Phil Haack, Brad...

    Hyponyms: hash table

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *deyḱ- Proto-Indo-European *déyḱeti Proto-Italic *deikō Latin dīcō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin dictiō Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Italic *-āzijos Latin -ārius Latin -ārium ▲ Latin dictiō ▲ Latin -āriusnom. Latin -ārius Medieval Latin dictiōnārius? Medieval Latin dictiōnāriumlbor. Middle English dixionare English dictionary From Middle English dixionare, a learned borrowing from Medieval Latin dictiōnārium, from Latin dictiōnārius, from dictiō (“a speaking”), from dictus, perfect past participle of dīcō (“to speak”) + -ārium (“room, place”). By surface analysis, diction + -ary.

Forms

dictionaries dictionnary dixnary

Synonyms

dict dict. dictionary explanatory dictionary interpreter lexicon

Hypernyms

catalog catalogue list reference reference work wordbook

Hyponyms

anagram dictionary bilingual dictionary data dictionary desk dictionary dictionary on historical principles e-dictionary encyclopedic dictionary explanatory dictionary frequency dictionary historical dictionary law dictionary metadictionary morphological dictionary pedagogical dictionary picture dictionary pocket dictionary pronouncing dictionary pronunciation dictionary reverse dictionary rhyme dictionary rhyming dictionary rime dictionary subdictionary translating dictionary

Related

diction encyclopedia lexicon thesaurus vocabulary wordlist

Derived

antidictionary dicktionary dictionarial dictionarian dictionaric dictionarily dictionarist dictionarization dictionary attack dictionary attacker dictionary definition dictionaryese dictionary form dictionaryless dictionarylike dictionary-monger fictionary have swallowed a dictionary hyperdictionary interdictionary long-haired dictionary minidictionary multidictionary nondictionary

Verb

  1. To look up in a dictionary.
  2. To add to a dictionary.
    • By a reference to the following dictionaried abbreviations, the simplicity and harmony of each sentence will be manifestly apparent; although it does not embrace everything, and could not, as it would be far too...
    • Should I use a word that a lot of people use but isn't in the dictionary? Uncle Phil would rather get a root canal than say he was scrapbooking, because the word isn't dictionaried. - 2001, The Michigan Alumnus, page 25:
  3. To compile a dictionary.
    • They [dictionary-makers] may have had their romance at home—may have been crossed in love, and thence driven to dictionarying; may have been involved in domestic tragedies—who can say? - 1864 September 5, “The...

Forms

dictionaries dictionarying dictionaried

Derived

undictionaried