Library / English Dictionary

    DICTIONARY

    Pronunciation (US): Play  (GB): Play

     I. (noun) 

    Sense 1

    Meaning:

    A reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about themplay

    Synonyms:

    dictionary; lexicon

    Classified under:

    Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

    Hypernyms ("dictionary" is a kind of...):

    wordbook (a reference book containing words (usually with their meanings))

    Meronyms (parts of "dictionary"):

    dictionary entry; lexical entry (the entry in a dictionary of information about a word)

    Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dictionary"):

    bilingual dictionary (a dictionary giving equivalent words in two languages)

    collegiate dictionary; desk dictionary (an abridged dictionary of a size convenient to hold in the hand)

    etymological dictionary (a dictionary giving the historical origins of each word)

    gazetteer (a geographical dictionary (as at the back of an atlas))

    learner's dictionary; school dictionary (a dictionary specially written for those learning a foreign language)

    little dictionary; pocket dictionary (a dictionary that is small enough to carry in your pocket)

    spell-checker; spelling checker (an electronic dictionary in a word processor that can be used to catch misspelled words)

    unabridged; unabridged dictionary (a dictionary that has not been shortened by the omitting terms or definitions; a comprehensive dictionary)

    Credits

     Context examples: 

    Jo remembered the kind old gentleman, who used to let her build railroads and bridges with his big dictionaries, tell her stories about queer pictures in his Latin books, and buy her cards of gingerbread whenever he met her in the street.

    (Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

    During my confinement for want of clothes, and by an indisposition that held me some days longer, I much enlarged my dictionary; and when I went next to court, was able to understand many things the king spoke, and to return him some kind of answers.

    (Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

    Jacob was a pioneer in the study of German philology, and although Wilhelm’s work was hampered by poor health the brothers collaborated in the creation of a German dictionary, not completed until a century after their deaths.

    (Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

    He guessed this, and for a while entertained the idea of reading nothing but the dictionary until he had mastered every word in it.

    (Martin Eden, by Jack London)

    One evening, while, with her usual child-like activity, and thoughtless yet not offensive inquisitiveness, she was rummaging the cupboard and the table-drawer of my little kitchen, she discovered first two French books, a volume of Schiller, a German grammar and dictionary, and then my drawing-materials and some sketches, including a pencil-head of a pretty little cherub-like girl, one of my scholars, and sundry views from nature, taken in the Vale of Morton and on the surrounding moors.

    (Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

    So he put her up at the table, opened the great dictionary she had brought, and gave her a paper and pencil, and she scribbled away, turning a leaf now and then, and passing her little fat finger down the page, as if finding a word, so soberly that I nearly betrayed myself by a laugh, while Mr. Bhaer stood stroking her pretty hair with a fatherly look that made me think she must be his own, though she looked more French than German.

    (Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

    The words flowed from his pen, though he broke off from the writing frequently to look up definitions in the dictionary or to refer to the rhetoric.

    (Martin Eden, by Jack London)

    A stand between them supported a second candle and two great volumes, to which they frequently referred, comparing them, seemingly, with the smaller books they held in their hands, like people consulting a dictionary to aid them in the task of translation.

    (Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

    After he had been through the grammar repeatedly, he took up the dictionary and added twenty words a day to his vocabulary.

    (Martin Eden, by Jack London)

    He had bought a dictionary, which deed had decreased his supply of money and brought nearer the day on which he must sail in search of more.

    (Martin Eden, by Jack London)


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