Writer's Choice Grade 12

Unit 24: Using Dictionaries

Overview

A dictionary is probably the first reference tool you learned to use. Dictionaries contain detailed information about words including the spelling, definition, syllabication, and usage samples.

Dictionaries can be general or specialized. General dictionaries are abridged or unabridged. Abridged dictionaries, or college dictionaries, are shorter than the unabridged dictionaries but still contain more than 150,000 entries and provide enough information for most users. Unabridged dictionaries contain as many as 500,000 entries with definitions and the words’ etymologies, or extensive information about how the words developed over time. These dictionaries are generally found in libraries and can be several volumes.

Specialized dictionaries focus on one professional field or topic. Specialized dictionaries have been developed for the legal, medical, and computer technology fields. These dictionaries also focus on topics such as quotations, the Civil War, and famous people.

A thesaurus is a type of dictionary that identifies synonyms. Simply look up a word to see a list of additional words with the same meaning. A thesaurus lists entries by category or in alphabetical order.

The type of information you can find in a dictionary depends upon the type of dictionary you are using. It may contain multiple definitions; syllabication, or how the word is divided into syllables; preferred spelling; synonyms; antonyms; pronunciation; and part of speech labels. They may also contain the word history, usage notes, cross references, and idioms.