1. Types of dictionaries
English Dictionaries
There are probably more than 250,000 English words. Pocket-sized dictionaries have only the most common words in them. Most English dictionaries will tell you what a word means and what class of word it is (for example, a noun, a verb or an adjective).
Foreign language dictionaries
These won’t tell you what a word means, but will tell you what word or phrase you would use in a foreign language to say the same thing.
Thesauruses
A thesaurus is a special kind of dictionary. It gives you a list of similar words that might be more suitable for what you are trying to say. For example, if you look up the word happy, a thesaurus may tell you that you could also use cheerful, content, thrilled or jumping for joy. A thesaurus is really useful if you find yourself using the same word over and over again, and when you want to find words that will make your writing more interesting.
Specialist dictionaries
Some dictionaries concentrate on a particular subject. For example you can get dictionaries of science, animals and history. These dictionaries have information on the words, phrases, people and things to do with just that one subject.
Illustrated dictionaries
Some dictionaries have illustrations in them to help show you what the words mean. Specialist dictionaries are often illustrated. For example, a dictionary of plants may be illustrated to show the reader what each plant looks like, and what the parts of the plants are called.
Electronic dictionaries
Lots of dictionaries are on CD-ROM or on the Internet. Unlike a book, you can use the computer to search the dictionary to find what you are looking for. And you may find films and sounds as well as text and images.
2. Using dictionaries
English Dictionaries
All dictionaries arrange their information alphabetically. Each piece of information is called an entry. So you’ll find words beginning with a at the front, and z at the back.
Because there are lots of words beginning with, for example, the letter a, all those words are arranged by which letter comes next, and so on.
So the word ant will come after the word ankle in a dictionary. The first two letters are the same, but the third letter is different, and t comes after k in the alphabet.
Finding a word
Searching in books
Because words are arranged alphabetically, it’s easy to find a word in a dictionary, just narrow down your search one letter at a time.
If you are looking for the word sunny in a dictionary, first find the section for the letter s, then narrow down your search by finding words starting with su, then the words starting with sun and finally look for sunny.
Searching in dictionaries on CD-ROMs or the Internet
Dictionaries you’ll find on a computer (electronic dictionaries) can be searched by typing the word you are looking for into a search box. The computer will then either show you the information on that word, or list the things it has found to do with that word.
Most electronic dictionaries will also let you browse through the entries just as you would if you were using a printed dictionary.
