From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdictionarydic‧tion‧a‧ry /ˈdɪkʃənəri $ -neri/ ●●● S3 noun (plural dictionaries) [countable] 1 TCNa book that gives a list of words in alphabetical order and explains their meanings in the same language, or another language a German – English dictionary2 TCNa book that explains the words and phrases used in a particular subject a science dictionaryCOLLOCATIONSverbsuse a dictionaryWe advise all our students to use a good dictionary.look something up in a dictionaryIf you don’t understand the meaning of a word, look it up in a dictionary.check a dictionaryI often check the dictionary for spelling and pronunciation.consult a dictionary formal (=check something in a dictionary)Consult the dictionary for examples of how a word is used.ADJECTIVES/NOUN + dictionarya pocket dictionary (=small enough to be carried in your pocket)Pocket dictionaries don't always give you enough information. an electronic dictionary (=small electronic machine containing a dictionary)Electronic dictionaries are very popular in Japan.a bilingual dictionary (=with translations from one language into another)A bilingual dictionary is an essential purchase for anybody learning a foreign language.a monolingual dictionary (=written in only one language)Monolingual dictionaries tend to have more examples than bilingual ones. a picture dictionary (=containing a lot of pictures, especially for children or beginners in a language)The advantage of a picture dictionary is that you don't have lengthy definitions. an online dictionary (=one you can use on the Internet)There are plenty of online dictionaries available free on the Internet.an etymological dictionary (=showing the origin and history of words)Etymological dictionaries show how languages borrow words from each other.dictionary + NOUNa dictionary definitionClear dictionary definitions are what students look for.a dictionary entry (=the definition and all the other information at a word)The introduction explains the functions of the different parts of a dictionary entry.
Examples from the Corpus
dictionary• a dictionary of business terms• A dictionary is useless unless one already knows the meanings of many words.• Word families and dictionary work Best for individual and pair work.• To eliminate or locate colloquial words there are dictionaries of slang.• a Korean-English dictionary• It's worse than a medical dictionary, that is.• Despite the competition, Merriam-Webster still accounts for about half of the 2 million dictionaries sold annually in the United States.• The first step towards achieving this task is to use the information present in the machine readable dictionaries.• Only letter strings which appeared in this dictionary were considered to be correct.Origin dictionary (1500-1600) Medieval Latin dictionarium, from Late Latin dictio “word”; → DICTION 