- 1 a book that gives a list of the words of a language in alphabetical order and explains what they mean, or gives a word for them in a foreign language a Spanish-English dictionary Wordfinderdictionaryalphabetical, definition, dictionary, entry, example, headword, meaning, part of speech, pronunciation, register Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivegood, comprehensive, unabridged, … verb + dictionarycheck, consult, look something up in, … dictionary + noundefinition, entry prepositionin a/the dictionary See full entry
- 2a book that explains the words that are used in a particular subject a dictionary of mathematics Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivegood, comprehensive, unabridged, … verb + dictionarycheck, consult, look something up in, … dictionary + noundefinition, entry prepositionin a/the dictionary See full entry
- 3a list of words in electronic form, for example stored in a computer’s spellchecker Oxford Collocations Dictionary adjectivegood, comprehensive, unabridged, … verb + dictionarycheck, consult, look something up in, … dictionary + noundefinition, entry prepositionin a/the dictionary See full entry Word Originearly 16th cent.: from medieval Latin dictionarium (manuale) or dictionarius (liber) ‘manual or book of words’, from Latin dictio, from dicere ‘to say’. Wordfinderwordconnotation, definition, dictionary, homonym, meaning, pronunciation, spelling, synonym, vocabulary, wordExtra examples I couldn’t find the word in the dictionary. I decided to consult a medical dictionary. If you don’t know the meaning of a word, look it up in the dictionary. You need a dictionary to understand what he’s saying half the time. a way of teaching children how to use dictionaries
Check pronunciation: dictionary
