dictionary
(dɪkʃənri , US -neri )
Word forms: dictionaries
1. countable noun A1
A dictionary is a book in which the words and phrases of a language are listed alphabetically, together with their meanings or their translations in another language.
...a Welsh-English dictionary.
2. countable noun [with supplement, oft NOUN of noun] B2
A dictionary is an alphabetically ordered reference book on one particular subject or limited group of subjects.
...the Dictionary of National Biography.
Image of dictionary
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Quotations:
Dictionaries are like watches; the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true
When I feel inclined to read poetry I take down my Dictionary. The poetry of words is quite as beautiful as that of sentences. The author may arrange the gems effectively, but their shape and lustre have been given by the attrition of the agesThe Autocrat's Autobiography
To make dictionaries is dull workDictionary
dictionary: a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful workThe Devil's Dictionary
Collocations:
dictionary meaning dictionary word online dictionary read a dictionary slang dictionary
Be wary when a style pundit cites 'the word's dictionary meaning' to settle an argument of usage.
Times, Sunday Times
In the absence of statutory definition, the word 'teacher' was to be construed in accordance with its dictionary meaning.
Times, Sunday Times
New terminology has been introduced into common vocabulary to give this action some dictionary meaning - 'zeitgeist', 'tipping point' and 'word of mouth' being the most obvious examples.
Times, Sunday Times
Those two adjectives had distinctly different dictionary meanings.
Times, Sunday Times
Various terms were explained by a combination of means i.e. some times by their dictionary meaning or by statutory definition, and at places by a combination of both.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Do not use standard passwords such as a family member's names or dictionary words.
Times, Sunday Times
He successfully marketed a software system which merged dictionary words to create new product or brand names for companies.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
In particular, attackers can quickly recover passwords that are short, dictionary words, simple variations on dictionary words or that use easily guessable patterns.
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It can also perform a variety of alterations to the dictionary words and try these.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The words are in the free online dictionary as part of a quarterly update.
The Sun
Each time a publisher releases an update to their online dictionary or, more rarely these days, brings out a new printed edition, the media pounce on the new entries.
The Times Literary Supplement
He has posted in the thesaurus section of his online dictionary the values used in these algorithms.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
It has been made available to the users both in the form of an online dictionary and web services.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Look up abbreviations in an online dictionary.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
If you think it's a slog to read a dictionary, imagine writing one.
Times, Sunday Times
Often she would retreat to the house and read a dictionary, emerging to recite definitions in her measured tones.
Globe and Mail
I read that dictionary like it was a novel, he says.
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He likes to read the dictionary for fun, and tends to be cowardly.
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He learnt how to play from a hand-book he found at home when he was 14 and trains by reading the dictionary for up to six hours a day.
Times, Sunday Times
Better consult my rhyming slang dictionary.
Times, Sunday Times
The book was full of adventures, and had at the end a kind of slang dictionary.
Retrieved from Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0
Slang dictionaries, collecting thousands of slang entries, offer a broad, empirical window into the motivating forces behind slang.
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Translations:
Chinese: 词典
Japanese: 辞書