---

Dictionary

Welcome to the 6th edition of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English online. These Help pages will show you, step by step, how easy it is to use the website. Click on the section you would like assistance with to learn how to get the most out of the website.

Click on the Dictionary tab and look up over 300,000 words, meanings, and phrases in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. The Dictionary includes over 9000 encyclopaedic entries which give the cultural information you need to be able to understand references to people, places and events.

Find a word

If the word(s) you type into the search box are in the dictionary, they will appear in a drop-down box and the Index list. Either finish typing the word and click on the Go button next to the search box, or select the word from the drop-down box or the Index list to bring up the complete entry.

Words that are related to the word that you have searched for − for example compounds that contain that word − will appear in the ‘Other words and phrases’ box at the bottom of the Index list. Click on any of these words to bring up the complete entry.

If you type in a word that is an inflection of a verb or noun, for example hoping, you will be taken to the correct entry in the dictionary, in this case hope.

Words that have more than one part of speech

Words that have the same spelling, but have different parts of speech, are listed separately and given different numbers.

Words that have more than one spelling

If a word has more than one spelling, the different spellings are shown together at the beginning of the entry.

Derived words

Derived words are shown at the end of the entry. These are words that can easily be understood if you know the meaning of the main word. Many of them end in ‘-ly’ or ‘-ness’.

Compound words

Compound words are treated like ordinary words and listed in alphabetical order as if there were no space or hyphen in them.

Idioms and phrases

Idioms and phrases are shown at the first important word of the phrase or idiom. Idioms and phrases are listed with the other senses of the word in order of frequency.

Phrasal verbs

Phrasal verbs are listed in alphabetical order after the main verb. The symbol  means that, if the phrasal verb has an object, the object can come before or after the particle.

Information about an entry

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English has full information for all your language learning needs at each entry.

Understanding Definitions

If you do not understand a word in a definition, double click on the word to see its definition. The entry will appear in a pop-up window.

Frequency and Keywords

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is organized on the basis of frequency. The most frequent meanings of a word are shown first, and homographs are shown in frequency order. All of our judgments about frequency are made with reference to the Longman Corpus Network – a 390 million-word corpus of English.

The 9000 most important words to learn are shown in red; they are divided into three categories and marked in the dictionary with circles:

●●● high-frequency words – indicates the top 3000 words
●●○ mid-frequency words – indicates the next most important 3000 words
●○○ lower-frequency words – indicates the less frequent yet important 3000 words

The dictionary also shows which words are used most frequently in spoken and written English. This information appears immediately after the entry. The 3000 most frequent written and spoken words are indicated in this way:

W1	most frequent 1000 written words
W2	between 1001 and 2000 most frequent written words
W3	between 2001 and 3000 most frequent written words
S1	most frequent 1000 spoken words
S2	between 1001 and 2000 most frequent spoken words
S3	between 2001 and 3000 most frequent spoken words

You can use the Advanced Search function to search for words by frequency level, and for the most frequent spoken and written words.

Academic Word List

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English highlights all the words from the Academic Word List. These are important words to know if you are studying in an English-speaking environment or if you are writing academic assignments. Words that are included in the Academic Word List are marked with the symbol AWL.

You can use the Advanced Search function to search for all the words in the Academic Word List.

Pronunciation of Words

The pronunciation of a word is shown in the International Phonetic Alphabet. You can also listen to the sound of every word in the dictionary. Click on the red speaker icon to hear the pronunciation in British English. Click on the blue speaker icon to hear the pronunciation in American English.

Pronunciation of examples

All examples in the dictionary entries have a pronunciation recorded by a native British or American speaker. These sentences have a speaker icon before them. Click on the speaker icon to play the recording.

Menus within dictionary entries

Some long entries with many different meanings have a menu to help you find the information you are looking for. Click on the ‘Entry Menu’ link that appears at the top of the entry. A pop-up window will open with links to all the different meanings of the entry. Click on the link to go straight to that part of the entry.

Word origins

Where do words come from? If the ‘Word origin’ link appears at the top of the entry, you can find out the etymology of the word. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English contains over 14,000 word origins for you to explore.

Verb Forms

You can see the inflections for all regular and irregular verbs in the dictionary by clicking on the ‘Verb Table’ link that appears at the top of the entry. If a verb has different forms in American and British English, they are labeled BrE and AmE respectively.

Examples

The best way to learn English is to see how it is used in phrases and examples. Entries in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English contain useful corpus-based examples that show words in context. The ‘Examples’ link at the top of the entry provide additional examples. Click on the link and select an option from the drop-down menu to view:

• Examples from other dictionaries – a bank of 80,000 example sentences that are taken from other Longman dictionaries
• Examples from the corpus – a bank of 1 million additional sentences taken from the Longman Corpus Network which give further contexts from books and magazines

Collocations

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English contains 147,000 collocations, which show combination of words that are frequently used together. Click on the ‘Collocations’ link at the top of the entry. The link will open a new window. Select an option from the drop-down menu to view:

• collocations for the entry you are looking up. Alternatively, you can scroll down the entry in the main dictionary window. The Collocations box appears at the end of the entry.
• collocations from other dictionary entries
• collocations from the Longman Corpus Network

Click on the arrow next to each of the collocations to see examples of how it is used in English.

Thesaurus

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English contains over 48,000 synonyms, antonyms and related words, helping you to choose the most appropriate word for a particular context. Click on the ‘Thesaurus’ link at the top of the entry. The link will open a new window. Select an option from the drop-down menu to view:

• a Thesaurus box from the entry – the dictionary contains over 900 Thesaurus boxes, which explain the meaning of thousands of synonyms, helping you to choose the most appropriate word for a particular context. Click on the arrow next to the word in bold to see its definition and examples of how the word is used in English. Alternatively, you can scroll down the entry in the main dictionary window. The Thesaurus box appears at the end of the entry.
• the Longman Language Activator – the Thesaurus section also allows you to see information from the Longman Language Activator. Click on the arrow next to the word in bold to see its definition and examples of how the word is used in English.
• Word sets – if a word forms part of a word set, you can access this by selecting the Word sets option in the Thesaurus drop-down menu. Click on the arrow next to the word in blue to open the list. Double-click on a word to see its definition.

Phrases

Click on the ‘Phrases’ link to view phrases from the entry that you are looking at as well as phrases from other dictionary entries. The link will open a new window. Select an option from the drop-down menu to view:

• phrases from the entry
• phrases from other dictionary entries

Click on the arrow next to each of the phrases to see how it is used.

Pictures

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English contains over 1,000 pictures to help make entries even clearer. Clicking on the pictures opens them in a larger window to make them easier to see and study. You can search for all the entries that have pictures by choosing Pictures in the Advanced Search.

Search dictionary entries using the Advanced Search function

The Advanced Search helps you find the words that you are looking for. Click on ‘Go to Advanced Search’ to start the search.

Using the various search options, you can find words that are headwords, words from the Academic Word List, or words that are a particular part of speech. You can also find words are used in a specific context, words relating to a specific topic, and words with a particular word origin.

If the number of results is very large, it might be better to refine the search by selecting one of the various search options – for instance by specifying the part of speech.

Dictionary entry search

Using the Advanced Search, you can search for words that appear in a specific part of a dictionary entry, such as the definition and examples. Enter the word you want to search for, check the relevant box, then click on Go. The results will appear in the Index list. Click on any word to open that entry.

Academic Word List search

If you want to see all the words in the Academic Word List, check the Academic Word List box, then click on Go. The results will appear in the Index list. Click on any word to open that entry.

Core vocabulary search

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English highlights the most important 9000 words to learn in English. To help decide which words are important for students to learn, they are divided into three categories and marked in the dictionary with circles:

●●● high-frequency words – indicates the top 3000 words
●●○ mid-frequency words – indicates the next most important 3000 words
●○○ lower-frequency words – indicates the less frequent yet important next 3000 words

You can use the Advanced Search function to search for all the words in each of the categories.

Use the drop-down ‘Core Vocabulary’ menu to select one of the categories, and click on Go. The results will appear in the Index list. Click on any word to open that entry. You can combine this search with other search options – for instance, by specifying the part of speech.

Most frequent written and spoken words search

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English shows which words are used most frequently in written and spoken English. This information appears immediately after the entry.

The 3000 most frequent written and spoken words are divided into categories and are indicated in this way:

W1	most frequent 1000 written words
W2	between 1001 and 2000 most frequent written words
W3	between 2001 and 3000 most frequent written words
S1	most frequent 1000 spoken words
S2	between 1001 and 2000 most frequent spoken words
S3	between 2001 and 3000 most frequent spoken words

You can use the Advanced Search function to search for all the words in each of the categories.

Use the drop-down ‘Frequent written words’ and/or ‘Frequent spoken words’ menu to select one of the categories, and click on Go. The results will appear in the Index. Click on any word to open that entry. You can combine this search with other search options – for instance, by specifying the part of speech.

Register search

You can search for words that are used in a particular context – for instance formal or informal words. Use the drop-down ‘Register’ menu to select an option, and click on Go. The results of your search will appear in the Index list. Click on any word to open that entry.

Part of speech search

You can search for words with a particular part of speech using the Advanced Search. Use the drop-down ‘Part of speech’ menu to select the part of speech you want, and click on Go. Words matching your search will appear in the Index list. Click on any word to open that entry.

Feature boxes search

Entries in the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English contains Grammar, Thesaurus, Collocations and Usage boxes. You can search for a particular type of box using the Advanced Search. Use the drop-down ‘Feature boxes’ menu to select the type of boxes you want to look for, and click on Go. The results of your search will appear in the Index list. Click on any word to open that entry.

Word origin search

---

About this dictionary

Copyright

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English sixth edition online © Pearson Education Limited 1978, 2014
Pearson Education Limited
Edinburgh Gate 
Harlow 
Essex CM20 2JE
England
and associated Companies throughout the world
© Pearson Education Limited, 1978, 2014

All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the Publishers.

First published 1978 
Second edition 1987 
Third edition 1995 
Fourth edition 2003
Fourth edition with Writing Assistant 2005
Fifth edition 2009
Sixth edition 2014

Words that the editors have reason to believe constitute trademarks have been described as such. However, neither the presence nor the absence of such a description should be regarded as affecting the legal status of any trademark.

All trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners. The use of any trademark in this publication does not vest in the editors or publishers any trademark ownership rights in such trademarks, nor does the use of such trademarks imply any affiliation with or endorsement of this book by such owners.

Includes content from:

Longman Language Activator (second edition)
© Pearson Education Limited 1993, 2002

Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture
© Pearson Education Limited 1992, 2005

Longman Etymologies Database
© Pearson Education Limited 2001-2014

Longman British English and American English Sound Database 
© Addison Wesley Longman Limited 1998 
© Pearson Education Limited 1999-2014

Longman Interactive Exercise Bank
© Pearson Education Limited 2014

Longman Phrases Database
© Pearson Education Limited 2002, 2014

Longman Corpus Examples Database
© Pearson Education Limited 2002, 2014

Longman Verb Inflections Database
© Pearson Education Limited 2001-2002, 2014

Acknowledgements

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English sixth edition online

Publishing Manager
Laurence Delacroix

Managing Editors
Chris Fox
Rosalind Combley

Lexicography
Karen Cleveland Marwick
Lucy Hollingworth
Elizabeth Manning
Michael Murphy
Laura Wedgeworth

The Publishers and editorial team would like to thank the lexicographic team who worked on the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (fifth edition) and the many people who have contributed advice to the making of this dictionary for the last 35 years, in particular the Linglex Dictionary and Corpus Advisory Committee:
Professor the Lord Quirk (Chair)
Professor David Crystal, Professor Geoffrey Leech, Professor John Wells, Della Summers

Project Manager
Paola Rocchetti

Editors
Angela Janes
Paola Rocchetti

Proofreader
Pat Dunn

Computational Linguist
Allan Ørsnes

Website Development
Andrew Roberts

Worksheets
Angela Janes

Communication Guide
Chris Fox

Grammar Guide
Maria Karyda

Picture Research
Sandra Hilsdon
Louise Edgeworth

The publishers would like to thank Averil Coxhead for permission to highlight the Academic Wordlist (AWL, compiled in 2000) in this dictionary. Averil Coxhead is the author of the AWL and a lecturer in English for Academic Purposes at Massey University, New Zealand. For further information on the AWL, go to Averil’s website at: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/averil-coxhead

Photography credits

The publishers would like to thank the following for their kind permission to reproduce their photographs:

Fotolia.com: Monkey Business, redav, wollertz, bramgino, Nic Neish, Christopher Dodge, reeel, bergamont, prudkov, ashumskiy, sbgoodwin, lichtbildmaster, schantalao, Eric Isselee, JohanSwanepoel, chayapol plairaharn, Ieva Geneviciene, Kirsty Pargeter, Taweesak Thiprod, Elenathewise, JackF, soundsnaps, Africa Studio, krsmanovic, mihalec, Andrey Bandurenko, Elemery, Feng Yu, Graça, Jimi King, Luminis, vlabo, Victoria

Veer/Corbis: bds, Gregory Johnston, Blaj, Ruslan Grigolava, caimacanul, hoch2wo, magraphics, graja, sirylok, twixx

DK Images: David Murray / Jules Selmes, Steve Gorton

Alamy: Chris Stock Photography, travelib europe, Mouse in the House

Shutterstock: Kasia Bialasiewicz, Ragne Kabanova, Eric Isselee, sagir, Alexey Lysenko, SeDmi, arnet117

iStockphoto

PhotoDisc

Hemera Photo Objects

All other images © Pearson Education