Meaning & Definition of word "Dictionary"
to
Dictionary
/ˈdɪkʃəˌnɛri/
noun:
- 1. A book or electronic resource that lists the words of a language in alphabetical order and provides their meanings, pronunciations, and sometimes other information such as etymologies or usage.
- Example: I looked up the word 'aberration' in the dictionary to understand its meaning.
- 2. A reference work that contains an alphabetical list of words in a language with their meanings, translations, or information about them.
- Example: Students often use a bilingual dictionary to help them translate between English and Spanish.
- 3. A specialized reference source that provides information about the terminology of a specific field.
- Example: The medical dictionary helped her understand complex medical terms during her studies.
- 4. A resource for programming that holds collectively defined terms for various programming languages.
- Example: To avoid confusion in our project, we created a dictionary of technical terms.
Etymology
The term 'dictionary' comes from the Latin word 'dictionarium', meaning 'a collection of words'.
Common Phrases and Expressions
flip through the dictionary:
To quickly look through a dictionary for information.
in the dictionary:
Used to indicate that something has a specific definition or meaning.
dictionary definition:
The literal meaning of a term as found in a dictionary.
Related Words
lexicon:
A collection of words and their meanings in a particular language.
thesaurus:
A book that lists synonyms and antonyms of words.
Slang Meanings of dictionary
Meaning: A comprehensive list of jargon or terms used in a specific field.
Example Sentence: The medical dictionary is full of terminology that can be confusing.
Meaning: A collection of cool or trendy words.
Example Sentence: That new slang dictionary has all the latest terms.