Meaning of dictionary in English

dictionary

/ˈdɪk.ʃən.ər.i/ us

/ˈdɪk.ʃən.er.i/

a book that contains a list of words in alphabetical order and explains their meanings, or gives a word for them in another language; an electronic product giving similar information on a computer, smartphone, etc.:

a French-English/English-French dictionary

a bilingual/monolingual dictionary

To check how a word is spelled, look it up in a dictionary.

Our online dictionary is regularly updated with new entries.

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a book that gives information about a particular subject, in which the entries (= words or phrases) are given in alphabetical order, or a similar electronic product:

a biographical/science dictionary

a dictionary of quotations

The world's most ambitious online dictionary of Architects has been launched in Scotland.

computing specialized

a list of words in electronic form that is used by a computer or smartphone, for example, in a program that checks your spelling when you type:

Each word is checked by the computer against its internal dictionary.

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"Is that the correct spelling?" "I don't know - look it up in a dictionary."
In this dictionary, verbs which are intransitive are marked [I].
This dictionary went online in 1999.
Notes on how to use this dictionary can be found at the beginning of the book.
One great advantage of an online dictionary is that it can be constantly expanded.
If you will be using the same computer all the time, you may also want to add your name to your computer's dictionary.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Books: reference books

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Computer programming & software

(Definition of dictionary from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

dictionary | American Dictionary

dictionary

noun [ C ]

/ˈdɪk·ʃəˌner·i/

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a book that lists words with their meanings given in the same or in another language, and often includes other information

(Definition of dictionary from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of dictionary

dictionary

I recently heard a radio presenter refer to dictionaries as babble-babble.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The most common results, then, are books that are something like dictionaries, something like encyclopedias and, often, something like cabinets of curiosities.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The divergence can most easily be seen if we compare the definitions of abduction in some recent dictionaries of linguistics and of philosophy.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Since its (activity) meaning is predictable, the supine nominal is seldom listed in dictionaries, and when it is listed, it is not polysemous.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Events are simply property lists or dictionaries; they can have named properties whose values are arbitrary.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We can distinguish between this kind of understanding and the kind of understanding that involves interpretation manuals, dictionaries, inferences and explanations.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The success of this technique depends heavily on the compatibility between the two tag dictionaries being used.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Many sense inventories have been taken from traditional paper-based (and from machine-readable) dictionaries.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Electronic dictionaries covering almost the entire vocabulary are being developed for different languages.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In some instances, the program was used creatively, in combination with external tools such as the users' own dictionaries, knowledge of other languages, or teachers.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The three most crucial explicit lexical instruction and learning strategies are acquiring decontextualised lexis, using dictionaries and inferring from context.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The annotated bilingual corpus is used in our translation aid system that integrates bilingual corpus, mono-lingual corpus and hand-compiled dictionaries.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Such dictionaries are readily available and were used in the construction of our case marker list.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We have also studied how the use of linguistic resources, such as dictionaries and morphological analyzers, improves the tagging performance.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Furthermore, along with the usual information about the meaning of the entries, dictionaries should show how to use words in context.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Collocations with dictionary

dictionary

These are words often used in combination with dictionary.

Click on a collocation to see more examples of it.

biographical dictionary

That this is intended to be something more than a biographical dictionary is evidenced by the arrangement of the entries chronologically, by each subject's year of birth, rather than alphabetically.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

electronic dictionary

For semantic query expansion, a comprehensive electronic dictionary containing semantic information is needed.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

medical dictionary

A medical dictionary has been offered to all panel members.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

See all collocations with dictionary

What is the pronunciation of dictionary?

Translations of dictionary

in Chinese (Traditional)

字典，詞典, 專業詞典，專門詞典…

Meaning of dictionary in English

dictionary | American Dictionary

Examples of dictionary

Collocations with dictionary

dictionary

Translations of dictionary

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