Dictionary Skills
Dictionary
Definition: n. book explaining, usually in alphabetical order, words of a language, or
giving their equivalent in another language; reference book of words and topics of
subjects arranged in alphabetical order.
Dictionary is primarily a book of reference, a book worth studying. It is to supply much
more than just meanings and spellings. It has a wealth of information and it records the
changes in vocabulary.
The Dictionary Plan
Dictionary is easy to use by knowing its plan. Each and every dictionary has its unique
plan. Read first a few pages of dictionary to understand dictionary.
Why to use the dictionary?
It may be used to:
Look up the meaning of a word you see or hear.
Find the English translation of a word in a language.
Check the spelling of a word.
Check the plural of a noun or past tense of a verb.
Find out other grammatical information about a word.
Find the synonym or antonym of a word.
Look up the collocations of a word.
Check the part of speech of a word.
Find out how to say a word.
Find out about the register of a word.
Find examples of the use of a word in language.
What most of people think is that the dictionary has only one function to describe one
word’s meaning, but the dictionary has even more functions including:
Synonyms
Usage of words
Parts of speech
Pronunciation
Syllabication
Meaning
Etymology
