Result for "dictionary"...

English

Alternative forms

• dictionnary (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin dictiōnārium, from Latin dictiōnārius, from dictiō (“speaking”), from dictus, perfect past participle of dīcō (“speak”) + -ārium (“room, place”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɪkʃ(ə)n(ə)ɹi/
• (General American, Canada) enPR: dĭk'shə-nĕr-ē, IPA^(key): /ˈdɪkʃəˌnɛɹi/
• Hyphenation: dic‧tion‧ary
• Rhymes: -ɪkʃənɛəɹi

Noun

dictionary (plural dictionaries)

1. A reference work with a list of words from one or more languages, normally ordered alphabetically, explaining each word's meaning, and sometimes containing information on its etymology, pronunciation, usage, translations, and other data.

   Synonyms: wordbook; see also Thesaurus:dictionary

2. (preceded by the) A synchronic dictionary of a standardised language held to only contain words that are properly part of the language.
3. (by extension) Any work that has a list of material organized alphabetically; e.g., biographical dictionary, encyclopedic dictionary.
4. (computing) An associative array, a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a physical dictionary.

   Hyponym: hash table

Derived terms

Related terms

• diction

Translations

See also

• encyclopedia
• lexicon
• thesaurus
• vocabulary
• wordlist

Verb

dictionary (third-person singular simple present dictionaries, present participle dictionarying, simple past and past participle dictionaried)

1. (transitive) To look up in a dictionary.
2. (transitive) To add to a dictionary.
3. (intransitive, rare) To compile a dictionary.

Further reading

• dictionary at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• indicatory