Dictionaries

For other uses, see Dictionary (disambiguation). For the sister project Wiktionary, see http://wiktionary.org/.

A dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. In some languages, words can appear in many different forms, but only the lemma form appears as the main word or headword in most dictionaries. Many dictionaries also provide pronunciation information; grammatical information; word derivations, histories, or etymologies; illustrations; usage guidance; and examples in phrases or sentences. Dictionaries are most commonly found in the form of a book.

multi-volume Latin dictionary in the University Library of Graz

Word order

Today, dictionaries of languages with alphabetic and syllabic writing systems list words in alphabetical or some analogous phonetic order. Words and characters in ideographic writing systems such as Chinese are sorted according to one of numerous schemes based on the components, number of strokes, overall shape, or pronunciation of each character. Due to the nature of Chinese characters, linear sorts are particularly unsuitable for Chinese dictionaries. (See collation for more information on linguistic sorting).

The first English alphabetical dictionary came out in 1604 and alphabetical ordering was a rarity until the 18th century. Before alphabetical listings, dictionaries were organized by topic, i.e. a list of animals all together in one topic.

Pronunciation

Dictionaries have had a variety of means of expressing the means of pronouncing words in those languages that are not entirely phonetic. Three different methods are common.

The earliest was simply to indicate the syllables that have greater stress using accent marks, such as in Samuel Johnson's eighteenth century dictionary. Here the accent mark followed the stressed syllable. This is analogous to the tonal marks for Chinese or the accent nucleus for Japanese. Regular languages such as Spanish do not need any special marking for this purpose.

For languages that have no official standard pronunciation, like English or German, a system of respelling was introduced with the letters given diacritics, also known as accent marks, (e.g., macrons, tildes, breves, circumflexes) that do not occur in ordinary writing to assist the reader in pronouncing the words. These had the additional capacity for accepting regional differences, especially in a federal society. For example, most Americans pronounce the first vowel in one group of words such as "ask" and "dance" in one manner, while it is a standard for the English to pronounce them in a consistenly different manner. Some dictionaries before 1970 added an accent mark of one dot atop the letter "a," which specifies this choice, rather than either one definitively.

Finally, totally new phonetic alphabets such as IPA were devised, especially for those languages like French which have an official pronunciation. These use an accent mark that precedes a stressed syllable. It is also used to indicate only one preferred pronunciation, such as RP or General American, for foreigners to learn the language or for domestic people to alter their dialect. Currently this system has prestige, but it cannot easily interrelate dialectic variations.

Coverage

Dictionaries vary wildly in size and scope. A dictionary that attempts to cover as many words from a particular speech community as possible is called a maximizing dictionary (e.g. the Oxford English Dictionary), whereas a dictionary that attempts to cover only a limited selection of words from a speech community is called a minimizing dictionary (e.g. a dictionary containing the 2000 most frequently used words in the English language).

Special-purpose dictionaries

There are many different types of dictionaries, including bilingual, multilingual, historical, biographical, and geographical dictionaries.

Bilingual dictionaries

In bilingual dictionaries, each entry has translations of words in another language. For example, in a Japanese-English dictionary, the entry tsuki has the corresponding English word, moon. In dictionaries between English and a language using a non-Roman script, entry words in the non-English language may either be printed and sorted in the native order, or romanized and sorted in Roman alphabetical order.

Specialized dictionaries

Specialized dictionaries (also referred to as technical dictionaries) focus on linguistic and factual matters relating to specific subject fields. A specialized dictionary may have a relatively broad coverage, in that it covers several subject fields such as science and technology (a multi-field dictionary), or their coverage may be more narrow, in that they cover one particular subject field such as law (a single-field dictionary) or even a specific sub-field such as contract law (a sub-field dictionary). Specialized dictionaries may be maximizing dictionaries, i.e. they attempt to achieve comprehensive coverage of the terms in the subject field concerned, or they may be minimizing dictionaries, i.e. they attempt to cover only a limited number of the specialized vocabulary concerned. Generally, multi-field dictionaries tend to be minimizing, whereas single-field and sub-field dictionaries tend to be maximizing. See also LSP dictionary.

Character dictionaries

In East Asian languages, a dictionary form for Han (Chinese) characters has developed, called Kan-wa jiten (literally 'Han-Japanese dictionary') in Japanese and Okpyeon ('Jewel Book') in Korean. Each entry has one Chinese character with information about stroke count and order, readings (pronunciations), and a list of words using that character.

Glossaries

Another variant is the glossary, an alphabetical list of defined terms in a specialized field, such as medicine or science. The simplest dictionary, a defining dictionary, provides a core glossary of the simplest meanings of the simplest concepts. From these, other concepts can be explained and defined, in particular for those who are first learning a language. In English the commercial defining dictionaries typically include only one or two meanings of under 2000 words. With these, the rest of English, and even the 4000 most common English idioms and metaphors, can be defined.

Variations between dictionaries

Prescription and description

Dictionary makers apply two basic philosophies to the defining of words: prescriptive or descriptive. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is descriptive, and attempts to describe the actual use of words. Noah Webster, on the other hand, intent on forging a distinct identity for the American language, altered spellings and accentuated differences in meaning and pronunciation of numerous words. This is why American English now uses the spelling "color" while Commonwealth English uses "colour". (See American and British English differences.) While not always accepted in the UK, the American spellings are universally understood; likewise the British spellings are not acceptable in America.

While descriptivists would charge that prescriptivism is an unnatural attempt to dictate usage or curtail change, prescriptivists would argue that to document, without judgment, usages which they consider improper or inferior sanctions those usages by default, causing the language to deteriorate in practice. Although much is made of these differing views, they usually apply to a very small number of controversial words, while not affecting the vast majority for which there is common agreement. But the softening of usage notations, from the previous edition, for two words, ain't and irregardless, out of over 450,000 in Webster's Third in 1961, was enough to provoke outrage among many with prescriptivist leanings, who branded the dictionary as "permissive."

The prescriptive/descriptive issue has been given so much consideration in modern times that most dictionaries of English apply the descriptive method to definitions, while additionally informing readers of attitudes which may influence their choices on words often considered vulgar, offensive, erroneous, or easily confused. Merriam-Webster is subtle, only adding italicized notations such as, sometimes offensive or nonstand (nonstandard.) American Heritage goes further, discussing issues separately in numerous "usage notes." Encarta provides similar notes, but is more prescriptive, offering warnings and admonitions against the use of certain words considered by many to be offensive or illiterate, such as, "an offensive term for..." or "a taboo term meaning..."

Because of the broad use of dictionaries, and their acceptance by many as language authorities, their treatment of the language does affect usage to some degree, even the most descriptive dictionaries providing conservative continuity. In the long run, however, usage primarily determines the meanings of words in English, and the language is being changed and created every day. As Jorge Luis Borges says in the prologue to "El otro, el mismo": "It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature."

Other variations

Since words and their meanings develop over time, dictionary entries are organized to reflect these changes. Dictionaries may either list meanings in the historical order in which they appeared, or may list meanings in order of popularity and most common use.

Dictionaries also differ in the degree to which they are encyclopedic, providing considerable background information, illustrations, and the like, or linguistic, concentrating on etymology, nuances of meaning, and quotations demonstrating usage.

Any dictionary has been designed to fulfil one or more functions. The dictionary functions chosen by the maker(s) of the dictionary provide the basis for all lexicographic decisions, from the selection of entry words, over the choice of information types, to the choice of place for the information (e.g. in an article or in an appendix). There are two main types of function. The communication-oriented functions comprise text reception (understanding), text production, text revision, and translation. The knowledge-oriented functions deal with situations where the dictionary is used for acquiring specific knowledge about a particular matter, and for acquiring general knowledge about something. The optimal dictionary is one that contains information directly relevant for the needs of the users relating to one or more of these functions. It is important that the information is presented in a way that keeps the lexicographic information costs at a minimum.

History

The art and craft of writing dictionaries is called lexicography.

One of the earliest dictionaries known, and which is still extant today in an abridged form, was written in Latin during the reign of the emperor Augustus. It is known by the title "De Significatu Verborum" ("On the meaning of words") and was originally compiled by Verrius Flaccus. It was twice abridged in succeeding centuries, first by Festus, and then by Paul the Deacon. Verrius Flaccus' dictionary was an abridged list of difficult or antiquated words, whose usage was illustrated by quotations from early Roman authors.

Shuo Wen Jie Zi (说文解字), written in the early 2nd century, was the first Chinese language dictionary. The author Xu Shen first organized Chinese characters by radical.

The first true English dictionary was the Table Alphabeticall of 1606, although it only included 3,000 words and the definitions it contained were little more than synonyms. The first one to be at all comprehensive was Thomas Blount's dictionary Glossographia of 1656. This was followed by Samuel Johnson's famous and more complete dictionary of 1755.

In 1806, Noah Webster's dictionary was published by the G&C Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts which still publishes Merriam-Webster dictionaries, but the term Webster's is considered generic and can be used by any dictionary.

The most complete dictionary of the English language is the Oxford English Dictionary. The first edition was properly begun in 1860 and was completed in 1928, by which time a supplement that took an additional five years to complete was already necessary.

Also see A Brief History of English Lexicography

Miscellaneous

The Irish mathematical physicist, J. L. Synge, created a game, Game of Circ, to emphasize the circular reasoning implicit in the defining process of any standard dictionary.

List of major dictionaries

Arabic

• Kitab al-Ayn
• Al Mujam al waseet
• Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic

Catalan

• Diccionari de l'Enciclopèdia Catalana
• Diccionari de l'Institut d'Estudis Catalans

Chinese

• Shuowen Jiezi
• Kangxi Zidian
• Rime dictionary

Dutch

• Van Dale
• Online Nederlands Woordenboek

English

• Oxford English Dictionary (descriptive)
• Concise Oxford Dictionary
• New Oxford Dictionary of English
• New Oxford American Dictionary
• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
• Webster's New Universal Unabridged Dictionary
• Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (prescriptive)
• Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language (prescriptive)
• Webster's Third New International Dictionary (descriptive)
• The Century Dictionary
• The Macquarie Dictionary, a dictionary of Australian English
• The Chambers Dictionary
• The Collins COBUILD
• The Collins English Dictionary
• Dean's Law Dictionary - includes 145,000 plus terms, over 170,000 case cites, 26,000 Latin Words,65,000 plus synonyms, its digital and created with artificial intelligence.
• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
• Law Dictionary - includes legal terms from the Bouvier Law Dictionary.
• W3Dictionary - incorporates several popular and reliable dictionaries into one online source.

French

• Le dictionnaire de l'Académie française (prescriptive)
• Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française ("Le Robert") (descriptive)
  • Petit Robert (abridgement)
• Dictionnaire de la langue française (Littré)

German

• Duden
• Der Große Muret Sanders by Langenscheidt
• Deutsches Rechtswörterbuch http://www.rzuser.uni-heidelberg.de/~cd2/drw/
• Deutsches Wörterbuch by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm http://www.dwb.uni-trier.de/
• Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache http://www.dwds.de/?woerterbuch=1&qu=
• PONS Großwörterbuch Englisch

Italian

• De Mauro Italian definition
• Oxford Paravia Italian«--»English
• Garzanti Linguistica Italian definition, Italian«--»English, Italian«--»French (free registration is required)

Japanese

Main article: Japanese dictionaries

• Shin Meikai kokugo jiten (新明解国語辞典), a medium-sized Japanese-Japanese dictionary
• Kōjien (広辞苑), a large, often quoted Japanese-Japanese dictionary
• Nihon Kokugo Daijiten (日本国語大辞典), the largest Japanese-Japanese dictionary, in 14 volumes
• Shogakukan Progressive Japanese-English Dictionary (小学館 プログレッシブ和英中辞典), a medium-sized Japanese-English Dictionary
• Kenkyusha's New Japanese-English Dictionary (新和英大辞典), the largest Japanese-English Dictionary
• Dai Kan-Wa jiten (大漢和辞典), a comprehensive kanji dictionary containing about 50,000 characters.

Norwegian

• Norsk Ordbok

Portuguese

• Dicionário Aurélio
• Dicionário Houaiss
• Michaelis
• Dicionário do Português Contemporâneo (Lisbon Academy of Sciences)
• Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa (Porto Editora)
• Priberam

Romanian

• Dicţionarul explicativ al limbii române

Spanish

• Diccionario de la Real Academia Española
• Diccionario de uso del español de María Moliner

Swedish

• Svenska Akademiens Ordbok

Urdu

• Feroze ul Lughat

Publishers

• Cambridge University Press
• Chambers Harrap
• Collins
• Funk and Wagnalls
• Merriam-Webster
• Oxford University Press
• PWN

List of online dictionaries

1. Online versions of printed dictionaries
   • The Merriam-Webster Dictionary
   • The Oxford English Dictionary (requires subscription)
   • The Compact Oxford English Dictionary
   • Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary etc. (Cambridge Dictionaries Online)
   • Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
   • Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary 4th edition (note: Korean site, but all results in English)
   • Talking, fully crosslinked dictionary using Webster, Wiktionary and Wikipedia
   • The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language Fourth Edition
   • The Macquarie Dictionary Australian English (requires subscription)
   • Americana English-Russian Dictionary - the first bilingual dictionary about the United States, over 20,000 entries
   • Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache (Dictionary of contemporary German language)
   • Magic Words: A Dictionary (free online version, 500+ essay-style entries)
   • Four Japanese Dictionaries published by Sanseido, including the EXCEED EJ/JE dictionaries and the big Daijirin monolingual dictionary
   • Kenkyusha Online Dictionary featuring several major print dict