a printed or electronic reference work that lists words in alphabetical order and provides details on their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactic and idiomatic applications
a reference book that lists phrases or names crucial to a certain subject or activity in alphabetical order, along with explanations of their meanings and applications
a dictionary that lists words from one language alphabetically together with their definitions or translations in another
A computerized list of words or other data items used for reference in word processing or information retrieval.
It is a list of words from the lexicon of one or more particular languages that is frequently alphabetized (or by the consonantal root for Semitic languages or by the radical and stroke for logographic languages)
. It may also contain information on usage, etymologies, pronunciations, translation, and other things.[1][2][3] It is a lexicographical reference that illustrates how the data are related to one another.[4]
The categories of general and specialized dictionaries are broadly distinguished. Instead of including every word in the language, specialized dictionaries include words in specific domains. There is some debate over whether lexicology and terminology are two distinct academic disciplines, however lexical elements that express concepts in certain fields are typically referred to as terms rather than words.
Theoretically[citation needed], broad dictionaries are meant to be semasiological, relating word to.
History of Dictionary
Cuneiform tablets containing bilingual Sumerian-Akkadian wordlists were found in Ebla (modern Syria) and date to around 2300 BCE, during the Akkadian Empire. These tablets are the first known dictionaries.[9][10][11] The official Babylonian translation of such bilingual Sumerian wordlists can be found in the Urra=hubullu dictionary from the early 2nd millennium BCE.
The earliest monolingual dictionary still in existence is a Chinese one from the third century BCE, known as the Erya.
Some sources of dictionary also refer to the Shizhoupian, which was a calligraphic compilation of Chinese characters found on bronzes from the Zhou dynasty and was likely created between 700 and 200 BCE.[Reference needed] In his groundbreaking work Disorderly Words (o, taktoi glôssai), Philitas of Cos (c. 4th century BCE) clarified the meanings of uncommon Homeric and other literary words, words from the Bible, and other texts.
Amarasimha, who lived about the fourth century CE, created the Amarakoa, the first Sanskrit dictionary. It was written in verse and contained about 10,000 words.
According to the Nihon Shoki, the long-lost Niina glossary of Chinese characters from 682 CE served as the earliest Japanese dictionary. The Kitab al-‘Ayn, published in the eighth century by Al-Khalil ibn Ahmad al-Farahidi, is regarded as the first Arabic dictionary.
[13] The Tenrei Bansh Meigi, a Japanese dictionary that dates back to around 835 CE, also included a glossary of written Chinese. Aramaic heterograms are listed in Frahang-i Pahlavig along with its Middle Persian translation and Pazend alphabet phonetic transcription. Sanas Cormaic, an Irish dictionary from the ninth century CE, provided etymologies and definitions for more than 1,400 Irish terms.
English dictionaries in Britain
Glossaries comprising Latin, French, Spanish, and Spanish- derived words with English delineations made up the oldest wordbooks in the English language. John of Garland, an Englishman, chased the word” wordbook” in 1220. He’d published a book named Dictionarius to prop with Latin” diction.”( 22
) The Elementarie was an early 8000- wordnon-alphabetical list of English words collected by Richard Mulcaster in 1582.( 23)( 24) English educator Robert Cawdrey created A Table Alphabeticall in 1604 to be the first entirely English alphabetical wordbook.( 2)( 3)
The Bodleian Library in Oxford is home to the only remaining dupe. This wordbook and the several copyists that came after it were seen as unreliable and rightly comprehensive. 150 times after Cawdrey’s death, in 1754, Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, was still mourning.
American English dictionaries
The first dictionary produced by American Noah Webster, A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language, was released in 1806.[3] An American Dictionary of the English Language, which took twenty-seven years to finish, was compiled by Webster starting in 1807. Webster studied 26 languages, including Old English (Anglo-Saxon), German, Greek, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French, Hebrew, Arabic, and Sanskrit, to assess the derivation of terms.
During his year abroad in Paris, France, and at the University of Cambridge in 1825, Webster finished writing his dictionary. Of the 70,000 terms in his book, 12,000 had never before been used in a dictionary that had been published. Webster was an early advocate of spelling reform and his dictionary included spellings that eventually became American English, taking the place of “color.”
Types
Each word in a generic dictionary could have several meanings. While some dictionaries include words in chronological order, beginning with the earliest usage, others list definitions in order of most prevalent usage.[29]
Although words can take many distinct forms in many different languages, most dictionaries only use the undeclined or unconjugated version as the headword.
The most typical type of dictionary is a book, although some more recent dictionaries, like StarDict and the New Oxford American Dictionary, are actually pieces of dictionary software that run on PDAs or PCs. The Internet also provides access to a wide variety of online dictionaries.
OTHER TYPES
any kinds
Dual-language dictionary
American collegiate dictionary
(Mainly British) learner’s dictionary
digital dictionary
dictionary that is encyclopedic
dictionary for beginners in one language
A dictionary for advanced students
by voice
Dictionary of rhymes
Dictionary in reverse (conceptual dictionary)
Visual lexicon
Dictionary of satire
Specialized dictionaries
Article focus: specialized dictionaries
A specialized dictionary, also known as a technical dictionary, is one that focuses on a particular subject area rather than one that contains every word in the vocabulary of a particular language or languages, according to the Manual of Specialized Lexicographies.
Lexicographers divide specialized dictionaries into three categories in accordance with The Bilingual LSP Dictionary’s description: a multi-field dictionary, which broadly covers a number of subject fields (such as a business dictionary), a single-field dictionary, which specifically covers one subject field (such as law), and a sub-field dictionary, which covers a more specialized field (such as constitutional law).
For instance, the African American National Biography Project, the American National Biography, and the 23-language Inter-Active Terminology for Europe are all multi-field dictionaries.
Defining dictionaries
A core glossary of the simplest definitions of the simplest concepts is offered by the simplest dictionary, often known as a defining dictionary. For individuals who are just learning a language, in particular, other concepts can be clarified and explained from these.
The commercial defining dictionaries for English often only provide one or two definitions for words with under 2000 words. With them, the rest of English may be defined, including the 4000 most typical idioms and metaphors.
Prescriptive vs. descriptive
Lexicographers define terms according to one of two fundamental philosophies: prescriptive or descriptive. In order to give the American language a distinctive identity, Noah Webster changed several words’ spellings and highlighted distinctions in their sound and meaning.
Since the rest of the English-speaking world favors the word colour, American English currently uses the spelling color. (Similarly, British English later had a few spelling changes that had little impact on American English; read more about the variations between American and British English spelling.)[31]
Large 20th-century dictionaries that seek to describe the actual use of words include the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Webster’s Third. The majority of English dictionaries currently define words using the descriptive method and then provide additional information not included in the definition itself.
Dictionaries for natural language processing
Natural language processing (NLP) dictionaries are created for computer programs to utilize, as opposed to conventional dictionaries, which are made for human use. The direct user is a program, while the final user is a person. It is not necessary for such a dictionary to be printable on paper.
The content is organized in a complicated network-like fashion rather than in a linear, entry-by-entry fashion (see Diathesis alternation). The content of most of these dictionaries is typically multilingual and typically very large because they are used to regulate machine translations or cross-lingual information retrieval (CLIR).
An ISO standard called Lexical Markup Framework (LMF) has been created to permit the organized sharing and merging of dictionaries
.
Examples
Major English dictionaries
Samuel Johnson’s A Dictionary of the English Language (prescriptive)
Clarence L. Barnhart’s The American College Dictionary
The English Language American Heritage Dictionary
a legal dictionary called Black’s
Brewer’s Phrase and Fable Dictionary
The Oxford Dictionary of Canada
Yearbook of the Century
dictionaries Chambers
English dictionary Collins
Oxford English Concise Dictionary
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is published by Longman Macmillan.
An Australian English dictionary is Macquarie Dictionary.
Merriam-Webster, an American English dictionary OED/O.E.D., the Oxford English Dictionary (descriptive), and other dictionaries
English language dictionary published by Random House
A lot of American press journalists use Webster’s New World Dictionary as their official desk dictionary, particularly the college edition.
Additional details: dictionaries in English are contrasted.
References
Henning Bergenholtz and Sven Tarp, editors( 1995). The Creation of Specialized wordbooks Manual of Specialized Lexicography. ISBN 90-272-1612-6 Amsterdam John Benjamins Publishing. Peter Erdmann and See- Young Cho.” A detail History of English Lexicography” Berlin’s Technische Universität. Archived on March 9, 2008, from the original. attained on December 17, 2010. SidneyI. Landau( 2001)( 1984).
The alternate edition of wordbooks The Art and Craft of Lexicography. ISBN 0-521-78040-3. Cambridge Cambridge University Press. Sandro Nielsen( 1994). The Bilingual LSP Dictionary Legal Language Principles and Practice. Gunter Narr, Tübingeb, ISBN 3-8233-4533-8. Sandro Nielsen( 2008).” The Impact of Lexicographical Information Costs on the Development and Use of wordbooks.”
18170-189 Lexikos. ISSN 1684- 4904. Michael Rundell andB.T.S. Atkins published The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography in 2008. ISBN 978-0-19-927771-1 Oxford Oxford University Press Simon Winchester( 1998). the educator
Notes
Fourth Edition, 2002, Webster’s New World College Dictionary
Richard Nordquist (August 9, 2019). The characteristics, purposes, and restrictions of dictionaries. ThoughtCo. On May 26, 2022, the original version was archived. November 13, 2022, retrieved.
“Dictionary”. Britannica. On July 8, 2022, the original version was archived. November 13, 2022, retrieved.
Sandro Nielsen (2008).
The impact of costs associated with lexicographic information on dictionary naming and use. 18: 170-189 Lexikos. ISSN 1684-4904.
Lexicography: A Practical Guide, Sterkenburg 2003, pp. 155–157
Sterkenburg, 2003, A Practical Guide to Lexicography, p. 3–4.
Sterkenburg, 2003, A Practical Guide to Lexicography, p.
(2003) R. R. K. Hartmann. Dictionaries, compilers, critics, and users comprise lexicography. 21. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-25366-6.
“DCCLT – Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Lexical Texts” is available at oracc.museum.upenn.edu. Archived on April 1, 2022, from the original. Obtainable as of 2022-03-01.
www.bl.uk. “1582 – Mulcaster’s Elementarie.” On October 11, 2017, the original version was archived. obtained on October 13, 2017.
A Snippet of English Lexicography’s History Archived on March 9, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, See-Young Cho and Peter Erdmann, 1999, Technische Universität Berlin.
Johnson and the English Language Conference, Birmingham, 25 August 2005, Jack Lynch, “How Johnson’s Dictionary Became the First Dictionary” 29 August 2019 (Archived at the Wayback Machine) obtained on July 12, 2008
Considine, John P. (March 27, 2008). Early Modern European Dictionaries: Lexicography and the Creation of Heritage. ISBN 978-0-521-88674-1. Cambridge University Press, p. 298. obtained on May 16, 2016.
“Lynch, “How Johnson’s Dictionary Became the First Dictionary”” at andromeda.rutgers.edu. On June 6, 2011, the original version was archived. obtained on October 13, 20.
Online dictionaries
Additional details: A list of online dictionaries and its categories
Online dictionaries were first introduced on desktop computers during the Internet era, and more recently to smart phones. Holistic, pragmatic, caveat, esoteric, and bourgeois are among the top 10 search terms on Merriam-Webster Online at the time, according to David Skinner in 2013.
Modern dictionaries are good at teaching users about words they don’t already know, which has historically been a goal of lexicography.[38]