After going over this section you will be able to explain and find the following things in  your dictionary.

With the help of the dictionary skills you’ll be able to use the dictionary and search the meanings of any difficult word.

There are some functions of the dictionary and those functions are listed below:

1. Guide Words

2. Entry Words

3. Synonyms

4. Usage

5. Parts of Speech

6. Pronunciation

7. Syllabication

8. Meaning

9. Etymology

10. Variants

11. Inflections

Now a brief explanation is given regarding these functions:

1) Guide Words:

With the help of the  guide words we can find any word in the dictionary. Guide words are two words given  at the top of each dictionary page.  The first guide word i.e. on the left side  is the first word on the page, and the second guide word i.e. the word on the right is the last word on the page. The guidewords help you find all the words which fall within the combination. 

2.) Entry Words:

All the words explained on every page of the dictionary are called entry words.

3.) Synonyms:

These are the words that have the similar or same meaning as of the entry word. e.g. the synonyms for the word “choice” are election, option, preference and selection. The dictionary also works  as a  thesaurus at times and helps you with your vocabulary building.

4.) Usage:

The dictionary tells you whether a word can be used formally or informally. So, Dictionary can also guide you on using proper words in proper context.

5.) Parts of Speech:

There are eight parts of speech i.e.

i) Noun

ii) Pronoun

iii) Verb

iv) Adverb

v) Adjective

vi) Preposition

vii) Conjunction

viii) Interjection

Sometimes a single word can be used as a noun and as a verb or any other part of speech. Abbreviations are used for the parts of speech to show that a word can be used in how many ways. e.g. for noun (n), verb (v), adjective (adj), adverb (adv) e.t.c.

 6.) Pronunciation: 

After every word, parenthesis are given in which  the pronunciation of the word is given, to help people pronounce the word correctly. English, like all languages need some assistance with pronunciation. The key to pronunciation symbols is given at the beginning of every dictionary.

7.) Syllabication:

The sound produced by one movement of the tongue in the mouth is called a syllable and this process is called syllabication. Syllabication has nothing to do with spellings. Right, Write and rite all have same pronunciation though different spellings and meanings. SO, they have same number of syllables.

8.) Meaning:

The dictionary gives you all the possible meanings of the entry word. Most of the words have more than one meaning. All of them are explained according to the grammatical status of that word.

9.) Etymology:

Etymology means the study of roots. In language the study of roots refers to the origin of the word. We are all familiar with the word “Chemistry”. It came into English from Arabic. Alchemia was the word for Chemistry in Arabic. This became Alchemy in Old and Middle English and then it became chemistry in modern english.

10.) Variants:

It means different ways of saying the word. The variation is usually in spellings or pronunciation. The word Vitamins has two different pronunciation. Similarly, the word color and colour, both are same but have different spellings.

11.) Inflections:

In language, Inflections refer to the additions to a word. Some words can take inflections like pretier and prettiest.

Your dictionary can  provide all this information to you.
BY Ms WAJIHA KHALIL LABAR

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