Content

• Steps
• Advice
• Warning

Out of nearly a million English words, the average English speaker knows about 60,000 words. In addition to supporting pronunciation and looking up the meaning of words, the dictionary is also the perfect tool to improve English skills through a rich amount of information about grammar and usage of words, however, to have something You must know how to use the dictionary.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Learn about dictionaries

1. 

   Choose the right dictionary. From time to time you should change the dictionary to update new words added every year.
   • Consider buying a specialized dictionary if it is useful for study or work. Some examples of specialized dictionaries are language dictionary, technical dictionary, rhyme dictionary, crossword dictionary, subject dictionary (math, chemistry, biology, etc.), picture dictionary (Great for learning a foreign language or for technical knowledge), slang and idiom dictionaries, and more.
   • Note that many countries have their own native dictionaries, which are more effective than dictionaries you will find anywhere else, eg Australian Macquarie, English Oxford, American Webster and so on. ..
   • Some high schools, universities and businesses prefer to use a certain type of dictionary. That is because they want students or staff to have a consistent understanding and use of words, making sure everyone uses the correct terms when doing homework, editing and reporting.

2. 

   
   
   Read the introduction. The best way to know how to use a particular type of dictionary is to read the introduction, which shows how items are organized. The introduction provides some important information, such as acronyms and phonetic letters that are used throughout the dictionary.
   • This section describes the layout of the items (they usually write down the vocabulary, variations of that word, word type, pronunciation, explanation, etc.). After reading it, you know how to look up the words you want to find and how to use the information found.
   • There is also information on the pronunciation of words with similar spelling, useful when hearing a word but not knowing how to write it. For example, if you hear "not", it could be "knot" with "k" as mute, and the list gives you suggestions for finding the right word.

3. 

   
   
   Learn the acronyms. Dictionary often use abbreviations in the description of the meaning of words. Therefore, sometimes you will be confused when you do not understand these acronyms. Usually a list of acronyms is provided near the front page, in the introduction, or immediately after.
   • For example, "adj" stands for "adjective" and tells you what kind of word you are looking up. Likewise, "adv" or "advb" corresponds to two words "adverb; adverbial ”(adverb).
   • For the symbol "n" we have at least three cases: the most common is "noun" (noun), but it can also be "neuter" (like middle) or "north" (north), based on context to determine. So you need to know the context of the word you need to look up.

4. 

   
   
   Learn pronunciation instructions. If you jump right into looking up words without paying attention to the pronunciation instructions, it can be difficult to understand the symbols, so first you need to find out the meaning of these symbols.
   • The pronunciation of a word is placed between two italics ( ).
   • The single accent (') before a syllable is the main stress of the word, the double accent (") before the syllable is the minor stress of the word, the lighter sound than these two stresses has no accent mark. , the word penmanship will be transcribed as follows 'pen-m & n- "ship .
   • The symbol & indicates unpressed vowels. This symbol is often inserted between an accent vowel with either r or l sounds, as in the word sour 'after (- &) r .
   • The symbol ä represents the "a" sound that appears in words like "caught" or "fought". Compare this to the symbol a which denotes the sound "a" in words like "mat, map, snap" and so on. A vocabulary does not have to have an "a" to have the pronunciation of this letter.
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Part 2 of 3: Look up words

1. 

   Find the correct dictionary partition with the first letter of the word you want. Dictionaries usually arrange words alphabetically. For example, the word "dog" beginning with "d" should be on the partition after "c" and before "e".
   • Note the spelling of confusing words like "gnome" starting with "g", "psychology" starting with "p" or "knock" starting with "k" and so on.
   • If you are sure what the first letter is, you can start looking up that character. However, if you cannot find this word, you should try searching through other letters. For example, if you didn't know that "psychology" starts with a "p" you will first look in the "s" section. If you can't find it, go ahead and go to the "p" section because you can deduce the words "psychic" and "psychosis".
   • Remember that some words have the same pronunciation but the spelling is very different. For example, the word "throne" and "thrown" are written differently and have a completely different meaning. So you have to be careful with the words you look up.

2. 

   Read the instructions. These are the two words at the top of the page, telling you what words are on the page. They help you determine the exact part to look for for the text you want to look up.
   • For example, you will open the letter "B" if you are looking for the word "bramble". While flipping you have to look at the top of the page until you reach the page with the words "braid bread". It tells you on the page that there are words between braid and bread. Since "bramble" starts with "b-r-a" it will be in this section.
   • Since the dictionary is always arranged alphabetically, bramble (b-r-a) appears before bread (b-r-e).

3. 

   Tune in order from top to bottom. If you are looking for the word "futile" then look along the words "furry", "fuse" and "fuss". Since the search term begins with "f-u-t", you must glance at the words that begin with "f-u-r" and "f-u-s" until you see an area with letters beginning with "f-u-t". In this case you trace from the top down, go through "fut", "Futhark" and then the word "futile".

4. 

   Read the meaning description. After finding the word position, you will see the description of its meaning (if there is more than one meaning, the most common meaning is recorded first), pronunciation, capitalization (if it is a proper noun) , word type and so on.
   • Another problem is that it is difficult for learners to fully understand the explanation, because there are words that you do not understand and continue to look up, but should not be discouraged. See if you can understand the example sentences provided in it or not, if not, you should look up words that do not know the meaning.
   • Sometimes the dictionary also provides synonyms (words that have the same meaning as the word you are looking for) and antonyms (meaning opposite of the word you are looking for). For example, the word futile has several synonyms like "fruitless" and "unsuccessful", the antonym can be "effective" or "helpful". You also see a relative of the word like "futility".
   • Many dictionaries also specify the origin or history leading to the appearance of the vocabulary. Whether you don't know Latin or Ancient Greek, this information will help you remember and understand the word.
   • Many dictionaries also show the spelling of other English variations (American English, British English, Australian English, etc.).

5. 

   On the other hand, you can also use an online dictionary. Online dictionaries are quite easy to use, you just need to choose the one that is free and suitable for you, or use the premium version if your place of study or work is registered. You have to type the word you want to look into the box, the search engine will return that word with a description of the meaning attached and have most of the ingredients as mentioned above.
   • Take advantage of the audio content found in online dictionaries, which comes in handy when you don't know the pronunciation of words.
   • To use Google to find the meaning of a word, type "futile meaning". The search engine will find out the meaning of that word.
   • Note that free apps are incomplete, such as premium apps or paper dictionaries, keep this in mind when you're not sure if you've found the right answer.
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Part 3 of 3: Using additional features of the dictionary

1. 

   The dictionary also offers standard letter templates. Usually the paper dictionary (not the online application) has some standard letter templates for job applications, responses, complaints or other formal documents.

2. 

   Find more information. Dictionaries not only contain words and meanings of words, but some also provide a wealth of information about the world in lists. The most common of these is geographic information (such as map, country, city, capital, etc.).
   • Paper dictionaries typically have data on units of mass and volume, as well as conversion tables between unit types. This function is quite convenient when you need to convert from pounds to kilograms and vice versa.
   • You also find population statistics for many cities and countries, as well as pictures of flags of countries, states, provinces and regions around the world.
   • Many dictionaries also supplement lists of famous people or historical figures for your research.

3. 

   Have fun learning with the dictionary! Whenever you have free time, you can expand your knowledge by researching the dictionary. You just need to open a random page and see if there are any strange or interesting words. Notice the meaning of these words and try to add them to your vocabulary, or use it later to make them really deep in memory.
   • Play dictionary game with group of friends. This game requires a dictionary and some friends. The first person looks up a difficult word and applies it to a sentence. The rest of the people have to guess whether the word is correct or not, it's just a fabrication. If someone guessed correctly, it was their turn to quiz.
   • Another game: Each person will choose a word that is familiar to everyone, then read aloud the meaning of that word printed in the dictionary. The rest of the people had to quickly guess what the word was, even shouting while its definition was still being read.
   • Game with foreign language dictionary. Choose a certain obscure word and ask people to think of the meaning of it and write it on a piece of paper, at the same time you also write the correct meaning on paper, at the end mix up the pieces of paper and let them guess which meaning is "correct. ".
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Advice

• If you cannot find the word you need to look up, check that you have spelled it correctly. For example, you will not find the word "isotope" if you look in the part of letter A, likely when the speaker has a southern accent.
• Don't worry about learning the etymology of words. Most of our vocabulary is from Greek or Latin, you will find yourself learning a lot of original words from these languages, but after studying the etymology you start to understand the new words more easily. by looking at their structure.
• If you do not know the correct spelling you should use the spellcheck function in the word processor to see correct word suggestions.
• Nowadays it is easy to check the meaning of a word using an online dictionary, but the free version usually does not provide enough information, so in general it is very useful to have a paper dictionary when other sources are not. can respond.

Warning

• Each dictionary has different meanings, some are very specific. You must know what kind of dictionaries you have. A general dictionary is essential in case you only have a dictionary of rhymes, slang, idioms, synonyms, or technical dictionaries.
• Paper dictionaries are easily obsolete because the language is constantly changing, you should check the publication date of the dictionary. One way to gauge a dictionary's updates is to look for relatively new words like "chick flick" or "metrosexual".