I. ˈdikshəˌnerē, -ri noun
( -es )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Medieval Latin dictionarium, from Late Latin diction-, dictio word + Latin -arium -ary
1. : a reference book containing words usually alphabetically arranged along with information about their forms, pronunciations, functions, etymologies, meanings, and syntactical and idiomatic uses
a general dictionary of the English language
a monolingual dictionary
— compare vocabulary entry
2.
a. : a reference book listing terms or names important to a particular subject or activity along with discussion of their meanings and applications
a law dictionary
a dictionary of sports
broadly : an encyclopedic listing
a dictionary of dates
b. : a reference book giving for words of one language equivalents in another
an English-French dictionary
a bilingual dictionary
c. : a reference book listing terms as commonly spelled together with their equivalents in some specialized system (as of orthography or symbols)
a dictionary of shorthand
a pronouncing dictionary
3.
a. : a general comprehensive list, collection, or repository
a dictionary of biography
a usage dictionary
b. : vocabulary in use (as in a special field) : terminology
the dictionary of literary criticism
c. : a vocabulary of accepted terms
in the dictionary of the French Academy
d. : a vocabulary of the written words used by one author
systematic dictionaries of individual authors — Hillis Miller
e. : lexicon 4
II. noun
: a list (as of data items or words) stored in a computer for reference (as for information retrieval or word processing)