2TCNa book that explains the words and phrases used in a particular subject 专业词典
a science dictionary
一部科学词典
nCOLLOCATIONS
verbs
use a dictionary
We advise all our students to use a good dictionary.
look something up in a dictionary
If you don’t understand the meaning of a word, look it up in a dictionary.
check a dictionary
I often check the dictionary for spelling and pronunciation.
consult a dictionary formal (=check something in a dictionary)
Consult the dictionary for examples of how a word is used.
ADJECTIVES/NOUN + dictionary
a pocket dictionary (=small enough to be carried in your pocket)
Pocket dictionaries don't always give you enough information.
an electronic dictionary (=small electronic machine containing a dictionary)
Electronic dictionaries are very popular in Japan.
a bilingual dictionary (=with translations from one language into another)
A bilingual dictionary is an essential purchase for anybody learning a foreign language.
a monolingual dictionary (=written in only one language)
Monolingual dictionaries tend to have more examples than bilingual ones.
a picture dictionary (=containing a lot of pictures, especially for children or beginners in a language)
The advantage of a picture dictionary is that you don't have lengthy definitions.
an online dictionary (=one you can use on the Internet)
There are plenty of online dictionaries available free on the Internet.
an etymological dictionary (=showing the origin and history of words)
Etymological dictionaries show how languages borrow words from each other.
dictionary + NOUN
a dictionary definition
Clear dictionary definitions are what students look for.
a dictionary entry (=the definition and all the other information at a word)
The introduction explains the functions of the different parts of a dictionary entry.
Examples from the Corpus
dictionary• a dictionary of business terms• A dictionary is useless unless one already knows the meanings of many words.• Word families and dictionary work Best for individual and pair work.• To eliminate or locatecolloquial words there are dictionaries of slang.• a Korean-English dictionary• It's worse than a medicaldictionary, that is.• Despite the competition, Merriam-Webster still accounts for about half of the 2 million dictionariessold annually in the United States.• The first step towards achieving this task is to use the information present in the machinereadabledictionaries.• Only letterstrings which appeared in this dictionary were considered to be correct.
Origindictionary
(1500-1600)Medieval Latindictionarium, from Late Latindictio“word”; → DICTION