Types of dictionaries

The term dictionary is used to denote a book listing words of a language with their meanings and often with data regarding:

· pronunciation

· usage

· and/or origin.

There are also dictionaries that concentrate their attention upon only one of these aspects:

· pronouncing (phonetical) dictionaries (e.g. by Daniel Jones)

· etymological dictionaries (e.g. by Walter Skeat, by Erik Partridge)

Dictionaries

Diachronic Synchronic

Diachronic dictionaries reflect the development of the English vocabulary by recording the history of form and meaning for every word registered. E.g. The Oxford English Dictionary

Synchronic or descriptive dictionaries of current English are concerned with present meaning and usage of words.

Dictionaries

Unilingual Bilingual Multilingual

Dictionaries in which the words and their definitions belong to the same language are unilingual or explanatory.

Bilingual or translation dictionaries are those that explain words by giving their equivalents in another language. Unilingual dictionaries are further subdivided with regard to the time.

Multilingual dictionaries give the entries in some or many languages.