dictionaries

Noun

dictionary (plural dictionaries)

1. A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically, explaining each term's meanings or senses, often also containing information on its etymology, pronunciation, usage, semantic relations, translations, as well as other relevant information.
   • If you want to know the meaning of a word, look it up in the dictionary.
   1. (preceded by the) A synchronic dictionary of a standardised language held to only contain words that are properly part of the language.
      • Look it up in the dictionary, and what do you find?1930, Norman Lindsay, chapter 6, in Redheap, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, →OCLC, section I, page 106
   2. (broadly) A reference work on a particular subject or activity in which the entries are arranged alphabetically; an alphabetical encyclopedia.
      • a law dictionary
2. (figuratively, with of or a possessive) The collection of words used or understood by a particular individual.

   Synonyms:

   lexicon, vocabulary

3. (figuratively) Someone or something regarded as a repository or compendium of information.
   • walking dictionary
4. An associative array; a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a dictionary (noun sense 1).
   • User calls RouteCollection.GetVirtualPath, passing in a RequestContext, a dictionary of values, and an optional route name used to select the correct route to generate the URL.2011, Jon Galloway, Phil Haack, Brad Wilson, Professional ASP.NET MVC 3

See all 10 meanings of dictionary