Word.ws English Dictionary

dictionaryese

Syllables: dic·tion·a·ry·eseUK/ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnə.ɹɪˈiːz//ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnɛ.ɹiˈiz/

dictionaryese noun: the style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing.

Noun

dictionaryese (uncountable)

  1. (informal) The style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing.
    • For a concise dictionary the extent of the German vocabulary dealt with is commendable and fairly searching spot-checks in many fields have shown no serious gaps, but an English reviewer must be forgiven for commenting on the ‘dictionaryese’ of some of the English renderings.1962, D. F. S. Scott, “Langenscheidts Handwörterbuch Deutsch–Englisch. Langenscheidt’s Concise Dictionary German–English. (Second Edition, Berlin 1960; pp. 672; published in England by Methuen; 17s....
    • 'Cause to die' is immediately recognizable as dictionaryese, which is to say that dictionaries do not, in general, honor the condition that definitions must be couched in the syntax of surface English.1975, Jerry A[lan] Fodor, “The Structure of the Internal Code: Some Linguistic Evidence”, in The Language of Thought, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell Company, →ISBN, page 127
    Synonyms:
    lexicographese

Examples of dictionaryese in a sentence

  • Its rendering of slang into dictionaryese—“shake one's booty” is defined as “dance energetically”—is a thing of beauty.2003 December 4, YiLing Chen-Josephson, “Word Up”, in Slate, New York, N.Y.: The Slate Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...
  • If I were defining "hella" without using substitutability, I would probably come up with something long-winded and full of dictionaryese, like "to an excessive degree."2017, Kory Stamper, “Surfboard: On Defining”, in Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, →ISBN, page...

Synonyms of dictionaryese

Forms of dictionaryese

alternative formdictionarese

Origin of dictionaryese

From dictionary + -ese (suffix denoting jargon used in a particular context).

Words that rhyme with dictionaryese

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about dictionaryese

What does dictionaryese mean?
Dictionaryese means the style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing.
How do you use dictionaryese in a sentence?
Its rendering of slang into dictionaryese—“shake one's booty” is defined as “dance energetically”—is a thing of beauty.
What part of speech is dictionaryese?
Dictionaryese is a noun.
How do you pronounce dictionaryese?
Dictionaryese is pronounced /ˈdɪk.ʃəˌnə.ɹɪˈiːz/ (UK).

Words near dictionaryese in the dictionary

  1. dictionary form
  2. dictionary forms
  3. dictionary on historical principles
  4. dictionary-monger
  5. dictionary-mongers
  6. dictionaryese
  7. dictionarying
  8. dictionaryless
  9. dictionarylike
  10. dictionnaries
  11. dictionnary

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dictionaryese (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-dictionaryese.ogg.

Cite this entry: “dictionaryese.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dictionaryese. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.