I.

Introduction

Dictionary, listing of the words of a language, usually in alphabetical order but sometimes also by topic, with their meanings or their equivalents. A dictionary may also contain pronunciations, syllabications, etymologies (word histories), and examples of usage. The term dictionary is also applied to any systematic list of special terms such as abbreviations, slang, or etymology, or to a list in which the special terms of a particular subject are defined. Some dictionaries focus on particular subjects, such as science, biography, geography, mathematics, history (see History and Historiography), or philosophy (see Philosophy, Western).

Some dictionaries are called encyclopedic (see Encyclopedia), because they not only define words but also offer additional descriptive and explanatory information and identify many biographical and geographical names. A famous encyclopedic dictionary is the French 19th-century dictionary-encyclopedia the Grand dictionnaire universel (17 volumes, 1865-1890), compiled by Pierre Athanase Larousse. The greatest such American work is the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (revised edition, 12 volumes, 1911), edited by American linguist William Dwight Whitney.