Dictionary is a great tool. It is not only helpful in improving spelling and vocabulary, but also helps in improving English language skills through variety of handy information on everyday language usage, grammar and other useful topics. Therefore, flawless approach towards right selection and discreet consultation of a dictionary is important for effective and time efficient usage. It is worth mentioning that relaying too much on the lexicon minimizes your creativity and thinking ability. Remember that if you look up every new word you read or hear, you will spend your whole day with the dictionary in your hand.
Dictionary is a great tool. It is not only helpful in improving spelling and vocabulary, but also helps in improving English language skills through variety of handy information on everyday language usage, grammar and other useful topics. Therefore, flawless approach towards right selection and discreet consultation of a dictionary is important for effective and time efficient usage.
It is worth mentioning that relaying too much on the lexicon minimizes your creativity and thinking ability. Remember that if you look up every new word you read or hear, you will spend your whole day with the dictionary in your hand. Guessing, contextualizing and inferring the meaning of an unfamiliar word are better options. Hence, resorting to dictionary should be your last option to make it an asset rather than a liability.
Choose the right dictionary that fulfills your requirement and most importantly, matches your proficiency level. If this criterion is not reckoned, chances are that your whole efforts yield negative results. Narrowing your choice to specialist dictionaries, such as language dictionaries, technical dictionaries, rhymes, crossword, subject dictionaries (for example, for physics, chemistry, biology, math, etc.) slang, or idioms is a good option. Similarly, as effectiveness of a reference book varies from country to country, therefore, buying native dictionary might be more helpful than sourcing the one from just anywhere. Furthermore, some educational institutions prefer the use of one particular dictionary for maintaining consistent style and understanding among every student, therefore, use that dictionary for your assignment to keep pace with other students.
Once you buy a lexicon, thoroughly read the introductory section for effective usage. This will give information about abbreviations, pronunciation symbols, associative thesaural guides and other useful information about entries, such as which part of speech a word belongs to, word’s history, definition, collocation, slang, etc. Moreover, this section equips you with the knowledge of how to find a particular word in a time efficient manner.
Dictionaries contain a large number of abbreviations that pose serious difficulty while consulting if they are not learnt properly. For example “adv” and “advb” are abbreviations of “adverb” and “adverbially” respectively, and “adj” stands for “adjective’. Similarly, meaning of “n” is contingent upon its context as it denotes at least three things in a dictionary: noun, neuter and north. Contextualization is good to get precise meaning of “n”. Moreover, if a word is no longer in current use it will be labelled archaic (arch) or obsolete (obs). Therefore, for result oriented consultation, just go through the list of abbreviations given in the dictionary.
Word entries are arranged in alphabetical order in the reference books. While looking up the meaning of ‘Etiquette’, find the section beginning with “e”. Obviously, this section will be after “d” and before “f”. Remember that there are certain words that have misleading spellings, such as “pneumatic” begins with a “p”, “kneel” with a “k”, “gnosis” with a “g”, etc. In case you do not know the first letter of a word you are looking for, search with the letter that sounds like it. For example, “psychiatric” starts with a “p”, so you might go to the “s” section of dictionary. Definitely, you will not find it there. Dissatisfied, you might try looking the word in the “p” section because you can think along the lines of “psychic” and “psychosis”. Moreover, one should be careful about the meaning of homophonic words like “hair” and “here”, “bear” and “bare”.
Reading guide words is smart way for quick consultation. These are at the top of the page that not only tell you about the types of words but also help you find the accurate word you are looking for. For example, if you’re looking for the word “deploy” you would begin looking in the “d” section. You would look at the tops of the pages as you go through them until you came to the page with the guide word “deplore.” This tells you that all the words after “deplore” are in this page because dictionary is always in alphabetical order.
Once you’ve located the word, it will tell you exactly what it means, how to pronounce it, how to use it in a sentence or speech, what part of speech it is and so on. Typically, a word has more than one definitions. In that case confining to the closest definition is a good option. Remember that words’ meanings are concepts in the minds of people, whereas definitions are written by lexicographers. Dictionaries relate to lexicalized concepts to a string of other lexicalized concepts. They cannot provide precise definitions, but rather provide a variety of phrasal definitions, from which they hope a reader infers the best suited definition, keeping in mind the word’s original context. Moreover, restrictive labels, synonyms, antonyms, derivation and word history are helpful in getting precise shade of meaning of a word.
Some students are unable to get the desired meaning of a word because of naïve strategy of substitution. After finding the unfamiliar word or phrase, they look for a familiar word or phrase among the definitions and then simply substitute the new word for this familiar word or phrase. While looking up the unfamiliar word “erode”, they may find familiar phrases “eat out” and “eat away” in the definition. Now, they make the frame: “we eat out a lot.” Emulating it they may produce creative sentence such as “they erode a lot!”
Consulting a lexicon can be made easier, quicker, and even enjoyable, if you understand the way in which words are formed. If you know the prefix “-a” is used to form adjective and adverb, meaning “not” and “without”, you will automatically know the meaning of “asocial” (unwilling to mix socially) and “apolitical” (uninterested in politic). Similarly, the suffix “-atte” means “small” or “imitation”, so the meaning of “kitchenette” and “leatherette” are “small kitchen” and “something looking / feeling like leather” respectively.
Besides words and their definitions, dictionaries have a lot of handy information on various topics. You may find geographical information about continents, maps, countries, cities, capitals, etc. Some dictionaries may have different weights, volumes and conversation tables. You can also usually find statistics on population in various cities and countries, as well as lists of the flags of different countries, states, provinces, and regions around the world. Moreover, you may have informative lists of famous or historical people in the dictionaries. Researching on these facts will be beneficial for you.
Vocabulary learning is a life-long experience. Just for the fun sake or to kill boredom and monotony or to manage leisure time, browse your dictionary to update yourself about new words now and then. Open the dictionary up to any page and scan the page for words that are unfamiliar or seem interesting. Sift them, read the definition and try to add the new word to your thinking or talking during the next few days until it becomes a natural and instinctive part of your vocabulary. Furthermore, playing dictionary game with friends maximizes your exposure to dictionary.
Dictionary is helpful like a friend, and it makes you an independent learner. It provides valuable information not only about a language’s proprieties, but also about other numerous useful topics. It is worthwhile only if you chose the right one, learn how to use it correctly and efficiently, and circumvent faulty consultation.
