How to Read a Short Dictionary Entry
This article is a helpful primer on how to read short dictionary entries on Dictionary.com
- Looking for long entries? Try How to Read a Long Dictionary Entry
- For Dictionary pages with multiple entries, see: How to Read Pages with More than One Entry
Tour a Short Entry
The Headword, Variant, and Pronunciation
Headword:
The big, bold word at the top is called the headword. This is the word being defined. Some words have more than one form. If more than one spelling is common, and if the spellings share a pronunciation, then they will both be shown at the top of the entry. The most common spelling will be shown first, and the next most common variant spelling will follow.
Pronunciation and Variant Spellings:
After the headword, there is a pronunciation in square brackets. The site will default to showing you the phonetically spelled pronunciation, a way of imagining how the headword would be spelled if spelling in English were more straightforward and regular. You should be able to sound out the word, following some common rules of which letters and sounds correspond with each other in English. A letter that has two or more sounds in English, like the letter ‘c’ which can make the sound [s] or [k] depending on context, will be spelled with the [s] or the [k] in this version of the pronunciation, to reflect the actual sound.
If you are familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet, and you would rather see the word using those symbols, click on “Show IPA” and the pronunciation will toggle to use these established international symbols. To change back to the spelled pronunciation, click on the “Phonetic Respelling” link.
Finally, there is a speaker icon to hear the word pronounced.
Part of Speech
Between the headword and the first definition, the part of speech is indicated. Some of these parts of speech may be very familiar to you. A noun is a thing, person, place, or idea. A verb is an action word. And so forth. If the part of speech indicated at an entry is not one of the ones you know well, you can learn more about it in our Parts of Speech Guide.
The Definition
The meaning or meanings of the word come next. Some headwords have only one part of speech and one definition. Others might have many parts of speech and more than one meaning for each of those parts of speech. We’ll see examples of this below.
Interactive Dictionary.com content
If the entry is very simple, with only one part of speech and one definition, then the next thing you will see is interactive content, like a Quiz. You can play with that content, or you can keep scrolling. There is more information about the headword below it.
Other Variants
A variant form so common that it might be used interchangeably with the headword spelling will be included at the top of the entry next to the headword, as long as it shares a pronunciation with the headword. Variants that are distinguished by a different pronunciation, variety of English (like British English), and less-common variant spellings, if there are any, are listed at the bottom of the entry, after the definition (or definitions) and the interactive games. These are labeled appropriately as Also, British, Sometimes, etc. Variants labeled “Also called” are other words that mean the same thing as the headword. Pronunciations are given for these variants as well, when their pronunciation differs from the one at the top of the entry.
Origin of the Word
The origin of the word, also called the etymology, is the next section of this dictionary entry. If the date when the headword was first used is known, you’ll find it here. The etymology may also tell you what other words are the building blocks from which this word was assembled. If it is a word that comes into English from another language (like French) and even another language before that (like Latin), then you can follow along from the most recent form and language to the oldest form and language where there is evidence of this word.
Nearby Words
Finally, in a simple entry, a list of nearby words in alphabetical order will probably be the last of the content directly associated with the headword. In an online dictionary or mobile app, you can obviously jump between any words you want to. Unlike a print dictionary, you don’t have to flip through pages and work out whether “cle” comes before or after “chi” in alphabetical order. But, because families of words that share an origin and similar spelling are often of interest when learning about a related word, we’ve restored the chance to see what is alphabetically in the neighborhood of your headword in this section so you might bump into more content that might interest you.