How to Read a Page with More than One Entry & Complex Entries

Tour a Page with More than One Entry

First, to understand why there are pages with multiple entries, we'll define what a homograph is. A homograph is a word that is spelled and pronounced the same as another word. In the dictionary, if two or more words look and sound the same, but come from different origins and have different meanings, they are each made their own headword, but all of these headwords are shown on a single page. The first entry you see, from the headword to the origin, and including all of the associated definitions in between, might not be the one that you are looking for.

The Headword

If someone tells you they just ate a delicious “barbecue and mac” taco, and you look up mac, the first entry you find will be for a familiar form of address to a man or boy (e.g. “Hey, mac, can ya gimme a hand here”). That’s not the meaning of mac that you are looking for. But if you look carefully, ‘mac’ has a little superscripted 1 right after the headword and before the pronunciation. When you see this, you know that you are looking at the first (1) of several homographs, and you can keep scrolling to find more. 

The second homograph, mac2 is a McIntosh apple. A sweet and savory taco is certainly possible, but after the first homograph, if there are more, you’ll see that indicated. The apple entry for mac is 2 of 7. Keep scrolling. 

The third mac headword on this page is for “macaroni,” and specifically can mean “macaroni and cheese.” That’s probably what you could add to brisket in your warm tortilla with just a little BBQ sauce, but you can keep scrolling just to be sure.  

All of the entries for the mac homographs are short, but you may find much longer pages, like the one for lag which has three homographs and twenty-six definitions.

Other Complex Dictionary Entries

What Not-So-Simple Entries Look Like

The same elements seen in the simple entry (headword, pronunciation, part of speech, definition, origin, etc.) will be found in every entry. But some entries have more complicated elements to show variant forms of the word (some for only one specific definition), whether a word is appropriate and standard, or nonstandard, informal, or even offensive, and whether it tends to have certain usage restrictions. For example, some nouns are only ever used with a plural verb and some verbs are usually followed by a certain preposition. Let’s look at how the dictionary shows these things.

Words with Irregular Inflection

When words in the dictionary are inflected in the expected, regular way to form plurals and verb tenses, nothing is noted at the entry. However, some words have surprising or irregular inflection, and in those cases, the entry will note it. For example, the singular noun “cat” behaves as any regular noun and adds an -s to make plural “cats,” so nothing is written after the noun part of speech. 

However, the singular noun “mouse” has the unpredictable plural “mice.” Irregularities like this will be shown immediately after the part of speech. 

Words with Irregular-sounding Plurals 

Any time a plural is formed or pronounced in a way that is irregular or unexpected, the unusual form will be documented. For example, French adds plural -s to many words, but unlike English, the extra spelled -s is not pronounced. The correct pronunciation of ‘fine bouche’ and ‘fines bouches’ are therefore identical in native French and in the English language borrowing. This departure from regular English plural pronunciation is noted for users. 

Words with More Than One Pronunciation

Some words have more than one correct pronunciation. Your pronunciation of a word might be different than that of someone who grew up in a different region of the country, or someone who is significantly older or younger than you are. If more than one pronunciation is considered acceptable, they will both be listed after the headword. The more common pronunciation is listed first, though in cases that reflect pronunciation change over time, the more traditional pronunciation may come before the pronunciation used by younger speakers

Some words are stressed differently depending on the part of speech role they are fulfilling in a sentence. As a verb, or action word, ‘conflict’ is stressed on the second syllable, but as a noun, the first syllable is stressed.

Other words change pronunciation for meanings that are associated with a certain subject or area of interest. For example, the word ‘defense’ is usually stressed on the second syllable, but when used in sports, as the opposite of ‘offense’, the first syllable is stressed. 

_____________________________________________

This article covered complex dictionary entries, including those with more than one entry on one page. 

• For short entries, see: How to Read a Short Dictionary Entry
• Looking for long entries? Try How to Read a Long Dictionary Entry