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Determining Meaning
You can use a dictionary for
many things. A dictionary can tell
you what words mean. It can tell
you how to pronounce, or say,
words. It also tells which country
words come from.
Alphabetical order

Dictionaries are arranged in alphabetical
order. For example, words that start with the
letter A come first. After the A words come the
B words.
Pronunciation Keys
Dictionaries have pronunciation keys to
help you pronounce words. Here is a
pronunciation key

Which word has the same pronunciation as
the word beat?
chEt
chet
chat
chät
chEt shows the correct pronunciation. The
key shows that E makes an e sound as in
easy--the same vowel sound in beat.
Origin

An origin of a word is the language the word comes
from. Some words come from French. Some come
from Spanish. Others are original English words.
What is the origin of dog?
dog ('dog) n. [English] 1. a mammal that eats meat
and is related to wolves 2. a male dog
The word dog originated from the English language.
The origin is usually in brackets before the definition.
Guide Words
• Dictionaries have guide words to help you find the word you
need. Guide words are at the top corner of the page and tell
which words are first and last on the page. Words that
come between these words in alphabetic order are on this
page.
Which word is on the page with guide words cool and cop?
Words on this page must be between the words cool and cop
when in alphabetical order. You would find the words cooler,
coop, and cootie on this page.
Definitions
A definition is the meaning of a word. Some words have
more than one meaning. Dictionaries number the definitions
when there is more than one.
What is the meaning of the word fly in the sentence below?
"He hit a pop fly past second base."
fly ('flI) n. [English] 1. a winged insect, especially a housefly
2. a baseball hit high in the air 3. a fishhook covered to look
like an insect
The meaning in this sentence is a baseball hit high in the air,
definition 2.
Syllables
A dictionary will show how a word is
divided into syllables. Here are some
examples:
for•get
cov•er
il•lus•tra•tion
Thesaurus
• A thesaurus is a reference book similar to
dictionary. Instead of having definitions
like a dictionary, a thesaurus has
synonyms. Synonyms are words that have
the same or almost the same meaning as
another word.
You can use a thesaurus to revise your
writing. If you are writing a story and keep
using the word "big," you can look in a
thesaurus for other words that mean the
same thing as "big" and use those instead.
By using a variety of words, your writing
becomes more colorful and more exciting.
Concept Words
• Concepts of words are very, very
short definitions. Concepts are one
word long. They describe the word
you are looking up. For example, the
concept for the word dog is "animal."
The concept in a thesaurus entry is in
parenthesis and capital letters.
Parts of Speech
A thesaurus gives the part of speech of each entry. The
part of speech tells how the word is used in the
sentence. Below are abbreviations for parts of speech.
v. = verb n. = noun
adj. = adjective adv. = adverb
Look at the thesaurus entry below.
sag, v. lean, curve, bow (BEND) What part of speech is
the word sag?
The part of speech is abbreviated by v. This means
"verb."
Synonyms

The main purpose for using a thesaurus is to choose synonyms. Writers use a thesaurus when they revise
their work. They can replace dull words with interesting ones.
All the words listed after the entry word are synonyms, except the concept word.
Look at the thesaurus entries below.
date, n. appointment, engagement (ARRIVAL)
date, n. day, year, hour, moment (TIME)
date, v. fix the time, register (TIME MEASUREMENT)
Which word would best replace the word date in this sentence?
The sisters set a date to meet for lunch.
day
registered
appointment
year
Substitute the word appointment for date in the sentence. Appointment makes the most sense: The sisters
set an appointment to meet for lunch.
Antonyms
Antonyms
Sometimes the thesaurus will show
antonyms of a word. Antonyms are words
that have an opposite meaning. The
thesaurus will use ant to show that the
words listed are antonyms instead of
synonyms. Here is an example:
sad adj.
heavyhearted, mournful, sorry, unhappy
ant glad
Glossary
 A glossary is an alphabetized list of
words and their meanings. You will often
find glossaries in the back of your
textbooks. A science textbook will have a
glossary that lists science words and
their meanings. Below is an example of a
glossary.
Footnotes

Footnotes are notes that appear at the
end of a piece of writing. Each note has
a number that matches with a number
in the text. These notes give extra
information about something in the
passage. Sometimes, passages will
have footnotes to help you figure out
the meaning of difficult words.