Dictionary

General Knowledge
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Dictionary
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Introduction /intrdkSHn/ n.
Dictionary
1. something spoken, written, or otherwise presented

in the beginning or introducing something
Before we understand what a dictionary is,
let's explore the idea of language a little with the help
of a fable.
When all humans lived in the same place and
spoke the same language, they decided to build a city
with a tower that went all the way up to the heavens.
God was angered by
this attempt to take his
power so he destroyed the
tower. And to ensure that
this would not happen again
he scattered the people by
creating different languages.
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When I speak the same language as someone

else, I have the ability to place a thought from my
head into someone else's. That is why this story
called The tower of Babel is interesting, because it
tells us of the power of being able to understand each
other and work together.
Just like you use a remote control to change
the channel on your television to suit your mood, you
can use language to change the setting in someone's
brain to suit your interest. So think of the dictionary
as a tool that allows us to harness the power of communication because it explains the meanings of
words and how to write them.
How to use an English dictionary
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The first step to learning how to use any dictionary is knowing the alphabet well. Most languages
use a standard form where words are organised in alphabetical order.
You will have to be able to judge whether a
word comes directly before or after another depending on the letter it begins with. If two words begin
with the same letter, the one after decides the correct
order, and then the next, and so on.
Let me explainbark, bare and barn all have 'bar' as their first three
letters.
To look them up in the dictionary you will have to
first find the page with the word bar:
Dictionary
bar /br/n.
1. A long rod or rigid piece of wood, metal, or similar

material, typically used as an obstruction, fastening,
or weapon.
2. A unit of pressure equivalent to a hundred thousand newtons per square meter or approximately one
atmosphere.
bar /br/v.
Fasten (something, esp. a door or window) with a bar

or bars: "she bars the door
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prep.
Except for; apart from: "everyone, bar a few ascetics,

thinks it desirable".
Any dictionary will first display the word in bold
followed by its phonetic pronunciation in between
backslashes '/ /'.
The n. denotes that the explanation below is of its
noun form. There could be multiple meanings, which
are listed in order of how commonly it is used.
The v. denotes the word in its verb form.
The prep. denotes the meaning of the word in its
prepositional form.
Meanings most often have a sentence to explain
its usage.
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Now that you have found the word bar, you

can then go down the alphabet to find 'bare', since 'e'
comes before 'k' and 'n'. To test yourself, you can try
looking up a 5 letter word.
Ancient Dictionaries
It is interesting to know that the story of the
Tower of Babel comes from the same region where
the oldest known dictionaries were found. These
4000 year old dictionaries were cuneiform tablets
that translated words from Sumerian to Akkadian,
two languages of the Mesopotamian civilisation.
They were a word list that told you what its
equivalent was in two different languages without actually explaining their meanings
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The trend of bilingual dictionaries continued

for a very long time. However, people also created
word compilations after the 6th century BC that were
dedicated to the understanding words from the same
language.One of the oldest existing dictionaries
comes from China and is called the Erya.
It was broken up into 19
sections explaining things like
relatives, utensils, music, foods,
plants, animals, instructions and
words themselves (grammar and
language).
The first Sanskrit dictionary
was called the Amarakosa, which
was written in verse and contained
10,000 word meanings. It was also
called Namalinganushasan.
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If we break down this long word we get:

nama- instructions; linga-gender; anu- noun;
shasana- inscription
( or )
'instructions concerning nouns and gender'. You
may look at the word breakdown and the meaning
here and say that they are not exact. This is because
certain things get 'lost in translation'.
Arabic dictionaries made between the 8th and 14th
century BC were ordered by the rhyme order (of the
last syllable) or the alphabetical order of the root
word. If the list explained words of hadith or of the
Qur'an they were generally listed in alphabetical
order of the first letter.
The modern English dictionary
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Before we learn how to read the modern English dictionary, let me give you a short history of the
English language in bullet formThe Romans leave the British isles in 410 AD.
They do not leave much of their language, Latin
behind.
Germanic settlers called Angles and Saxons come
to Britain around 450 AD. They bring their languages
with them.
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Soon after, Latin returns to the British isles in full

force with Christianity.
English changes and develops a great deal following the invasion of the Frenchman William the conqueror in 1066 AD.
After the French are driven out of England, it is
the time of Shakespeare. This author single-handedly
added around 2000 new words and phrases into the
English language before his demise in 1616.
Around the same time (1611), the King James
Bible is first printed. This is ground-breaking because in translating the entire Old and New Testaments numerous phrases and idioms enter the way
people use this language.
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Right after the release of the King James Version,

Britain sees a rise in scientific research. It is then that
science in Britain begin to employ English as a
medium of instruction. These men add words to the
English language at a rapid rate.
English was expanding in all directions at a
very rapid rate and so a new breed of academics
known as lexicographers was born. They took it upon
themselves to compile all the words that had been
created, borrowed, and stolen from different languages and put them all in one place- a dictionary.
The first big project to create such a book was
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of The English Language, which took him 9 years to write.
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Creating a dictionary is somewhat a hopeless

task because language is always evolving and by the
time one book is printed, there are already 100's of
new words waiting to be entered. However, this book
changed the English language because you could
look up a standardised spelling meaning of a word.
In 1857 a new book was started called the
Oxford English Dictionary. It took 70 years and 3
editors before it was finished in 1927. You have already read how English evolved by pulling words
from its Germanic, French, and Latin ancestries. This
is why some words will have multiple meanings with
multiple forms. It is also the reason why some dictionaries will tell you the root of the word and which
language it was acquired from.
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When the British came to India in search of

new trade, they brought with them the English language. As the East India company secured more
holdings their language evolved to include many
words from various Indian languages. Below are a
few:
Hindi & Urdu
Dictionary
bandana- a scarf that you tie around your head

bandhna: meaning to tie
bungalow- a house that stands alone and has a garden
around it
from Bangla: Hindi word for Bengal style
chutney- a spicy condiment made by crushing fruits
or vegetables with spices
chatni: meaning to crush
pundit- a priest or scholar
verandah- meaning courtyard
Sanskrit
avatar- a reincarnation
avatara: meaning descent
mantra- a statement that is frequently repeated
taken literally: meaning holy message or text
maya- meaning illusion
sutra- meaning rule
Dictionary
Dictionary
finale /fnal/n.
the last piece in a division

Words that you find in the dictionary come together to make up a powerful social technology
called language. We can easily coordinate our activities by communicating with someone else using this
tool. The story of the tower of Babel tells us of the
benefits of cooperation, which is made possible
through language. The dictionary gives us the ability
to come together once more and build sky-scrapers
and Eiffel Towers, and communicate in multiple languages over international borders. The dictionary,
like language is constantly evolving to accommodate
the changing world around it. Whether you are trying
to improve your English vocabulary, or trying to use
a bilingual dictionary on your travels around the
world, knowing how to effectively use the dictionary
is an important skill.
Project
Dictionary
For more such interactive article and video, visit:

mocomi.com/learn/
Dictionaries in some languages are not ordered the

same way as an English one. Find out which ones are
different and scribble down the differences.
Look for the following words in the dictionary:
The longest word
3 words without any vowels
Browse through the dictionary and find 1 word with
a Latin root, 1 with a Greek root and 1 with a French
root.
Image source: www.wikipedia.org and these files are from wikipedia commons

Dictionary

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General Knowledge

1. something spoken, written, or otherwise presented

When I speak the same language as someone

How to use an English dictionary

1. A long rod or rigid piece of wood, metal, or similar

Fasten (something, esp. a door or window) with a bar

Except for; apart from: "everyone, bar a few ascetics,

Now that you have found the word bar, you

The trend of bilingual dictionaries continued

If we break down this long word we get:

The modern English dictionary

Soon after, Latin returns to the British isles in full

Right after the release of the King James Version,

Creating a dictionary is somewhat a hopeless

When the British came to India in search of

Hindi & Urdu

bandana- a scarf that you tie around your head

the last piece in a division

For more such interactive article and video, visit:

Dictionaries in some languages are not ordered the

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