What your dictionary tells you

Spelling
British and American
spellings

Meaning
Definitions

examples

Words with more than one

meaning

Colour /kl(r) / n (color

American spellings are
AmE)1.
shown in brackets like
Quality which allows you to
this
see the difference between,
for example, a red flower and
a blue flower when they are
both the same size and shape
Study /stdi/ v studied,
studying:
1. To spend time learning a
subject: He studies French.|
Hes studying to be a doctor.
2. to examine something
carefully: Before leaving they
studied the map.| Gerry
studied her face closely
Match /mt / n 1. [C] a
short thin stick of wood that
produces a flame when it is
struck against a roughs
surface: a box of matches
2.[C] a game or sports event:
a football match| a chess
match
3 [sing] a thing that is like
another thing or suitable to
use with something: the hat
and shoes are a perfect
match.

This tells you what a

word means
This tells you how the
word is used in natural
English

Many words have more

than one meaning. This
tells you that the noun
match has three
meanings. The most
common meaning is
first

opposites

Happy / hpi / adj. happier This tells you what the

happiest 1. feeling,
opposite of a word is.
expressing, or giving pleasure
and satisfaction: a happy
child | You look happy. | a
happy marriage | Im not very
happy about their decision.
- opposite unhappy

Choosing the right word

Kid / kd / n [C] 1.infml a child

or young person: My kids are
two and six. | college kids |
Its immoral putting kids in
uniform and sending them to
fight a war

This shows you that kid

is informal, so you
would not use it in
formal writing

Fifteen /f fti:n / det, n, pron

the number
Apple / pl / n 1. a hard
round fruit with juicy flesh
and red, green, or yellow skin

This tells you how to

pronounce a word
This mark tells you
which part of a word to
say strongly. The first
syllable of apple is
stressed

Sound /pronunciation
sound
stress

Use your dictionary for:

Spelling, meaning,

What your dictionary tells you

*Note: Dictionaries use
to mark stress.

Grammar
Part of speech

pronunciation
Stress patterns, examples
etc
Increase / nkri:s / v 1. to
become larger in amount,
number or degree
Increase / kri:s / n 1. a
rise in the amount, number,
or degree

When words have two

or more syllables, one is
always stressed
morestrongly. This tells
you that the verb
increase and the noun
increase are stressed
differently

Age / eId / n 1. the number

of years a person has lived
Age / eId / v aged, aging
or ageing [I,T] to become
older and weaker, or to make
someone seem older and
weaker

The letters tell you

whether a word is a
verb, noun, an adjective
or an adverb.

Word families

Cook / kuk/ v [I,T] to prepare

food for eating using heat
cooking n [U]

You can often form more

words from the word
you know. This tells you
that the noun form of
the verb cook is
Cooking

Phrasal verbs

Drop /drop/ v 1. to let

something fall
unintentionally, accidentally,
or suddenly: he dropped the
ball and ran
Drop in phr v [I] to visit
someone unexpectedly, or
informally: Ill drop in some
time next week.

Some verbs combine

with other words to
form phrasal verbs
which have their own
meaning. They listed in
alphabetical order after
the main verb

Words that go with other

words

Crime / kraim/ n 1. [C ] an
action which is punishable by
law: Drug smuggling is a
serious crime.| she
committed a terrible crime.

The examples show you

that some words are
typically used with other
words, i.e. serious
crime/commit a crime.

Verbs followed by
prepositions

Escape / IskeIp/ v escaped,

escaping 1. to succeed in
getting out of a place where
you are kept by force: they
escaped from prison

This tells you the

preposition to use after
a verb.