| A |
|
| abbreviation |
a short form of a word or
phrase |
| antonym
|
a word that means the
opposite of another word |
C
|
| collocation/collocate |
a word that is often used
with another word |
| compound |
a combination of two or more
words that is used as a single word. The three different
types of compound are noun compound, adjective compound and
verb compound. |
| concordance |
a
list of the words used in a text or group of texts. The
normal way of consulting a corpus is to look at concordances
which show words in the context in which they occur. |
| consonant
|
a speech sound made by
stopping all or some of the air going out of your mouth |
| corpus
(corpora or corpuses) |
a collection of written
and/or spoken language stored on a computer and used for
language research and writing dictionaries |
| countable
|
a countable noun is a noun
that has a plural and can be used after ‘a’ or ‘an’
when it is singular |
D |
| defining
vocabulary |
the carefully selected words that are used to
explain the meanings of words in a dictionary |
| definition |
a statement of what a word or expression means |
| derivative |
a word that is formed from another word, for example an adverb that
is formed from an adjective by adding ‘-ly’ |
| diphthong |
a sound consisting of one or two vowels that is the combination of
two sounds said one after the other |
| discourse |
written or spoken language, especially when it is studied in order
to understand how people use language |
E |
| entry |
one of the short sections into which a dictionary is divided. An
entry explains the meaning or meanings of a word or expression. |
| example
|
a phrase or sentence in a dictionary entry that shows how a word or
expression is used. It usually follows the definition. |
F |
| frequency |
the number of times that a word or expression occurs, for example in
a corpus of English |
| (frequency)
star |
a
 that indicates how frequently a word or expression
occurs in English |
G |
| grammar
code |
a label such as ‘I/T’ or ‘usually plural’ that
shows you how a word normally behaves grammatically |
| guide
words
|
the two words at the top of a dictionary page that show
the first and last words on that page |
H |
| headword |
one of the list of words in a dictionary, that is followed by an
explanation of what it means |
| homograph |
a word that is spelled the same as another word but has a different
part of speech, and is therefore explained in a separate entry |
I |
| idiom |
an expression whose meaning is different from the meaning of the
individual words |
| International
Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) |
a system of symbols used to represent
speech sounds |
| intransitive
|
a word describing a verb that has no direct object |
L |
| lexicography |
the job or skill of writing dictionaries |
| lexicographer |
someone whose job is to look at what words mean and how they are
used, and to use this information to write entries for a dictionary |
M |
| meaning |
the thing, action, feeling, idea etc that a word or words represent |
| menu
box |
a box at the beginning of a long dictionary entry showing
a summary of that word’s different meanings |
| menu
definitions |
the short definitions used in the menu boxes |
| metaphor
|
a word or phrase that means one thing and is used for referring to
another thing in order to emphasize their similar qualities |
P |
| past
participle |
the form of a verb used to make perfect tenses and
passive forms of verbs |
| past
simple |
the form of a verb used to express what existed or
happened in the past |
| phrasal
verb |
a verb formed from two or (sometimes three) parts: a
verb and an adverb or preposition |
| phrase |
a group of words that are used together in a fixed expression |
| polysemous |
a polysemous word has more than one meaning |
| pragmatics |
the study of how people use language |
| prefix |
a group of letters that is added to the beginning of a word to
change its meaning |
R |
| red
word |
a word that is shown in red in the dictionary and which
is one of the 7,500 most frequent words of the language |
| regional
label
|
a label such as ‘Am E’ or ‘South African’ that
shows you which part of the English-speaking world a word is used in |
S |
| semantics |
the study of words and their meanings |
| sense |
a separate meaning of a word or phrase. Entries for words that have
more than one meaning are divided into senses. |
| stress
mark |
a mark that shows which part of a word is pronounced
with more emphasis |
| subject
labels |
Labels that show that a word is used as part of a
language of a particular subject and is not used in normal everyday
English |
| style
and attitude labels |
labels such as ‘formal’, ‘spoken’,
or ‘impolite’ that show that a word is normally used when
someone is writing or speaking in a particular style, or showing a
particular attitude |
| subsense |
a meaning that is very closely related to another meaning,
and is therefore shown in the same sense as it |
| suffix |
a group of letters added to the end of a word to make a different
word |
| syllable |
a word or part of a word that has only one vowel sound |
| synonym |
a word that has the same meaning as another word |
T |
| transitive
|
a word describing a verb that is always used with a direct
object
|
U |
| uncountable |
an uncountable noun has no plural form and cannot be counted in
individual units |
| usage
note |
a note at the beginning or end of an entry that gives
information on the way words are used by people when they speak or
write their language |
V |
| vowel
|
a sound that you make when you speak without closing your
mouth or throat |
W |
| word
class/part of speech |
one of the main grammatical groups that
a particular word belongs to according to the way it is used in a
sentence, for example noun, verb, adjective, or adverb |
| World
English Corpus
|
a 200 million word corpus of real-life modern
written and spoken English |
