Language & Reference
A dictionary is a reference book or digital resource that lists words alphabetically and provides their definitions, pronunciations, etymologies, and usage examples. It serves as the definitive guide to the vocabulary of a language.
At its core, a dictionary is a systematic collection of words in a language, along with information about their meanings, forms, pronunciations, origins, and proper usage. Dictionaries can focus on a single language (monolingual) or translate between languages (bilingual or multilingual). They may be general-purpose or specialized for technical, scientific, or legal terminology.
The concept of dictionaries dates back over 4,000 years. The earliest known word lists were Sumerian clay tablets from around 2300 BCE, which grouped words by topic for scribes learning the language. Ancient Chinese dictionaries appeared around 1000 BCE.
The first true English dictionary was Robert Cawdrey's "A Table Alphabeticall" published in 1604, containing about 2,500 "hard words." Samuel Johnson's "A Dictionary of the English Language" (1755) was a landmark achievement that took nine years to complete and remained the definitive English dictionary for 150 years.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), begun in 1857 and first published in full in 1928, set a new standard by tracing the historical development of every English word through quotations spanning centuries.
The internet transformed dictionaries from static books into dynamic, instantly updated resources. Modern digital dictionaries can add new words within days of their widespread use, include audio pronunciations, and link to related content. Mobile apps and voice assistants have made dictionary lookups nearly instantaneous.
Despite digital dominance, physical dictionaries still sell millions of copies yearly—there's something irreplaceable about browsing pages and discovering words you weren't looking for.