Even if you don't know Latin or Ancient Greek, you may find that this information helps you to remember or understand the word. You might also find an etymology, derivation, or history of the word.So, for example, if your word is futile some synonyms might be "fruitless" or "unsuccessful" and some antonyms might be "effective" or "helpful." You can also find near neighbor words such as "futility". Dictionaries can also sometimes give the synonyms (words that mean the same thing as your word) and the antonyms of a word (words that mean the opposite of your word).See if you can figure out the meaning from the example sentences provided and if not, look up the words you aren't sure of. Quite a few people get daunted by the definitions themselves because they can involve words that you have to then look up.
#COMPARE TEXT TO ALL WORDS IN DICTIONARY HOW TO#
Once you've located the word it will tell you exactly what it means (and if it has more than one meaning, it will tell you the most common one first), how to pronounce it, how to capitalize it (if it's a proper noun), what part of speech it is and so on. So be careful that you end up with the correct word. For example, "throne" and "thrown" are spelled differently and mean very different things. Also, keep in mind that certain words sound alike that are spelled very differently.When you couldn't find it there, you might try looking in the "p" section next because you can think along the lines of "psychic" and "psychosis." For example, if you didn't know that "psychology" begins with a "p" you might start looking in the "s" section.
If you can't find the word under that section, then try other sections. If you're not entirely sure what the first letter is, start with the letter it sounds like.Don't forget the possible spellings for trickier words, such as "gnome" begins with a "g", or "psychology" begins with a "p", or "knock" begins with a "k", etc.For example, "dog" begins with "d" which means that it will be in the section after "c" and before "e". The word doesn't necessarily have to have the letter "a" to have a type of "a" sound.įind the section of the dictionary with the first letter of your word. The symbol \ä\ symbolizes the type of "a" sound that appears in words like "caught," or "fought." Compare this to the symbol \a\ which designates the sound "a" in "mat, map, snap," and so on.This symbol often intrudes between a stressed vowel and a following \r\ or \l\, such as in sour \'sau(-&)r\. The symbol \&\ indicates an unstressed vowel.For example, penmanship would look like this \'pen-m&n-"ship\. A double mark precedes the syllable with a medium (or secondary stress) ("), and the third level of stress has no marker. A single stress mark (') precedes the strongest syllable in a word.The pronunciation of a word will be placed between two reversed virgules (\ \) and will typically be printed in italics.
Having an idea about the symbols of pronunciation will make it a lot easier for you. If you immediately jump right into reading the dictionary without understanding the pronunciation guide, it can be difficult to figure it out.
Check the syllabus or employee handbook to find out. This is for reasons of maintaining a consistent style and understanding among everyone using them make sure you use the right one for your assignments, editing, and reports.
#COMPARE TEXT TO ALL WORDS IN DICTIONARY UPGRADE#
It's also a good idea to upgrade your dictionary every now and then so that you have access to the latest new words that are added to the dictionary every year.
0 kommentar(er)
