Chapter 1

How is a Dictionary Organized?

Dictionaries are books that list and define the words in a language.

To make dictionaries easier to use, the words are organized in alphabetical order.

So to use a dictionary easily, you must know how to alphabetize words.

Since there are so many words in a dictionary, guide words are used to help you locate a word quickly.

What are guide words?

Guide words are found at the top of each page. They tell you the first and last word that is found on that page.

Sail (first word)

Saturday (last word)

How do guide words help you find a word quickly?

Instead of looking at each word on a page, just look at the guide words and then use what you know about alphabetizing words to decide if your word would be found on that page.

Let’s see what that means-

Let’s pretend we are looking up the word, science. First we would turn to the S section. Is it in the beginning, the middle, or the end of the alphabet?

It’s near the end, so start there.

Then we would use the guide words and what we know about alphabetizing words to decide the correct page in the S section.

Remember, to fit on the page it has to come after the first guide word and before the second guide word.

Let’s do that for the word science-

Which one of these pages would contain the word science?

The page with the guide words-

stamp - summer

Or the page with the guide words-

sandwich - seventy

“science”

The answer is--

sandwich—seventy

(Science comes after sandwich and before seventy.)

sandwich-------------seventy science

Chapter 2

Dictionary Definitions

What do they mean?

Have you ever looked up the definition for a word in the dictionary?

If so, then you might have been confused by some of the parts of that definition.

Today, we’re going to learn what each part of a definition means.

This is a definition for flag:

flag (flag)

1. n. A piece of cloth with a pattern or symbol of a country, an organization, etc.

2. v. To stop, or to signal. We flagged down the police officer.

flag (flag)

1. n. A piece of cloth with a pattern or symbol of a country, an organization, etc.

2. v. To stop, or to signal. We flagged down the police officer.

The word being defined is followed by the pronunciation in parenthesis.

flag (flag)

1. n. A piece of cloth with a pattern or symbol of a country, an organization, etc.

2. v. To stop, or to signal. We flagged down the police officer.

The first letter tells the word’s part of speech

1. n. A piece of cloth with a pattern or symbol of a country, an organization, etc.

2. v. To stop, or to signal. We flagged down the police officer.

The next section is the actual definition of the word.

1. noun A piece of cloth with a pattern or symbol of a country, an organization, etc.

1. v. To stop, or to signal. We flagged down the police officer.

Finally, you might see a sentence showing how the word is used. Especially if the use is not the most common for the word.

Let’s see what you’ve learned!

mischief (miss-chif)

n. Playful behavior that may cause annoyance or harm to others. My brother is always up to some sort of mischief.

book (buk)

1. n. A set of pages that are bound together.

2. v. To arrange for something ahead of time. We’ve booked a vacation in Mexico.

Now you know the definition of definition!

Chapter 3Thesaurus

A special kind of dictionary

Why use a thesaurus?

•A Thesaurus is a dictionary that tells synonyms (words that mean the same) and sometimes antonyms (words that mean the opposite).

An entry might look like this:

•Enjoy:Syn.--take pleasure in,

like, appreciate, be fond of, be pleased, rejoice in, relish, savor

Ant.--detest, dislike, hate

Other Dictionaries

•Dictionaries come in lots of different forms—picture dictionaries, foreign language dictionaries, biographical and geographical dictionaries

What do they all have in common?

•They’re all in alphabetical order!

•They all tell meanings of words!