Dictionary

A good dictionary contains a lot more than word definitions. Definitions are important, of course, and they're the main purpose of dictionaries. But once you know what a word means, it's nice to know how it's pronounced so you can use it in conversation, not just in writing and reading.

A word's pronunciation usually comes directly after the word itself. And the pronunciation is written in symbols. Some of the symbols look like regular letters in the English alphabet. Other's do not. One looks like an upside down e, another looks like an n with an extra long and curvy right-hand side. Some symbols are letters with lines over or below them or one or two dots above them. When you first see these, they can be daunting at first. But a good dictionary, such as Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary has a pronunciation key in the lower right-hand corner of every odd-numbered page. And if that doesn't provide enough information, it contains a multi-page guide to pronunciation that discusses the finer points of pronunciation and how it has evolved over time.

Children's dictionaries contain lots of pictures, and many are in color. But even the collegiate dictionaries have occasional pictures that help break up the text and clarify some things that might be hard to visualize such as certain animals like an aardwolf, or architectural terms, such as cloister. Some ever contain tiny illustrations for each type of cloud. It's reassuring to know that the dictionary can always help out those of us who can't seem to remember the difference between cumulus and cirrus clouds. Can you? If not, pick up your dictionary and refresh your memory. And don't feel bad. Did you know that even some editors who have been on the job have certain words they always have to look up? The thing that sets the pros apart though is that they know when they need to look something up.

Some dictionaries have loads of useful and not so useful information in the back of the book. Style guides for punctuation, capitalization, documentation of sources, and forms of address are useful to have. So are definitions of medical and scientific symbols. But who really needs a list of all the colleges and universities in the United States that's included in some? But that's just a minor quibble. Overall, the dictionary is an amazing tool. Every family ought to have at least one.