What Information Is Found In A Typical Word Entry

Anatomy of a Dictionary Entry

Macmillan Dictionary contains a great deal of useful information about words and phrases – information that sometimes can be difficult to navigate. On this page we provide answers to some of the frequently asked questions about what a dictionary entry includes.

If there are any terms you are not familiar with, you might find our Glossary of Dictionary Terms helpful.

What is a dictionary entry?

A dictionary entry is a set of information that describes a word or phrase.

A dictionary entry

A typical entry in Macmillan Dictionary consists of:

a headword [1], which is shown in either black or red at the top of the entry;
information about the word's meaning or meanings, called definition(s) [2]. At the top of the entry you can see the number of definitions [3] listed;
information about the word's grammatical behaviour: word class [4] and any other relevant grammatical information.

At the top of the entry there is an icon for the headword's spoken pronunciation [5] as well as the phonetic transcription of the word's pronunciation (using the International Phonetic Alphabet or IPA symbols [6]). This information is not provided for phrasal verbs, phrases, and entries that are added to the crowdsourced Open Dictionary (e.g. autofiction). Compouns will often have recorded pronunciations but not IPA transcriptions because those can be looked up separately at the contributing parts of the headword.

The word's inflections can be seen by opening the 'Word Forms' [7] box.

When a headword is shown in red, next to it you will find information about how frequent the word is, in the form of red stars [8]. The Red Words and Stars page provides more detailed information about word frequency in Macmillan Dictionary.

How are meanings shown?

If a word has more than one meaning, these are shown in separate numbered senses [9]. Meanings that are very closely related to the main meaning are shown in subsenses [10] (see further down the page for this) so that the connection is clear. Some entries contain derived words [11]. These are words related to the headword whose meaning is clear enough not to need a definition. These are found at the bottom of the entry.

Words that have five or more meanings will also include very brief definitions at the top of the page, with links to the relevant senses. These 'menus' can help identify the meaning you need for understanding a word in a particular context, as well as help navigate to the correct part of the entry to find more detailed information.

Derived word

Most entries also give one or more examples [12] of how the word is used. Words that belong to so-called 'decoding' vocabulary will not include an example; high-frequency words will always have at least one example to show how the word is used in context.

What other types of information are included?

Every sense in the dictionary contains a Thesaurus [13] link to one or more lists of synonyms and related words. Clicking on this link will take you to the list on the Macmillan Thesaurus website, and from there you can access every entry in the list and browse for the best synonym or related term to use.

Example entries

If a word belongs to more than one word class, for example if it is both a verb and a noun (e.g. question (noun) / question (verb)), or a noun, an adjective and a verb (pink (noun) / pink (adjective) / pink (verb)), these are shown in separate entries on separate pages, with links in a box on the right of the screen (desktop) or at the top of the entry (mobile). This box also contains links to compound headwords, idiomatic phrases and phrasal verbs [14] containing the headword, so that entries related to the headword are immediately visible.

Related words

Some entries contain additional information, for example about a word's origin (in a 'Word Story'), grammar and usage, collocations, related vocabulary and metaphorical meanings.

What do the different parts tell us about the entry?

Frequency: At the top of many entries you will see one, two or three red stars. A word with three red stars is one of the most frequent words in English, two-star words are frequent and one-star words are fairly common. If an entry has no stars it is one of the less frequent words in English.

Definitions: Macmillan Dictionary was originally written using a strict Defining Vocabulary, a list of 2,500 words that lexicographers stuck to as closely as possible when writing definitions. An online dictionary makes a defining vocabulary less essential, because every lexical word used in every definition is linked to its dictionary entry, meaning that users can easily find the meanings of unfamiliar words. However, Macmillan Dictionary's lexicographers still follow the principle of writing definitions in the simplest way possible so that they can easily be understood by less advanced users of English.

Examples: Most senses in Macmillan Dictionary have one or more examples that illustrate how the word is used with that meaning. These examples are selected from a huge corpus or database containing many millions of examples of contemporary English as it is used around the world. Examples are often shortened or edited to make them suitable for use in a dictionary, but they provide authentic models of how the word is used. Many examples are preceded by information about collocation and syntax: how words combine and which structures they can be used with.

Synonyms and related words: Every meaning in Macmillan Dictionary is linked to the Macmillan Thesaurus, a unique and rich resource that was developed at the same time as the Dictionary and in conjunction with it. At the end of each sense and subsense you will see 'Synonyms and related words'. Clicking on this link will take you to the thesaurus entry for the meaning. For example, the sense of bargain that means 'something that costs much less than normal' is linked to the thesaurus entry 'The quality of being cheap and cheap things', where you will find a list of related words, each one linking directly to the relevant meaning. The sense of bargain that means 'an agreement' links to the thesaurus entry 'Agreement and agreements', where you will find links to senses with that meaning, such as 'contract', 'deal' and 'accord'.

Labels: Many entries in Macmillan Dictionary are labelled to show you if a word is used in particular contexts. These include labels for specialist vocabulary (medical, biology); for dialects (if a word is used solely or mainly in American, or Indian, or Philippine English, etc.); and for register (if a word is formal, informal, literary, offensive, etc). You can find a complete list of labels on this page.

Additional resources: At the end of many entries you will find boxes containing additional information about the headword and guidance on how it is used. For example, at famous you will find a list of other ways of saying 'famous'; at afford you will find a 'Get it Right!' box with guidance on the grammatical patterns that can and can't be used with this verb; at pavement you will find a note about the differences between British and American usage of this word. Other boxes provide lists of collocations, metaphorical meanings of common words, guidance on avoiding offence, and word and phrase origins.

Crowdsourced content: The Open Dictionary is Macmillan Dictionary's crowdsourced dictionary. Users can submit entries for words, meanings and phrases that are not covered in the dictionary. These are assessed to see if they really exist and are used, and accepted entries are published regularly.

If an Open Dictionary entry merits inclusion in the main dictionary, it may be 'promoted' and the submitter's contribution acknowledged. You can submit an entry to the Open Dictionary by clicking on the button that says 'Contribute to our Open Dictionary'.

Glossary of dictionary terms

Macmillan Dictionary also includes a useful Glossary of Dictionary Terms page, listing in alphabetical order words that you may come across when using dictionaries, or when you hear people talk about dictionaries.