词典(dictionary)
按顺序列出词语并附有释义的工具书，通常是按字母顺序排列的。除了基本的释词功能，还可能提供诸如发音、语法形态及功能、词源、句法特徵、不同的拼法、惯用缩略语，以及同义词与反义词等方面的讯息。希腊人在西元1世纪编纂词典来说明废字丰富的文学历史。欧洲有许多的语言紧密地并列在一起，因此自中世纪早期起就出现了许多双语或多语词典。编纂英语词典的这场运动，部分原因是受到让更多人具有读写能力这一愿望的激发，使得一般大众也能读《圣经》；部分原因是受过教育的人士有一种挫折感，觉得英语的拼写没有规则。第一本纯英语词典是罗伯特.考德雷编的《单词表》（1604），收录了约三千个单词。1746～1947年间，约翰生从事一项到当时为止规模最为庞大的英语词典编纂工作，共收录四万三千五百个英语单词。韦伯斯特意识到语言内部有变化和变异，促使他在19世纪初编纂了美国英语词典。《牛津英语词典》於19世纪末开始编纂。词典的级别有很大差异，多用途的词典则最为常见。像《牛津英语词典》这样的学术性词典则更为详尽，包括极完备的词源方面资料及废字。专业词典则适用於狭小的知识领域，但内容还是按字母顺序排列的。
English version：
dictionary
Reference work that lists words, usually in alphabetic order, and gives their meanings and often other information such as pronunciations, etymologies, and variant spellings. The earliest dictionaries, such as those created by Greeks of the 1st century AD, emphasized explaining changes that had occurred in the meanings of words over time. The close juxtaposition of languages in Europe led to the appearance of many bilingual and multilingual dictionaries from the early Middle Ages. The movement to produce an English dictionary was partly prompted by a desire for wider literacy, so that common people could read Scripture, and partly by a frustration that no regularity in spelling existed in the language. The first purely English dictionary was Robert Cawdrey's A Table Alphabetical (1604), treating some 3,000 words. In 1746-47 Samuel Johnson undertook the most ambitious English dictionary to that time, a list of 43,500 words. Noah Webster's dictionary of Americanisms in the early 19th century sprang from a recognition of the changes and variations within language. The immense Oxford English Dictionary was begun in the late 19th century. Today there are various levels of dictionaries, general-purpose dictionaries being most common. Modern lexicographers (dictionary makers) describe current and past language but rarely prescribe its use.
