The earliest English dictionaries were bilingual glossaries in French, Italian or Latin. Arabic dictionaries were complied in rhyme order in the 8th and 14th centuries. A 3rd century Chinese dictionary was discovered as the first monolingual word list. Archaeologists have found a dictionary from the Akkadian Empire located in modern Syria of 2300 BCE, which contains bilingual word lists. Much debate and doubt is cast over what constitutes as the world's first dictionary. The most popularly used thesaurus is Roget, and often Webster. The most popular dictionaries are Oxford English Dictionary, Chambers, Merriam-Webster and Collins.
This video explains how to use as a dictionary and a thesaurus: A thesaurus is also a useful resource when you know the meaning of the word but not the word itself. It provides several similar alternative words (synonyms), as well as contrasting words (antonyms). Special thesauri are developed for information retrieval in information and science systems: a controlled vocabulary for indexing or tagging purposes.Ī dictionary entry with definition, pronunciation, part of speech and other detailsĪ thesaurus usually does not contain all the words of the language. There are specialized dictionaries such as for science or business. Largest thesaurus contains more than 920,000 words. Oxford English Dictionary lists about 500,000 words and a further half a million technical and scientific terms. The first modern English thesaurus created by Peter Mark Roget published in 1852.Ī thesaurus may list words alphabetically or conceptually.
Most trusted dictionary Oxford English Dictionary published in full in 1884 as small books and in full after 50 years in 1928.
2300 BCE in modern Syria or 3rd century BCE from China. Much debate over the world's first dictionary. Comparison chart Dictionary versus Thesaurus comparison chartĬollection of words in one or more specific languages listed alphabetically, which provides the meanings, definitions, etymologies and pronunciations of words.Ī book that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meanings or synonyms and sometimes antonyms.