大象传媒

What is a dictionary?

An illustration of a young girl smiling.

A dictionary is a list of words or phrases and their definitions arranged in alphabetical order.

In an English dictionary you'll find words beginning with 鈥榓鈥 at the front and 鈥榸鈥 at the back.

There are lots of words in the English language which begin with 'a', so it's not just the first letter that is important.

Words are organised alphabetically according to the following letters in a word too.

For example, 'ant鈥 will come after 鈥榓nkle鈥.

The first two letters of these words are the same, but the third letters are different. The letter 鈥榯鈥 comes after 鈥榢鈥 in the alphabet, so you find 'ankle' before 'ant' in the dictionary.

An illustration of a young girl smiling.
Back to top

Watch: Dictionaries

Are you struggling to find out what a word means? Learn how to use a dictionary to help!

Back to top

Activity 1

Back to top

Activity 2

An illustration of a young girl smiling and writing at a desk.

Choose three of the following words and then look them up in a dictionary or online dictionary.

  • neighbour
  • sleigh
  • obey
  • complain
  • unearth
  • prey
An illustration of a young girl smiling and writing at a desk.

For each word you need to write down:

  1. The word (eg. happy)
  2. The word type (eg. adjective)
  3. A definition of the word (eg. delighted, pleased or glad)
  4. An example of the word used in a sentence (eg. I was so happy to see my best friend.)
Back to top

Activity 3

An illustration of a young boy smiling with question marks around him.

Complete the following tasks questions using a dictionary or an online dictionary.

For each task, write the word down correctly and then write out what the word means.

  1. Find a word the begins with re-.

  2. Find a word that begins with dis-.

  3. Find a seven letter word that begins with mis-.

  4. Find an adjective that begins with un-.

An illustration of a young boy smiling with question marks around him.
Back to top

Play our fun English game Crystal Explorers. game

Use grammar, punctuation and spelling skills to explore jungles, caves and tombs on your mission!

Play our fun English game Crystal Explorers
Back to top

More on Creative writing

Find out more by working through a topic