Key to the conventions of the Dictionary

Abbreviations

Abbreviations may be entered in the Dictionary either as main words:

or in the final section of the entry for the corresponding initial letter, as at A III:

Alphabetical order

The alphabetical order of the main entries in the Dictionary is strictly letter-by-letter, i.e. ignoring capitalization, punctuation, and spaces between words:

Athoan
athodyd
at-hold
Athole brose
at home, at-home
-athon

Note that headwords in which a final letter is bracketed with an opening bracket only appear where they would if the letter(s) after the bracket were not there:

air
air(e
airable

whereas those with both opening and closing brackets appear where they would if the brackets were not present:

amarant(h)ine
amarant(h)oid
amarantite

Where two words are identical in spelling, they are differentiated by part of speech:

aid (ed), v.
aid (ed), sb.

If two words of the same part of speech have distinct etymologies, they are differentiated by superior numbers:

Combinations

Combinations of words, and compound words, may be entered in their normal alphabetical sequence as main words:

If they are less complex, they are normally entered in the concluding section of the entry for the first word, as at AID:

or under the combining form which is their first element, as at AERO-:

Cross-references

Cross-reference to another main word (or derivative) is made in small Roman capitals:

Where the entry referred to is for a proper noun, the cross-reference appears in small capitals with a full capital initial:

Cross-reference to a phrase or word combination in another entry is made in italic type:

Some cross-references mix italic and small capitals; in these, the word in small capitals indicates the entry in which the phrase will be found:

Cross-reference entries are entered in the same alphabetical sequence as other main words:

absychitical, erroneous form of APSYCHICAL.
ahwene, variant of AWHENE v. Obs., to vex.
ai, aie, obs. form of AY, AYE, and of EGG.

Derivatives

Derivatives of the main word may be treated as main words in their own right, or be placed in a section at the end of the entry for the word on which they are formed, introduced by ‘Hence’, ‘Also’, or ‘So’:

In some cases, the main word and derivative(s) are treated together:

Division into senses

Large Roman capital letters are used principally for division of an entry into different parts of speech:

Large Roman capital numerals are used to indicate the ‘branches’ or main historical divisions of the sense development: see General explanations. The distinct senses of a word are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc.; each of these senses may be further subdivided a, b, c, etc., and a further subdivision (a), (b), (c), or (i), (ii), (iii), etc. is also possible: see further explanation

Etymology

The etymology and form history are introduced by bold square brackets. In the main entry, these are placed after the variant forms:

Etymologies, or etymological information, may also occur in other places within an entry, still enclosed in square brackets:

Labels

Labels normally appear in italic type, and are used to indicate the status or usage of a word or sense. Usage labels include indications of register (colloq., slang), geographical area (U.S., Austral.), or subject specialization (Law, Linguistics). See further explanation.

The part of speech, or grammatical category of a word, is normally given in italic type after the headword or subordinate word(s):

anneal (nil), v. Forms: 1 onælan (anælan)
air-dammed a., furnished with an air dam;

Where the subordinate words are given in bold italic type, the part of speech may follow in Roman:

air-dried a., dried by the action of the air; so
air-dry v. trans.; air-driven a., actuated by means of compressed air;

Where no part of speech is given, the entry is for a noun (substantive).

Pronunciation

The pronunciation, transcribed according to the International Phonetic Alphabet, is enclosed in round brackets:

The pronunciation normally appears immediately after the headword or subordinate word, but may be given elsewhere, for example when different senses have distinct pronunciations:

There is a detailed description of the IPA transcription used and a key to the symbols. In some cases, it is unnecessary to give a full phonetic transcription; instead, the word is printed with a stress mark () before the stressed syllable:

Secondary stress is indicated by an inferior stress mark ():

Quotations

The quotations illustrate the use of the word in a given sense, and are normally arranged in chronological order, starting with the earliest available printed example of the sense:

A quotation in square brackets, usually preceding the first example, indicates a use which helps to illustrate the development of the sense, while not strictly exemplifying it:

Where many combinations are treated together, the quotations illustrating each are grouped chronologically and the groups are arranged in the alphabetical order of the combinations. Asterisks are sometimes used to mark the first quotation for each combination:

See an explanation of the typographical conventions used in quotations.

Superior numbers

Superior Numbers are used to distinguish homonyms (see alphabetical order above) and after the labels Obs. and rare to indicate words or senses for which only one (^-1) or no (^-0) contextual example from a printed source was available to the editors.

Variant forms

Variant forms of a word are printed in light bold type, and are introduced by ‘Also’ or ‘Forms’:

Numerals are used before variant forms to indicate the century during which a particular form is recorded.