Language Aids

Dictionary

A dictionary minimally provides the meaning of a word or a phrase. Some also provide examples of usage, synonyms and antonyms.

• Advanced Learners’ Dictionary
• Bilingual Dictionary (aid for translation)
• Chambers Dictionary
• Funk and Wagnal’s Dictionary
• Judson’s Burmese – English & English – Burmese Dictionaries
• Jones Dictionary for Pronounciation
• Merriam Webster Dictionary
• Oxford English Dictionary
• Specialized Dictionaries (e.g Pali, Rhyming Dictionary, Technical Dictionary)
• Word Processing Systems (with built in dictionary)
• Visual Dictionary

There are now Online Dictionaries.

Thesauraus

The word means a “Treasure” or “Treasury”.

Dr. Peter Mark Roget compiled a Thesaurus of English words based on his system of classification.

A Thesaurus complements a Dictionary.

• One looks up a Dictionary when one knows a word and wants to find out the meaning and/or usage. One looks up a Thesaurus when one has an idea or a concept, and wants to find out the right word.
• Over the years, both have evolved and even converged.
• One Thesaurus is arranged in Dictionary form for ease of look up.
• There are Editors and Word Processors with built-in dictionary and thesaurus.
• There is a “Visual Thesaurus” where one can start with a word and follow the links.

Language Usage

• Antonym
• Homonym
• Idiom
• Metaphor
• Parsing
• Proverb
• Quote
• Simile
• Synonym