"dictionaryese" meaning in English

See dictionaryese in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈdɪkʃəˌnəɹɪˈiːz/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈdɪkʃ(ə)nɹɪˈiːz/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈdɪkʃəˌnɛɹiˈiz/ [Canada, General-American] Audio: en-us-dictionaryese.ogg [US]
Rhymes: -iːz Etymology: From dictionary + -ese (suffix denoting jargon used in a particular context). Etymology templates: {{glossary|suffix}} suffix, {{suffix|en|dictionary|ese|pos2=suffix denoting jargon used in a particular context}} dictionary + -ese (suffix denoting jargon used in a particular context) Head templates: {{en-noun|-}} dictionaryese (uncountable)
  1. (informal) The style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing. Tags: informal, uncountable Categories (topical): Language, Lexicography Synonyms: lexicographese, dictionarese Translations (style of language used in dictionary definitions): sanakirjakieli (Finnish), речни́карски ја́зик (rečníkarski jázik) [masculine] (Macedonian), dicionarês [masculine] (Portuguese)
    Sense id: en-dictionaryese-en-noun-AJY8KzjA Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -ese

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for dictionaryese meaning in English (5.5kB)

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          "ref": "1962, D. F. S. Scott, “Langenscheidts Handwörterbuch Deutsch–Englisch. Langenscheidt’s Concise Dictionary German–English. (Second Edition, Berlin 1960; pp. 672; published in England by Methuen; 17s. 6d.) [book review]”, in The Durham University Journal, volume LIV (New Series, volume XXIII), Durham, County Durham: Senate of the University of Durham, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-29, page 86",
          "text": "For a concise dictionary the extent of the German vocabulary dealt with is commendable and fairly searching spot-checks in many fields have shown no serious gaps, but an English reviewer must be forgiven for commenting on the ‘dictionaryese’ of some of the English renderings.",
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        {
          "ref": "1975, Jerry A[lan] Fodor, “The Structure of the Internal Code: Some Linguistic Evidence”, in The Language of Thought, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell Company, page 127",
          "text": "'Cause to die' is immediately recognizable as dictionaryese, which is to say that dictionaries do not, in general, honor the condition that definitions must be couched in the syntax of surface English.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "1981, Justin Wintle, “Introduction”, in Justin Wintle, editor, Makers of Modern Culture, New York, N.Y.: Facts on File, page xvi",
          "text": "Such an approach has two immediate advantages: it disposes of the need to present what is not fact as fact; and it goes some way to seeing off the need to employ dictionaryese, the crabbed and clipped prose-style that, in many reference-books, only ossifies its subject-matter.",
          "type": "quotation"
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          "ref": "2017, Kory Stamper, “Surfboard: On Defining”, in Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, page 103",
          "text": "If I were defining \"hella\" without using substitutability, I would probably come up with something long-winded and full of dictionaryese, like \"to an excessive degree.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2019 January 14, Robert Carnegie, “Homosexuality is more acceptable to atheists, than theists”, in alt.atheism (Usenet)",
          "text": "<https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sodomy> runs down to \"Sexual intercourse that is not the union of the genital organs of a man and a woman\", but in dictionaryese that /could/ mean one specific sexual intercourse that they're choosing not to describe.",
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        ],
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          "used",
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        ],
        [
          "dictionary",
          "dictionary#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "definitions",
          "definition#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "characterized",
          "characterize#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "dry",
          "dry#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "straightforward",
          "straightforward#Adjective"
        ],
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          "occasionally",
          "occasionally"
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        "(informal) The style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing."
      ],
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        {
          "word": "lexicographese"
        },
        {
          "word": "dictionarese"
        }
      ],
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      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "style of language used in dictionary definitions",
          "word": "sanakirjakieli"
        },
        {
          "code": "mk",
          "lang": "Macedonian",
          "roman": "rečníkarski jázik",
          "sense": "style of language used in dictionary definitions",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "речни́карски ја́зик"
        },
        {
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          "sense": "style of language used in dictionary definitions",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
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          "word": "dicionarês"
        }
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      "ipa": "/ˈdɪkʃəˌnəɹɪˈiːz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɪkʃ(ə)nɹɪˈiːz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɪkʃəˌnɛɹiˈiz/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-iːz"
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  "etymology_text": "From dictionary + -ese (suffix denoting jargon used in a particular context).",
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          "ref": "1962, D. F. S. Scott, “Langenscheidts Handwörterbuch Deutsch–Englisch. Langenscheidt’s Concise Dictionary German–English. (Second Edition, Berlin 1960; pp. 672; published in England by Methuen; 17s. 6d.) [book review]”, in The Durham University Journal, volume LIV (New Series, volume XXIII), Durham, County Durham: Senate of the University of Durham, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-29, page 86",
          "text": "For a concise dictionary the extent of the German vocabulary dealt with is commendable and fairly searching spot-checks in many fields have shown no serious gaps, but an English reviewer must be forgiven for commenting on the ‘dictionaryese’ of some of the English renderings.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "1975, Jerry A[lan] Fodor, “The Structure of the Internal Code: Some Linguistic Evidence”, in The Language of Thought, New York, N.Y.: Thomas Y[oung] Crowell Company, page 127",
          "text": "'Cause to die' is immediately recognizable as dictionaryese, which is to say that dictionaries do not, in general, honor the condition that definitions must be couched in the syntax of surface English.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1981, Justin Wintle, “Introduction”, in Justin Wintle, editor, Makers of Modern Culture, New York, N.Y.: Facts on File, page xvi",
          "text": "Such an approach has two immediate advantages: it disposes of the need to present what is not fact as fact; and it goes some way to seeing off the need to employ dictionaryese, the crabbed and clipped prose-style that, in many reference-books, only ossifies its subject-matter.",
          "type": "quotation"
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        {
          "ref": "2017, Kory Stamper, “Surfboard: On Defining”, in Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries, New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, page 103",
          "text": "If I were defining \"hella\" without using substitutability, I would probably come up with something long-winded and full of dictionaryese, like \"to an excessive degree.\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 January 14, Robert Carnegie, “Homosexuality is more acceptable to atheists, than theists”, in alt.atheism (Usenet)",
          "text": "<https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sodomy> runs down to \"Sexual intercourse that is not the union of the genital organs of a man and a woman\", but in dictionaryese that /could/ mean one specific sexual intercourse that they're choosing not to describe.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "The style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "style",
          "style#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "language",
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          "used",
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        ],
        [
          "dictionary",
          "dictionary#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "definitions",
          "definition#Noun"
        ],
        [
          "characterized",
          "characterize#Verb"
        ],
        [
          "dry",
          "dry#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "straightforward",
          "straightforward#Adjective"
        ],
        [
          "occasionally",
          "occasionally"
        ],
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        ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) The style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "lexicographese"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "uncountable"
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    }
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  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/ˈdɪkʃəˌnəɹɪˈiːz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɪkʃ(ə)nɹɪˈiːz/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈdɪkʃəˌnɛɹiˈiz/",
      "tags": [
        "Canada",
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-iːz"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-dictionaryese.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/b/b8/En-us-dictionaryese.ogg/En-us-dictionaryese.ogg.mp3",
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "dictionarese"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "style of language used in dictionary definitions",
      "word": "sanakirjakieli"
    },
    {
      "code": "mk",
      "lang": "Macedonian",
      "roman": "rečníkarski jázik",
      "sense": "style of language used in dictionary definitions",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "речни́карски ја́зик"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "style of language used in dictionary definitions",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "dicionarês"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dictionaryese"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.