The Collins Paperback English Dictionary [antikvár]

FOREWORD This new edition of THE COLLINS PAPERBACK ENGLISH DICTIONARY is derived from the best-selling COLLINS POCKET ENGLISH DICTIONARY. It is designed to be practical, up to date, easy to use, and easy to understand. Every word defined is given as a main entry in a single alphabetical sequence. Every definition is presented in clear concise straightforward English. Where a word has more than one sense, the one given first is the normál everyday meaning in today's language. Other sensesof a word - for example historical and technical senses - are explained after the main presentday meaning. Each sense is separately numbered, so that it is easy to see how many different senses a word has and to find the one required. The entries contain not only the spelling and meaning of each word, but alsó a guide to its pronunciation and its grammatical class. Guidance is alsó given on appropriate levels of usage: for example, somé uses are appropriate only in informál contexts, others in extremely formai contexts. These are clearly marked as such. Words and meanings that have gone out of use are marked as obsolete or archaic; they are included in the dictionary if they are common in the literature of the past. Help is given on disputed or problematic points of usage, which are discussed in usage notes at the end of the relevant entries. Although this is only a small dictionary, the compilers have been able to draw on an unprecedented rangé of data as raw material. I n the first place, the dictionary is based on the Collins English Dictionary databank, which has been painstakingly constructed over the years by Collins lexicographers and their expert advisers in many different fields of knowledge. Computer technology has, in addition, provided other kinds of evidence, not previously available. The compilers were able to consult the Cobuild corpus of 20 millión words of contemporary English, a collection of texts assembled and studied using computers at the English Department oftheUniversityof Birmingham. Inmanycases, the examples of use given in this dictionary are based on an examination of the uses recorded in the Cobuild corpus. The new edition of THE COLLINS PAPERBACK ENGLISH DICTIONARY has thus used the latest techniques to provide a practical and clear guide to today's language for today's users.