The New Method English Dictionary [antikvár]

Preface The Fifth Edition This new edition of The New Method English Dictionary retains the special qualities and ideas of Michael West's earlier editions, at the same time adding some new ways of helping the user, and generally bringing the book up to date. We have kept, for example, the defining vocabulary (explained below) which makes the definitions simple, and we have added, among other things, a new way of showing the pronunciation of each word, and a note to tell the user which part of speech (noun, verb, etc.) is being defined. The Defining Vocabulary At the back of the dictionary there is a list of 1,455 common or important words. The definitions use the words in this list, with those words that are defined under them in the dictionary (like happiness, defined under happy), regular formations from them (like unhappy, happiest), personal pronouns (like I, you, his), the names of days, months, and countries, and number words. Where it is possible, no other words are used, but in some cases it is necessary to use a word that is not in the defining vocabulary; then that outside word appears in the definition in small capital letters, and where it is itself defined, no outside words are used. Special Use and the Parts of Speech Some words are used in a special way, and we have marked them: si for 'slang' in/ml for 'informal' (not used in very careful speech or writing) derog for 'derogatory' (showing dislike and lack of respect). We have also used the following for the parts of speech: n for nouns (words like book, goat) adj for adjectives (like good, lazy) pron for pronouns (like them, we) det for determiners (words like a, the, some, which come before all the adjectives there may be before a noun) adv for adverbs (words like soon, happily) prep for prepositions (like at, of) conj for conjunctions (like and, but, while) interj for interjections (like ouch!) vi for intransitive verbs (like disappear, die) vt for transitive verbs (like kill, carry). If a verb is (like be or shall) neither intransitive nor transitive, or if (like move or boil) it can be both transitive and intransitive, it has been marked simply i>. Lastly, we have sometimes used these short forms of words in our definitions of other words: esp. for 'especially'