A Comparison of Entries from Selected Dictionaries

Directions: Refer to the sheet of definitions from the New Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary, the American Heritage Dictionary, and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) to answer the following questions:

1.)                Which entries provide information about pronunciation? Where is this information found?

2.)                Where does each entry provide information about part of speech?

3.)                Which entries provide grammatical information (such as special forms, part tense, plural forms, etc.?

4.)                How many definitions are given in each entry?

5.)                How are these definitions different from each other?

6.)                Which entries cite the word in a different part of speech?

7.)                Which entries provide an etymology for this word?

8.)                Explain this etymology.

9.)                Which entries provide special information such as subject, geographic or usage labels?

10.)            Which entries provide citations of authors using this word?

11.)            Now compare the sorts of information each dictionary provides and think about occasions when each dictionary would be a better tool.