dictionary
dic·tion·a·ry/ˈdɪk.ʃə.nə.ɹi/noun, verb
dictionary is spelled D-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y, 4 syllables: dic·tion·a·ry. The wrong spelling people search most is dictionnary: about 60 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 2,000 of all searches for the word. Dictionary is a noun meaning “A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically…”. The plural of dictionary is dictionaries.
How many letters and syllables are in dictionary?
| Letters | 10: D-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 4: dic·tion·a·ry |
| In writing | 10 times per million words; the 6,884th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, dictionnary, about 60 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell dictionary?
Dictionary is spelled D-I-C-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 1,895 of the searches for dictionary in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is dictionary?
Dictionary appears 10 times per million words in written English, the 6,884th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce dictionary?
- UK /ˈdɪk.ʃə.nə.ɹi/
- UK /ˈdɪk.ʃən.ɹi/
- UK /ˈdɪkʃ.nə.ɹi/
Dictionary has 4 syllables, split dic·tion·a·ry in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-dictionary.ogg, En-us-dictionary.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of dictionary
- dictionaries plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- dictionarying participle, present
- dictionaried participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does dictionary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A reference work listing words or names from one or more languages, usually ordered alphabetically, explaining each term's meanings or senses, often also containing information on its etymology, pronunciation, usage, semantic relations, translations, as well as other relevant information.
If you want to know the meaning of a word, look it up in the dictionary.
- 2
A synchronic dictionary of a standardised language held to only contain words that are properly part of the language.
- 3
A reference work on a particular subject or activity in which the entries are arranged alphabetically; an alphabetical encyclopedia.
a law dictionary
- 4
The collection of words used or understood by a particular individual.
- 5
Someone or something regarded as a repository or compendium of information.
walking dictionary
- 6
An associative array; a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a dictionary (noun sense 1).
verb
- 1
To look up in a dictionary.
- 2
To add to a dictionary.
- 3
rareTo compile a dictionary.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
How do you abbreviate dictionary?
Wiktionary records 2 abbreviations of dictionary: dict, dict..
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Dictionary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense reference work of words and their meanings:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | dictionnaire, dico |
| German | Wörterbuch, Wärterbüach, Läxikon |
| Portuguese | dicionário |
| Spanish | diccionario, tumbaburros, mataburros, mataburro, amansaburros |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.