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The symbols and abbreviations used in the dictionary are explained below.
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shows an opposite |
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shows a synonym |
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idiom(s) section of an entry |
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phrasal verb(s) section of an entry |
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in phrasal verbs, shows that the object may come either before or after the particle |
~ | replaces the headword of an entry |
[C] | countable noun |
[U] | uncountable noun |
[I] | intransitive verb |
[T] | transitive verb |
abbr. | abbreviation |
adj. | adjective |
adv. | adverb |
conj. | conjunction |
det. | determiner |
n. | noun |
pl. | plural |
pp | past participle |
prep. | preposition |
pron. | pronoun |
pt | past tense |
sb | somebody |
sth | something |
symb. | symbol |
v. | verb |
AustralE | Australian English |
BrE | British English |
CanE | Canadian English |
EAfrE | East African English |
IndE | Indian English |
IrishE | Irish English |
NAmE | North American English |
NEngE | English from Northern England |
NZE | New Zealand English |
SAfrE | South African English |
ScotE | Scottish English |
SEAsianE | South East Asian English |
US | English from the United States |
WAfrE | West African English |
WelshE | Welsh English |
The phonetic symbols used in this dictionary are given below.
p | pen | /pen/ |
b | bad | /bæd/ |
t | tea | /tiː/ |
d | did | /dɪd/ |
k | cat | /kæt/ |
ɡ | get | /ɡet/ |
tʃ | chain | /tʃeɪn/ |
dʒ | jam | /dʒæm/ |
f | fall | /fɔːl/ |
v | van | /væn/ |
θ | thin | /θɪn/ |
ð | this | /ðɪs/ |
s | see | /siː/ |
z | zoo | /zuː/ |
ʃ | shoe | /ʃuː/ |
ʒ | vision | /ˈvɪʒn/ |
h | hat | /hæt/ |
m | man | /mæn/ |
n | now | /naʊ/ |
ŋ | sing | /sɪŋ/ |
l | leg | /leɡ/ |
r | red | /red/ |
j | yes | /jes/ |
w | wet | /wet/ |
iː | see | /siː/ |
i | happy | /ˈhæpi/ |
ɪ | sit | /sɪt/ |
e | ten | /ten/ |
æ | cat | /kæt/ |
ɑː | father | /ˈfɑːðə(r)/ |
ɒ | got | /ɡɒt/ (BrE) |
ɔː | saw | /sɔː/ |
ʊ | put | /pʊt/ |
u | actual | /ˈæktʃuəl/ |
uː | too | /tuː/ |
V | cup | /kʌp/ |
ɜː | fur | /fɜː(r)/ |
ə | about | /əˈbaʊt/ |
eɪ | say | /seɪ/ |
əʊ | go | /ɡəʊ/ (BrE) |
oʊ | go | /ɡoʊ/ (NAmE) |
aɪ | my | /maɪ/ |
ɔɪ | boy | /bɔɪ/ |
aʊ | now | /naʊ/ |
ɪə | near | /nɪ?(r)/ (BrE) |
eə | hair | /heə(r)/ (BrE) |
ʊə | pure | /pjʊə(r)/ (BrE) |
If more than one pronunciation is given for a word, they are all acceptable, but the first form given is the most common.
/ ' / shows the main stress in a word or group of words.
The following labels are used with words that express a particular attitude or are appropriate in a particular situation.
approving expressions show that you feel approval or admiration, for example feisty, petite.
disapproving expressions show that you feel disapproval or contempt, for example blinkered, newfangled.
figurative language is used in a non-literal or metaphorical way, as in He didn't want to cast a shadow on (= spoil) their happiness.
formal expressions are usually only used in serious
or official language and would not be appropriate in normal everyday
conversation. Examples are admonish, besmirch.
humorous expressions are intended to be funny, for example ankle-biter, lurgy.
informal expressions are used between friends or in
a relaxed or unofficial situation. They are not appropriate for formal
situations. Examples are bonkers, dodgy.
ironic language uses words to mean the opposite of the meaning that they seem to have, as You're a great help, I must say! (= no help at all).
literary language is used mainly in literature and imiginative writing, for example, aflame, halcyon.
The following labels show other restrictions on the use of words.
dialect describes expressions that are mainly used
in particular regions of the British Isles, not including Ireland,
Scotland or Wales, for example beck, nowt.
old-fashioned expressions are passing out of current use, for example balderdash, beanfeast.
old use describes expressions that are no longer in current use, for example ere, perchance.
saying describes a well-known fixed or traditional
phrase, such as a proverb, that is used to make a comment, give advice,
etc, for example actions speak louder than words.
™ shows a trademark of a manufacturing company, for example Band-Aid, Frisbee.
Some entries contain a key symbol indicating that they are on the Oxford 3000™
list of important words. The keywords of the Oxford 3000 have been
carefully chosen by a group of language experts and experienced
teachers as the most important and useful words to learn in English. The
selection is based on three criteria:
The words that are used most frequently are included,
based on the information in the British National Corpus and the Oxford
Corpus Collection. (A corpus is an electronically held collection of
written and spoken texts, often consisting of hundreds of millions of
words.) However, just being frequent in the corpus is not enough for a
word to be chosen as a keyword. Some words may be used very frequently,
but only in a limited area, such as in newspapers or scientific
articles. In order to avoid including these restricted words, we
include as keywords only those words that are frequent across a range of different types of texts. In other words, keywords are both frequent, and used in a variety of contexts.
In addition, the list also includes some important words that are very familiar to
most users of English, even though they are not used very frequently.
These include, for example, words for parts of the body, words used in
travel, and words that are useful for explaining what you mean when you
do not know the exact word for something. These words were identified
by asking a group of experts in the fields of teaching and language
study.
The words of the Oxford 3000 are marked in the dictionary with a key symbol .
The keywords are an excellent starting point for expanding your
vocabulary. With most keywords, there is much more to learn about them
than the first meaning in an entry. These words often have many
meanings, have a large family of words that come from them, or are used
in a variety of patterns.
The list covers British and American English. Some basic phrases are
also included. Proper names (names of people, places, etc. beginning
with a capital letter) are not included in the list.
In order to make the definitions in this dictionary easier to understand, they are all written using the keywords of the Oxford 3000.
All words used in normal definition text are keywords, or are on our
list of language study terms. Numbers and proper names are also used in
definitions. When it has been necessary to use a specialist term that
is not in the list, the word is shown in dark blue. You can tap on any
word in definitions or examples to jump to that entry.
There is a full list of the Oxford 3000 on our website at www.oald8.com.
Some entries contain an AWL symbol indicating that they are on the Academic Word List.
This list was developed by Averil Coxhead, Victoria University of
Wellington, New Zealand. It is a list of words that you are likely to
meet if you study at an English-speaking university. The list was
developed by analysing a corpus or body of academic written texts to
find out which words occurred across a range of 28 subject areas (such
as Biology, History, Marketing, and International Law) in four academic
disciplines (Arts, Commerce, Law, and Science). These words were
selected because of their range and frequency of occurrence. The
Academic Word List covers roughly 10% of a written academic text. For
further information on the Academic Word List, and to see the entire
list, go to our website at www.oald8.com.
A countable noun (or count noun) has a singular form and a plural form. When it is singular, it must always have a determiner (a word such as a, the, both, or each) in front of it. In the plural it can be used with or without a determiner:
Countable nouns are the most common type of noun. If they have only one meaning, or if all the meanings are countable, they are just marked noun. For nouns that have a number of meanings, some of which are not countable, each meaning that is countable is marked [C].
An uncountable noun (also called non-count noun or mass noun) has only one form, not a separate singular and plural. It can be used with or without a determiner:
If an uncountable noun is the subject of a verb, the verb is singular:
With nouns such as furniture, information and equipment, you can talk about amounts of the thing or separate parts of the thing by using phrases like a piece of, three items of, etc.:
Some nouns are always plural and have no singular form. Nouns that refer to things that have two parts joined together, for example glasses, jeans, and scissors, are often plural nouns. You can usually also ask talk about a pair of jeans, a pair of scissors, etc.
An example is given in the entry for the noun to show that it can be used in this way.
Some plural nouns, such as police and cattle,
look as if they are singular. Nouns like this usually refer to a group
of people or animals of a particular type, when they are considered
together as a unit. They also take a plural verb:
Some nouns are always singular and have no plural form. Many nouns like this can be used in only a limited number of ways. For example, some singular nouns must be or are often used with a particular determiner in front of them or with a particular preposition after them. The correct determiner or preposition is shown before the definition.
In British English some singular nouns (or countable nouns in their singular form) can be used with a plural verb as well as a singular one. Nouns like this usually refer to a group of people, an organization, or a place, and can be thought of either as the organization, place or group (singular) or as many individual people (plural). In the dictionary the example is usually given to show agreement with a singular and plural verb:
These nouns are marked [sing.+sing./pl. v.] if they are always
singular in form, and [C+ sing./pl. v.] f they also have a plural form.
The plural form always agrees with a plural verb.
Note that in American English the singular form of these nouns must take a singular verb:
Some uncountable nouns can be used with a plural verb as well as a singular one. These include some nouns that end in –s and therefore look as though they are plural:
and some nouns that refer to a group of people or things and can be thought of either as a group (singular) or as many individual people or things (plural):
Many nouns are followed by particular preposition, adverb or other pattern. The correct pattern to use is shown in bold type, either before the definition or before an individual example. Where any part of a pattern is optional, it is given in brackets. The example sentences show the patterns in use.
Each of these sentences has a subject (he, she, the soup) and a verb (sigh, cut, taste).
In the first sentence, sigh stands alone. Verbs like this are called intransitive.
In the second sentence, cut is transitive because it is used with an object (her hand).
In the third sentence, taste has no object but it cannot be used alone without an adjective. An adjective like salty that gives more information about the subject of a verb is called a complement. Verbs that take complements are called linking verbs.
In the dictionary, the grammatical codes [T] and [I] at the start of
each meaning show you whether a verb is always transitive or always
intransitive, or whether it can be sometimes transitive and sometimes
intransitive.
Transitive verbs are the most common type of verb. A verb that is always transitive in all its meanings is just marked verb, and no other verb code is given.
Transitive verbs can take different types of object – a noun, phrase
or clause. Both transitive and intransitive verbs can combine with
different prepositions or adverbs. Different linking verbs can take
either adjectives or nouns as complements.
In the dictionary, the different patterns (or 'verb frames') in which a verb can be used are shown in bold type, usually just before an example showing that pattern in context.
If a particular verb, or one particular meaning of a verb, is always used in the same pattern, this pattern is shown in bold type before the definition.
Intransitive verbs do not take an object. When they are used alone after a subject, there is no verb frame.
Some intransitive verbs are always or usually used with a particular preposition or adverb. This pattern will be shown in bold type, usually before an example.
Some intransitive verbs are always or usually used with a preposition
or adverb, but not always the same one. In the dictionary this use will
be shown by the frame +adv./prep. If a preposition or adverb is often used, but not always, there will be brackets around the frame (+adv./prep.)
Transitive verbs must have an object. The object can be a noun or pronoun, a noun phrase or clause.
The frames used to show a transitive verb with a noun, pronoun or noun phrase as object are ~ sb (when the object is a person), ~ sth (when the object is a thing) and ~ sb/sth (when the object can be a person or a thing).
As with intransitive verbs, some transitive verbs are often used with a
preposition or an adverb. If there is a range of possible prepositions
or adverbs a frame such as sb/sth + adv./prep. is used. If a particular preposition or adverb is used, then it is given in the frame.
Some transitive verbs, like sell and buy can be used with two objects. This is shown by the frame ~ sb sth:
You can often express the same idea by using the verb as an ordinary transitive verb and adding a prepositional phrase starting with to or for:
These will be shown by the frames ~ to sb and ~ for sb.
In these sentences the linking verb (sound, become) is followed by a
complement - an adjective (hoarse) or a noun phrase (a doctor) that
tells you more about the subject.
Verbs that have an adjective as the complement will have the frame + adj. and verbs that have a noun phrase as the complement will have the frame + noun. There are also verbs that take both an object and a complement. The frames for these verbs are ~ sb/sth + adj., ~ sb/sth + noun or ~ sb/sth + adj./noun.
~ that… |
verb is followed by a clause beginning with that… |
~ (that)… |
the word that can be used, but is not always necessary |
~ how, what |
verb is followed by a clause beginning how or what |
~ why, where, etc. |
verb is followed by a clause beginning why, where or other wh- word |
~ sb where, when, etc. |
verb is used with both a noun phrase and a wh-clause |
~ to do sth |
verb is used with a to-infinitive |
~ sb to do sth |
verb is used with both a noun phrase and a to-infinitive |
~ sb do sth |
verb is used with a noun phrase and a bare infinitive (without to) |
~ doing sth |
verb is used with a phrase containing an –ing phrase (present participle/gerund) for example doing, eating. |
~ sb doing sth |
verb is used with both a noun phrase and an –ing phrase |
+ speech |
verb can be used with direct speech, using quotation marks (' ') |
~ sb + speech |
verb can be used with both direct speech and a noun phrase, to show who is being spoken to |
Many verbs can be used in a number of different ways. The dictionary entry shows the different ways in which it can be used by giving a range of example sentences. The frame before each example shows what type of grammatical pattern is being used. Sometimes patterns can combine with each other to form a longer pattern. In a long frame brackets may show where part of a frame can be left out, and slashes may show where there is a choice between two or three different words in the frame: ~ sth (out) (among/between sb).
Many adjectives can be used both before a noun:
and after a linking verb:
However, some adjectives, or particular meanings of adjectives, are
always used before a noun, and cannot be used after a linking verb.
They are called attributive adjectives. Attributive
adjectives are labelled [only before noun]. The label [usually before
noun] is used when it is rare but possible to use the adjective after a
verb.
Other adjectives are used only after a linking verb. They are called predicative adjectives.
Predicative adjectives are labelled [not before noun]. The label [not
usually before noun] is used when it is rare but possible to use the
adjective before a noun.
A few adjectives always follow the noun they describe. This is shown in the dictionary by the label [after noun].
In the dictionary, the idioms section is marked with the symbol
An idiom is a phrase whose meaning is difficult or sometimes impossible to guess by looking at the meanings of the individual words it contains. For example, the phrase be in the same boat has a literal meaning that is easy to understand, but it also has a common idiomatic meaning:
Here, be in the same boat means 'to be in the same difficult or unfortunate situation'.
Some idioms are imaginative expressions such as proverbs and sayings:
If the expression is well known, part of it may be left out:
Other idioms are short expressions that are used for a particular purpose:
Many idioms, however, are not vivid in this way. They are considered as idioms because their form is fixed:
In the dictionary, the phrasal verbs section is marked with the symbol
Phrasal verbs (sometimes called multi-word verbs) are verbs that consist of two, or sometimes three, words. The first word is a verb and it is followed by an adverb (turn down) or a preposition (eat into), or both (put up with). These adverbs or prepositions are sometimes called particles.
In this dictionary, phrasal verbs are listed at the end of the entry
for the main verb in a section marked PHR V. They are listed in
alphabetical order of the particles following them.
Phrasal verbs can be transitive (they take an object) or intransitive (they have no object). Some phrasal verbs can be used in both ways:
Intransitive phrasal verbs are written in the dictionary without sb (somebody) or sth (something) after them. The two parts of an intransitive phrasal verb cannot be separated by any other word:
BUT NOT Shall we eat tonight out?
In order to use transitive phrasal verbs correctly, you need to know where to put the object. With some phrasal verbs (often called separable verbs), the object can go either between the verb and the particle, or after the particle:
When the object is a long phrase, it usually comes after the particle:
When the object is a pronoun (for example it standing for 'the letter'), it must always go between the verb and the particle:
In the dictionary, verbs that are
separable are shown with a double arrow between the object and the
particle. This shows that the object may come either before or after the
particle.
There are a few phrasal verbs in which the two parts of the verb must be separated by the object, for example mess sb around. When you see sb or sth between the two parts of a phrasal verb and there is no double arrow, you know that they must be separated by the object:
BUT NOT They changed the plans and messed around everyone.
With other phrasal verbs (sometimes called inseparable verbs), the
two parts of the verb cannot be separated by an object, for example take to sb. When you see sb or sth after the two parts of a phrasal verb, and there is no double arrow, you know that they cannot be separated by an object:
BUT NOT I didn't really take her husband to.
BUT NOT I didn't really take him to.