The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary app

1 OALD
What is in the dictionary?
How to find a word
Looking at an entry
Toolbar functions
2 Favourites
3 Settings
4 Information about the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Symbols and Abbreviations
Register Labels
Pronunciation
The Oxford 3000™
The Academic Word List
The Grammar of Nouns
The Grammar of Verbs
The Grammar of Adjectives
Idioms
Phrasal Verbs

Support information

Web: http://www.oup.com/elt/dicts/help
Email: eltsupport@oup.com

1 OALD

What is in the dictionary?

The OALD tab includes all the entries from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 8th edition and entries from the Guide to British and American Culture.
It also includes a large amount of related information that is not in the printed dictionaries. This extra information is accessed from the MENU that appears near the top of many entries.

How to find a word

Simple search

Type the word you want in the Search box at the top. As you start to type the Index underneath will show you a list of words from this part of the dictionary. Tap on the entry you want to look up.
If you type a word incorrectly in the Search box, a Did you mean? list will display. This list will suggest some words that it thinks you might have been trying to look up. Tap on a word from the list to look it up.
Tap on the cross in the search box to clear the search box, or in Settings set Clear the search box to ON.

Wildcard search

To see all words containing particular letters, you can do a wildcard search. For example to see all words that begin with 's' and end with 't', search on s?t.

Full Dictionary Search

Tap the search mode button to the right of the Search box to switch between search modes.
In Full Dictionary Search mode the index displays results under headings: Headwords, Phrases, Examples. Tap on an item in the list to see your search word within an entry.

History

Tap the History button to the left of the Search box to see a list of all the words you have looked up. Tap on a word to look it up again. Tap on the Trash button to clear the History list.

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Looking at an entry

If there is a word you do not understand in the entry you have looked up, tap on it to see the dictionary entry for that word.
Use the arrows at the top of the entry pane, or swipe right or left, to move to the next/previous entry in the dictionary

Help with abbreviations and symbols

Dictionary entries include some abbreviations and symbols. Tap on an abbreviation or symbol to see more information about what it means.

Pronunciation

To hear the pronunciation of a word, tap on the blue and red speaker symbols. The blue speaker symbol gives you British pronunciation (BrE) and the red gives you American pronunciation (NAmE).
If you are online, or have downloaded the files, you can tap on the speaker symbols at the end of the exmaple sentences to listen to them. Look at Settings to find out how to download the files.

Illustrations

There are hundreds of illustrations in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary which will display when you look up a word.
Tap on the illustration to see a bigger picture, often showing a group of related words.
Pinch out the bigger picture to expand and explore it in more detail.

MENU

Tap on the MENU heading to see what extra information is available about the word you have looked up. Tap on an item to see the extra information. Tap back to return to the entry.

Verb forms

Tap on VERB FORMS to see the present simple, past simple, past participle and -ing forms of the verb, with transcriptions of their British and American pronunciations.

Word origin

Tap on WORD ORIGIN to see the etymology of the word you have looked up.

Culture

Tap on CULTURE to see additional information from the Oxford Guide to British and American Culture about the word you have looked up.

Thesaurus

Tap on THESAURUS to see synonyms of the word you have looked up, examples of how the synonyms are used, and notes about some particular differences between synonyms.

Usage notes

Tap on WHICH WORD to see notes that show the differences between words that are often confused.
Tap on VOCABULARY BUILDING to see notes that help you choose more interesting and varied words to use and so increase your vocabulary.
Tap on GRAMMAR POINT to see notes that help make clear points of grammar that often cause problems.
Tap on BRITISH/AMERICAN to see notes that give you more information about an aspect of life or language in Britain and America and show you the correct words to use.
Tap on MORE ABOUT to see notes that explain differences between British and American usage.
Tap on SYNONYMS to see notes that show the differences between groups of words with similar meanings.
Tap on COLLOCATIONS to see notes that show useful words and phrases connected with particular topics, and a selection of verbs to use with those words and phrases.
Tap on LANGUAGE BANK to see notes that show you how to express similar ideas in a variety of ways, particularly in writing.

Example bank

Tap on EXAMPLE BANK to see extra example sentences showing how the word you have looked up can be used.

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Toolbar functions

Search

Tap the search button to return to the search pane.

Add to Favourites

Add the entry you are currently viewing to your Favourites list. View entries in your Favourites list from the Favourites tab.

My View

Switch between Full View and My View. Choose which parts of the entry to hide in My View on the Settings tab.

Forward/Back arrows

Use the forward/back arrows to move to the next/previous entry you looked up.

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2 Favourites

View the list of entries you have added to your Favourites list.
Tap on an entry to see it again.
Delete individual entries from the Favourites list using the Edit button. Clear the Favourites list using the Trash button.

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3 Settings

With the Settings tab, you can change the way the dictionary text looks, and control the sound.

General

Background colour

Tap to choose between the three available colours

Text size

To make the letters appear bigger or smaller, change the text size. Move the slider right or left to increase/decrease the text size.

Clear the search box

Select ON to automatically clear the search box when you tap in it.

Show highlighting

Select OFF if you do not want to see your search word highlighted when you do a Full Dictionary Search.

My View

My View allows you to choose which parts of the entry are hidden when you tap the My View button on the top toolbar.

Sound

In this part of Settings you can choose your preferences for the spoken example sentences.

Hide speaker symbols

If you have not downloaded the spoken example sentences, or do not want to listen to them via the Internet, you can hide the speaker symbols.

Download spoken sentences

If you want to listen to the spoken example sentences when you are not online, you can download them to your device.

Remove downloaded sentences

You can remove the downloaded files at any time. You can still listen to the spoken example sentences via the Internet.

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4 Information about the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Symbols and Abbreviations

The symbols and abbreviations used in the dictionary are explained below.

opp symbol shows an opposite
syn symbol shows a synonym
idm symbol idiom(s) section of an entry
phr v symbol phrasal verb(s) section of an entry
pv arrow 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

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Pronunciation

The phonetic symbols used in this dictionary are given below.

Consonants

ppen/pen/
bbad/bæd/
ttea/tiː/
ddid/dɪd/
kcat/kæt/
ɡget/ɡet/
chain/tʃeɪn/
jam/dʒæm/
ffall/fɔːl/
vvan/væn/
θthin/θɪn/
ðthis/ðɪs/
ssee/siː/
zzoo/zuː/
ʃshoe/ʃuː/
ʒvision/ˈvɪʒn/
hhat/hæt/
mman/mæn/
nnow/naʊ/
ŋsing/sɪŋ/
lleg/leɡ/
rred/red/
jyes/jes/
wwet/wet/

Vowels and diphthongs

see/siː/
ihappy/ˈhæpi/
ɪsit/sɪt/
eten/ten/
æcat/kæt/
ɑːfather/ˈfɑːðə(r)/
ɒgot/ɡɒt/ (BrE)
ɔːsaw/sɔː/
ʊput/pʊt/
uactual/ˈæktʃuəl/
too/tuː/
Vcup/kʌp/
ɜːfur/fɜː(r)/
əabout/əˈbaʊt/
say/seɪ/
əʊgo/ɡəʊ/ (BrE)
go/ɡoʊ/ (NAmE)
my/maɪ/
ɔɪboy/bɔɪ/
now/naʊ/
ɪənear/nɪ?(r)/ (BrE)
hair/heə(r)/ (BrE)
ʊəpure/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.

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Register Labels

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.

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The Oxford 3000™

Some entries contain a key symbol 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 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.

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The Academic Word List

Some entries contain an AWL symbol 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.

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The Grammar of Nouns

Countable Nouns [C]

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].

Uncountable Nouns [U]

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.:

Plural Nouns [pl.]

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:

Singular Nouns [sing.]

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.

Nouns with singular or plural verbs [sing.+sing./pl. v.] [C+ sing./pl. v.] [U+ sing./pl. v.]

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):

Patterns with nouns

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.

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The Grammar of Verbs

Transitive and intransitive

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.

Verb codes

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.

Verb frames

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 [I]

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 [T]

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.

Linking verbs

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.

Other verb frames

~ 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
~ sth to do sth
~ sb/sth to do sth

verb is used with both a noun phrase and a to-infinitive

~ sb do sth
~ sth do sth
~ sb/sth 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
~ sth doing sth
~ sb/sth 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).

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The Grammar of Adjectives

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].

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Idioms

In the dictionary, the idioms section is marked with the symbol idm 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:

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Phrasal Verbs

In the dictionary, the phrasal verbs section is marked with the symbol phr v 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.

Grammar of phrasal verbs

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.

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