Name: __________________ Class: ________________ Date: _____________

Why is a dictionary important?

a dictionary provides specific information on a word's spelling, pronunciation, etymology, meanings, uses,
synonyms, and so on.

impertinence
[im-pur-tn-uh ns] Show IPA
noun
1. unmannerly intrusion or presumption; insolence. 4. an impertinent person.
2. impertinent quality or action. 5. irrelevance, inappropriateness, or absurdity.
3. something impertinent, as an act or statement.
Origin:
15951605; impertin(ency) + -ence
Word Origin & History

impertinence
c.1600, from Fr. impertinence, from impertinent (see impertinent).

Synonyms >presumption >disrespect >insolence

Word Usage: 1. It is a sign of impertinence to not bid someone the time of the day.
2. His impertinence while addressing her, earned him two hours of detention.

The centered periods in conjecture and reckon show the divisions of these words into syllables. If
you are writing or typing a word of more than one syllable and need to break it at the end of a line, follow
the dictionary's division of the word into syllables.

Dictionaries provide any variant spellings of a word at the beginning of an entry. For the word dexterous,
Webster's Collegiate has dexterous or dextrous"; whereas both the AHD and the abridged Random
House Dictionary list "dexterous.... Also dextrous."

DICTIONARY USAGE Terms and Definitions

Pronunciation
Dictionaries use symbols to indicate pronunciation of combinations of letters in a word, because the
alphabet itself does not record all the sounds in the language (listen to the different sounds of a in only
three words: far, make, and answer). Ex [in prpr it]

Grammatical functions and forms

Dictionaries say a great deal about a word's function and forms. Other parts of speech are formed
from the word being defined and have the same basic meaning, those words are grouped at the end
of the entry, where they are spelled, divided, accented, and identified by part of speech but not
defined.

Etymology

Dictionaries provide the etymology of a wordits historyto indicate its origin and the evolution
of its meanings and forms. The dictionary can compress a great deal of information about a word
into a small space by using symbols, abbreviations, and different typefaces.
Ex. OE-Old English, ME-Middle English, ON-Old Norse

Meanings

Dictionaries divide the general meaning of a word into particular meanings on the basis of context, the
sense of a word as it is actually used. Most Dicitonaries have several meanings for a word. The
succession of meanings is commonly arranged based on the words Oldest definition through to its most
recent.

Synonyms and Antonyms

Synonyms are words whose meanings are approximately the same, such as small and little. Antonyms
are words whose meanings are approximately opposite; such as small and big.

Spelling and word division

The lower case initial letters for both conjecture and reckon indicate that these words are not normally
capitalized.

Word Usage

Some dictionaries may give a sentence or two which show how the word may be used in a sentence, in
its various grammatical forms/part of speech.