USER GUIDE

The User's^® Webster Dictionary is designed for use without explanatory notes, pronunciation keys, and such aids. The user should be able to pick up the dictionary cold and find the desired information if it is within the scope of the book. However, a few tips on some of the main features of this dictionary are offered below.

I. WHAT ENTRIES TO FIND

Most commonly used generic words and phrases are entered in this dictionary.

All entries are shown in boldface type. Entries include main entries, or headwords, in boldface and subentries in both regular and italic boldface, as illustrated below. Subentries are phrases, idioms, undefined derivatives, and different parts of speech of the main entry. Examples:

Main entries or headwords: green, greenback, greenbean, greenbelt, etc.

An example of seven boldfaced subentries under green n.:

adja. green(s) fees ...3 something green: salad greens.... —adja. 1 of the color of greenery: ... The green card is proof.... —v. make or become green ... n.: the greening of deserts.. green.ness n.

II. HOW TO FIND AN ENTRY

(a) First check the word or phrase you are looking up as a main entry in its strict alphabetical place; e.g., limited between limit and limo; maid of honor between maid-in-waiting and maidservant; spell checker between spellbind and spelling.

(b) If a phrase is not found as above, check for it among the boldfaced items included under its first component as main entry; e.g., last laugh under the main entry last, married quarters under married, and toast of the town under toast.

(c) If a phrase is still not found, check it under other suspected headwords; e.g., no way, shape, or form under shape rather than no or way. Such multi-word idioms may also be found as illustrative material under its other keywords. Thus a variant such as any manner, shape, or form may be found under form. Again, on the spur of the moment, which is defined under spur, is further illustrated in italics under moment.

III. SPELLINGS & VARIANTS

American spelling is normally used in The User's^® Webster.

Canadian spellings are shown as variants, followed by the label Cdn.; e.g., centre, colour, defence, hydro, equalled, equalling.

Peculiarly British words and spellings are shown with the label Brit.; e.g., analyse, bonny, brolly, jewellery, tyre.

IV. SYLLABICATION

Syllabication is shown for a word at its first entry as a headword. The syllabication of hyphenated words like capital-intensive and open compounds like capital city should be looked up under their component words.

Syllable division in spellings uses a different system from that used in pronunciations, as in the second pronunciation of at.ta.ché (at.uh. SHAY, uh.TASH.ay). This is explained in the next section.

V. PRONUNCIATION SYSTEM

(a) SYLLABLE DIVISION: As a general rule, a syllable division is made: (1) after the vowel if the vowel is long, diphthongized, or unstressed, the resulting syllable being called an "open" syllable; (2) after the consonant if the vowel is short and carries a stress, which results in a "closed" syllable. Examples: a.back, ab.a.cus, ab.ra.ca.dab.ra ... ze.ro, Zo.ro.as.tri.an, in which the underlined syllables are closed, the others being open. This is only the most general of the rules of syllabication, but it is useful to know it explicitly.

(b) The user is assumed to have acquired a familiarity with the basic sound-spelling patterns of English, as in the most common words of the language. No pronunciation is indicated for sounds whose spelling is such that only one pro- nunciation is normally possible. Such are:

VOWELS: The vowel sounds of: at, sail, lake, air; bed, day; big, deep, deer, hide, bye, fire; on, cause, law, more; bone, oh, how, our, boy, oil; ah, but, poor, cure; uh, burn.

Vowel sounds in certain phonetic contexts or positions: (1) words ending in -oal, -oat, -old, -olk, -olt, etc. have the long "o" or diphthong; (2) words and syllables ending in -ete, -ew, -ool, -oon, -oop, -oose, -ooth, -ude, -uke, -ume, -ute, etc. have long vowels, with the exception of wool; (3) words and syllables ending in -ee, -o, and -oo are long or diphthongized.

CONSONANTS: The initial consonant sounds of: bad, can, chair, dog, fat, go, ghost, guess, guy, hat, just, keep, lake, make, name, page, quick, red, same, take, the, thin, very, wait, what, yes, zoo.

These and other rules of English pronunciation are taken as implicitly known to users who have attained the primary-school (Grade 8) level of proficiency in reading and speaking.

However, some pronunciations are made more explicit by additional helps, as in (awl.THOH, "TH" as in "the"), (ES.theet, "th" as in "thin"), (uh.LOOF, long "OO"), (buh.BOOSH.kuh, short or long "OO"), and (uh.DUCE, rhyme: produce).

(c) ACCENTUATION

Several levels of stress may be noted in English words when they are studied in isolation.

Thus, com.mu.ni.ty could be analyzed as having its stresses distributed on the basis of relative force in this order of syllables: 3-1-4-2. In actual use, however, one rarely hears the main stress placed on the second syllable. In com.mu.ni.ca.tion, the main stress is supposed to be on the fourth syllable, but it is frequently placed on the second. Sentence stress partly explains this variation between what is correct when words are studied in isolation and how words are pronounced in actual, continuous speech.

Most dictionaries routinely indicate a primary and a secondary stress for words of three syllables or more, as in ac.cen.tu.ate which is shown with a primary stress on the second syllable and a secondary stress on the last.

The User's^® Webster uses a more simplified system of accentuation, as explained below.

(d) TO READ OFF THE PRONUNCIATIONS

1. A stressed syllable is shown in capitals.

2. A word of two syllables is assumed to have its stress on the first syllable if it is left unmarked for stress, as milk.shake (MILK. shake) whose accentuation and pronunciation are taken as self-explanatory.

3. In multisyllabic words, only the main stress is normally indicated, secondary stresses being considered variable, as explained above.

4. A second stress, however, is indicated using capitals when there are more than two syllables preceding the main stress and the syllable with the greater stress may be in doubt.

Thus, u.til.i.tar.i.an (yoo.TIL. uh.TAIR.ee.un) is shown with the second syllable in capitals as well as the fourth. This kind of double stressing is normally not required when all but one of the syllables have neutral vowels, as in et.y. mo.log.i.cal (et.uh.muh.LOJ. uh.cul), in which only the first syllable has a full vowel and which, therefore, is the only other syllable besides the fourth that may be pronounced with a stress. The fullness of the vowel should give the syllable any stress that is required for good enunciation.

5. The letter group (uh) always stands for the unstressed neutral vowel, also called schwa, as in the first syllable of a.bove (uh.BUV), the middle syllable of syl.la.ble (SIL.uh.bul), and the last syllable of i.de.a (eye.DEE.uh).

6. Letter groups with (u) plus another consonant, as in ob.tain (ub.TAIN), ran.dom (RAN.dum), rang.er (RAIN.jur), ray.ment (RAY.munt), etc. are also normally pronounced with a neutral vowel if they are not shown stressed. Exceptions would be when a syllable becomes more prominent or gets a secondary stress because of its existence as a separate word.

Thus, "-nut," the second syllable of do.nut (DOH.nut), could be pronounced either with a neutral sound or as if it rhymed with nut. But the second syllable of rib.bon (RIB.un) cannot rhyme with bun because "-bon" is not a word or word element. See also asset, convent, despot, product, shogun, slogan, and surplus.

7. The letter group (zh) is used for the sound of the "s" in measure, usual, vision, etc.; the sound of "g" in beige, regime, etc.; the sound of "j" in jabot, joual, etc.; and the sound of "z" in azure, seizure, etc.

8. All other pronunciations should be read using the most common English sounds of the syllables used in the respelling. Thus, live.long (LIV.long), live.ly (LIVE. lee), rind (RINED), etc.

9. When an alternative pronunciation or the pronunciation of a derivative is shown in abbreviated form, as in mil.i.tar.i.ly (-TAIR. uh.lee), the full pronunciation should be read as (mil.uh.TAIR. uh.lee) based on the previous word mil.i.tar.y (MIL.uh.tair.ee). As explained above, the relative force between the stresses of the first and third syllables of a word like mil.i.tar.i.ly is of mainly academic importance to the dictionary user.

VI. MEANING

KINDS OF DEFINITIONS

The User's^® Webster has five kinds of definitions.

1. Formal definitions. Most of the formal definitions are of the following type:

ice cream n. a frozen dessert of sweetened and flavored cream.

2. Informal definitions. Note how classmate and classroom are included in the fourth definition of class:

class . . . 4 a group of students, or classmates, instructed together, usu. in the same room, or classroom.

3. Meaning in context. Sometimes an entry is defined in the context provided by an illustrative phrase or sentence, as in the definition of fun:

fun n. amusement or what provides amusement; sport: Skating is fun; We had a lot of fun skating; Children throw snowballs for fun or in fun; Guy likes to poke fun at or make fun of Cora's walk; The rain spoiled the fun; Life is not all fun and games.

Note how for fun, in fun, poke fun at, make fun of, and fun and games have been defined in actual contexts of usage.

4. Meaning by paraphrase. Sometimes a paraphrase is given in parentheses right where a word may call for explanation of its precise meaning, as in the definition of whirl:

—v. swing round and round rapidly and continuously, as leaves caught in the wind or a car gone out of control: Dancing couples whirled about the room; He whirled her away in his new sports car; Her head whirled (= She felt dizzy), and she passed out.

5. Meaning by illustration. After a word has been formally defined and illustrated in one part of speech, it is often redundant to give a formal definition of the same meaning in a different part of speech. Note how the adja. subentry round-trip follows the noun definition:

round trip n. a trip to and back from a place; adv.: We drove 884 miles round trip from Atlanta to Orlando; adja.: a round-trip fare, flight, ticket.

VII. GRAMMAR & USAGE

(a) SYNTAX

The syntax of the words entered in The User's^® Webster can be studied almost exhaustively by examining the illustrative material given in italics under each entry. Since the natural process of learning a language is by listening and imitation, no attempt is made to set out the grammar of words in formal terms except for the labeling of categories of words and brief notes about their idiomatic usage enclosed within parentheses.

Those interested in formal grammar, however, can find the information they want by examining the illustrative examples. Thus, the examples given under consider should yield the grammatical information about the word, as given in parentheses below:

They considered her application [transitive use] ... took time to consider [intransitive] ... They considered it briefly, carefully, favorably, religiously, seriously [five modifying adverbs] ... considered her intelligent, qualified, a genius [object of verb may be an adjective, participial adjective, or a noun with definite article] ... They had considered him (to be) not promotable [noun/pronoun plus adjective as object, with optional "to be"] ... They considered her for his job [object: noun/pronoun plus prepositional phrase] ... considered her as his replacement [object: noun/pronoun plus noun phrase with "as"] ... He considered resigning, his alternatives, where to go [three kinds of verb objects: "-ing" form, noun, "where" clause] ... They said he had done a good job, all things considered [idiom and how it is used] ... He had done a good job, considering [another verbal idiom, used with implied object] ... an especially good job considering his inexperience, considering that he was inexperienced [how the idiom is used followed by noun or noun clause] ... That was their considered opinion [a fixed form of the headword used as participial adjective].

(b) PARTS OF SPEECH

The part of speech of each entry is given using the abbreviations listed following this Guide.

Two new part-of-speech labels show distinctions in the use of adjectives.

(1) adja. stands for "attributive adjective," as crying in a crying fit, jag, room, shame, spell, towel. Such adjectives may only be used as modifiers before nouns.

(2) adjp. stands for "predicative adjective," as bound in They're bound for home; morally bound; bound by marriage vows; It's bound to rain today; homeward bound, etc. Such adjectives may only be used following a linking verb such as is or seem.

The above labels are normally used in cases judged significant or when more than one example is given.

The label adj. is used only for true adjectives that can be used as both adja. and adjp. These form the vast majority of adjectives.

(c) HOW TO USE WORDS & MEANINGS

Suppose you are not sure how to use the word "root" referring to someone having settled down in a country. At the entry root, you see these sentences: Plants strike or take root in the soil; We have struck root or roots (= settled down) in Florida. This should tell you that strike (not put down, send, take, etc.) is the word that goes with "root" in the usage you have in mind and that either "root" or "roots" would be correct. You only have to pattern your sentence after the one given in the dictionary.

(d) CONTRASTIVE EXAMPLES OF USAGE

Note the following sets of illustrative examples:

notwithstanding prep.: ... The party went on notwithstanding the lateness of the hour. —conj.: The party went on notwithstanding the hour was late. —adv.: The lateness of the hour notwithstanding, the party went on.

sake n. ... : For our children's sake, please stop arguing; For the sake of our children, please stop arguing; Please stop arguing, for goodness sake; [for added force] For Heaven's sake, please stop arguing. I'm saying this for both our sakes, for your sake and mine. Let's not argue for arguing's sake (= because we like to argue). Let's suppose, for argument's sake (= as a starting point), that life does exist on Mars.

taboo adj. ... : To Muslims, food is taboo before sunset during Ramadan. —n.: ... Eating before sunset is under a rigid taboo. —v.: ... Eating before sunset is tabooed.

It may look as though the dictionary is repeating itself. But the purpose is to illustrate various parts of speech and usages of the same word using sentences with minimal change of meaning so as to bring out grammatical and usage differences contrastively.

VIII. MISCELLANEOUS MECHANICS

(a) PARENTHESES

Besides obvious purposes like enclosing pronunciation respell- ings, parentheses are used in special ways as listed below:

1. To give brief definitions within illustrative examples, as in the definition of dollar for dollar below. Sometimes the brief definition is preceded by a label such as Slang for and Informal for as in the second sentence below:

dol.lar (DOLL.ur) n. 1 the basic money unit in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and other countries: ... to feel, look, smell like a million dollars (Informal for splendid); Dollar for dollar (= proportionately to the money involved) this car is second to none.

Sometimes a brief definition or explanation in italics is run on with the rest of the sentence in italics if it can be done without a break in the syntax, as in the examples below:

An educated guess (based on some knowledge of the facts) is likely to be right.

Marsupials are pouched animals (that have an external pouch for carrying their young).

The parentheses are not dispensed with because, strictly speaking, what is in parentheses is redundant when you consider the meaning of educated guess and pouched respectively.

2. To telescope two definitions into one, as in the following:

East Asian n. & adj. (a person) of or from the region comprising E. China, Japan, North and South Korea, Taiwan, and nearby islands.

Here the noun definition should be read as "a person of or from...." and the adjective definition is the part outside the parentheses: "of or from...."

run v. (cause) to move at a pace faster than walking.

The above should be read as two definitions: "cause to move at a pace faster than walking" and "move at a pace faster than walking." The two definitions have been telescoped into one to save space.

3. To show alternative structures, as in the following:

de.sir.ous (di.ZYE.rus) adj. desiring or wishing: A mother is desirous of her children's good; She is desirous that they (should) do well in life.

In the second sentence, should is placed in parentheses to show that both "She is desirous that they do well in life" and "She is desirous that they should do well in life" are correct.

Other examples:

Boys ganged (up) together at the corner.

in (or out of) gear connected (or not connected) to the motor; hence working (or not working) properly.

gift of (the) gab

lead someone (on) a merry chase.

4. To enclose short grammar and usage notes and other explanations. Square brackets are used for this purpose, as in the following entries:

a.bed (uh.BED) adj. & adv. [literary use] in bed: to lie abed of a Sunday morning.

a.ghast (uh.GAST) adjp. [used after its noun] horrified: She was aghast; Everyone stood aghast at the sight.

em.cee (EM.see) n. Informal [short form] master of ceremonies.

(b) PREPOSITIONS IN ITALICS

Giving prepositions in italics, as in the following examples, is another space-saving device. The definition itself shows how to use the headword, so no illustrative sentence is necessary. Thus evict, as shown below, should be used in a sentence like "to evict someone from his house," not "out of his house."

evict v. oust or discharge a tenant from a house or land by legal process.

moon v. spend time or wander about or around idly.

mull v. ponder over a problem, proposal, etc.

sally v. go forth or set out, as if to attack.

scuffle v. to struggle with someone at close quarters.

(c) SMALL CAPITALS

Small capitals indicate cross- references which should be looked up for a formal definition or for more information. Thus:

apices See APEX.

holloware ... cf. FLATWARE.

—kind of Informal. same as SORT OF.

should pt. of SHALL.

(d) QUOTED WORDS

Occasionally, you may find a word or phrase given in quotes instead of boldface as you might expect. Such quotes are used to show that the quoted word or phrase is outside the scope of this dictionary to be entered and defined fully. However, the word or phrase is being used to explain a meaning because of its relevance in the particular context in which it appears. Thus:

HIV ... "human immunodeficiency virus," the cause of AIDS.

monosodium glutamate ... also called "MSG."

mullet ... an edible fish of warm waters, esp. the "gray" and "red" mullets.

nelson ... a wrestling hold in which leverage is applied with one arm ("half nelson") or both ("full nelson") passed from behind....

(e) ROMAN "OR"

The roman "or" is used between italicized words and phrases that may be used as alternatives, as in:

alley ... Stamp-collecting is not up or down my alley.

impotent ... that would make or render nuclear weapons impotent....

net ... to cast or spread a net for fish.