Inspired by another thread.. Dictionary question..

[C.Ann]

Do you own one or more? And do you ever use them? (And I'm not talking about the ones on your computer - LOL..)

Whenever I'm reading, I always have one close at hand - "just in case".. I know many people who will come across a word while reading that they don't know the meaning of (or can't figure it out on context alone), so they'll just skip right over it and keep on reading..

I've never been able to do that.. Between my love of reading and my love of words, if I don't know what something means, I'm going to stop and look it up.. If I don't know how to spell something and I'm working on something important (not typing on a DIS board - LOL) I will also search and search until I find the correct spelling (providing I'm away from the computer - and sometimes even then)..

How about you?

 

[browneyes106]

I have two different book versions one is Webster's and the other's Oxford. I also have a dictionary app on my iPod Touch.

 

[LuvCuteBoys]

A paper dictionary? No.

But my phone is always with me and I can use the internet via the phone, so when I come across those words I don't know, I just grab the phone and look it up that way.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Yes. We own at least three. We usually use them to look up a definition. But if I am away from home and feeling lazy...I will google or do an on-line dictionary to check spelling or a definition. I am teaching my kids both ways.
Though as fast as technology is moving, I wonder how long the book format will stick around. I grew up with encyclopedias and the original card catalogue and neither of those are used much anymore. Card
catalogue is electronic now.

We have a paperback comprehensive dictionary, a dictionary from my husband's youth that I think dates much earlier than that, and a children's dictionary that includes pictures and a bigger type set (and less words as a result).

My favorite is DH's as it contains some older vocabulary. It comes in handy as some of our homeschool books are classic old texts and we can count on that dictionary to contain those words. I don't have an example, but we have had once or twice a word not appear in the more recent dictionary.

We of course owned dictionaries prior to kids because spell
check had just been invented and the Internet was but an infant. Cell
phones were just car phones, mega expensive and just for emergencies (and not owned by me!). We did have power steering though in our cars.

 

[MIGrandma]

We have 3 of them, somewhere in the house.

Our DD won them when she won the 6th, 7th and 8th grade district spelling bees. I don't think they were important enough to her to take with her when she got married.

I never use a dictionary anymore though. I suppose if I were trying to spell a word, and didn't know how, and felt it was important enough to know how, I would find it on ther internet.

 

[faith]

Hi C. Ann! I always enjoy your threads.
This year I have pulled out an old Webster's hard cover dictionary for use with a bible study class. I want to make sure of the correct definition before I answer some of the weekly questions. Didn't realise how lazy my brain was becoming. Needless to say, it's been a big help.

 

[C.Ann]

This year I have pulled out an old Webster's hard cover dictionary for use with a bible study class. I want to make sure of the correct definition before I answer some of the weekly questions. Didn't realise how lazy my brain was becoming. Needless to say, it's been a big help.

 

[golfgal]

We have several-one was given to me by my 5th grade teacher , one collegiate one I bought for college, one DH used in college and a couple "children's" dictionaries. The kids use them for homework on occasion but if I need to look up a word I usually do it online, it's just faster. One feature that I am looking forward to when I get my NOOK for Christmas is that you can highlight a word and it will look it up for you .

 

[NHdisneylover]

We have an American Heritage Dictionary which gets used once in a blue moon.

DD and I have kindles--C. Ann: for words one comes across while reading you just click on it on the kindle to get the definition Many of our German friends who enjoy reading in English have bought Kindles largely for this feature.

We have 3 German/English dictionaries as well as one English/Spanish, one German/Spanish and one English/French. Those all get more use--but it is getting less and less

 

[tvguy]

I write for a living, so yes. It's right next to the Thesaurus.......and the phone book.

 

[simba20]

Yes, we have two. We have found during Scrabble matches that we often challenge the validity of a word from each other's dictionaries. LOL! I also have thesauri and a grammar handbook from college. However, I will write, rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite a sentence again and again before picking up the handbook.

 

[Pakey]

I have one at home and one I keep at the office.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Yes, I use an online dictionary when I'm writing and a hard copy when I'm reading. One of my earliest favorite books was my Children's Dictionary, which I still have. (I bought them for my kids, too.) Over several weeks this spring I walked around with a dictionary while I was putting together the summer Scavenger Hunt for the Photography Board. I got some strange looks working on that during my son's ballgames, lol.

 

[SunFloridaDisney]

I have 2 here in my office at home - a smaller paperback and a larger hardbound, that has a companion thesaurus.

I've always looked up words in the dictionary as I'm going along (if possible - I read on the bus in the morning - don't always have a dictionary right at hand)

My job is editing, so I need to have one available all the time at work. I find that in general the online or electronic versions don't always have as much info as my big hard copy.

My daughters are the same way, guess we are just dictionary lovers here!

 

[PollyannaMom]

The three that get used the most are DS's children's dictionary - for homework, my huge one from college if I need to look something up, and a pocket one next to the computer, because I'm a rotten speller and have never found spell-check on the DIS.

 

[RitaE]

One of those old fashioned paper things? nope. Haven't owned one for years, probably over a decade. Even the kids use portable electronic Dictionary/Thesaurus gadgets at school. They put them on the supply list in 5th grade and use them through High School. I remember reading a couple of months ago that Oxford is going to stop printing theirs soon.

My Kindle has an integrated Dictionary so when I read on that I can look up a word in seconds. Before Kindle I never bothered to look up words. I was a context gives the meaning reader.

 

[AristocatFan]

Of course! We keep a dictionary/thesaurus beside the computer. It gets used frequently for homework and reading. I work in an elementary school and it is frustrating to see so many of our 4-6th graders who can not use a dictionary. They would rather ask around than look it up for themselves.

 

[C.Ann]

I write for a living, so yes. It's right next to the Thesaurus.......and the phone book.

Yes, we have two. We have found during Scrabble matches that we often challenge the validity of a word from each other's dictionaries. LOL! I also have thesauri and a grammar handbook from college. However, I will write, rewrite, rewrite, and rewrite a sentence again and again before picking up the handbook.

I have one at home and one I keep at the office.

when I'm writing and a hard copy when I'm reading. One of my earliest favorite books was my Children's Dictionary, which I still have. (I bought them for my kids, too.) Over several weeks this spring I walked around with a dictionary while I was putting together the summer Scavenger Hunt for the Photography Board. I got some strange looks working on that during my son's ballgames, lol.

I have 2 here in my office at home - a smaller paperback and a larger hardbound, that has a companion thesaurus.

I've always looked up words in the dictionary as I'm going along (if possible - I read on the bus in the morning - don't always have a dictionary right at hand)

My job is editing, so I need to have one available all the time at work. I find that in general the online or electronic versions don't always have as much info as my big hard copy. My daughters are the same way, guess we are just dictionary lovers here!

The three that get used the most are DS's children's dictionary - for homework, my huge one from college if I need to look something up, and a pocket one next to the computer, because I'm a rotten speller and have never found spell-check on the DIS.

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Which does not always give you the correct spelling - nor a definition..

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Of course! We keep a dictionary/thesaurus beside the computer. It gets used frequently for homework and reading. I work in an elementary school and it is frustrating to see so many of our 4-6th graders who can not use a dictionary. They would rather ask around than look it up for themselves.

I have an ancient paper one

I read a book a week-mostly mysteries-never had to look up a word.

Well I can see where if you're only reading one book a week - a mystery - you likely wouldn't need a dictionary..

For those of us who read anything and everything we can get our hands on - from ingredients on food labels to philosophical books on a very large scale - a hard cover dictionary tends to come in handy..

 

[DVCLiz]

I have several paper dictionaries but I can't imagine actualll getting them down off the shelf and paging through when I have electronic versions that are so much more efficient. I wouldn't enjoy having a big paper dictionary taking up space next to my reading spot, and by the time I walked across the room to get it off the shelf I could use the computer that is right next to it.

Also, I have a Kindle and most of my reading is done on it - and, as others have said, the dictionary feature is one of the real pluses of this new technology!!!

 

[RitaE]

I have a son who takes one to two Philosophy classes a semester as part of his Poly Sci/Social Justice degree and he doesn't use a hardcover dictionary.

He uses his Kindle, iPAD and online resources.

I think these things are very much what you are used to using. He grew up in the electronic age as the child of two tech-heads.