main entry word
- noun
- Jargon
:
entrada principal
- In a study by Anglin (1993), interviews were conducted in which children in Grades 1, 3, and 5 gave verbal definitions for preselected main-entry words from an unabridged dictionary.
Examples
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When using a dictionary, the main entry word is always listed at the top of the page.
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The teacher asked the students to find the main entry word in the dictionary to illustrate their definitions.
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To understand the meaning of a term, start by identifying the main entry word associated with it.
Synonyms
1
7.5
The basic form of a word that a dictionary lists
The main word shown as the heading in a dictionary
The main word at the start of a dictionary entry or phrase shown in bold
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'the form of a word that appears as the heading in a dictionary entry' is directly and compositionally built from 'main' (primary) + 'entry' (a recorded item, here a dictionary entry) + 'word' (linguistic unit), so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it denotes the primary word used as the dictionary heading. This construction is compositional and cross-linguistically transparent (similar labels exist in other languages), so it should be understandable to a B1 learner despite being somewhat technical.
Etymology
The phrase main entry word comes from dictionaries: the main form of a word is printed as the entry at the top of the page so people can find it quickly. That's why it means 'the heading word' used to list and organize a word in a dictionary.