unabridged dictionary
- noun
- /ˌʌnəˈbrɪdʒd ˈdɪkʃəˌnɛri/
:
diccionario íntegro
- For accurate definitions and usage examples, always refer to an unabridged dictionary instead of just a thesaurus.
Examples
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Definitions of these three synonyms, as rendered in Webster's unabridged dictionary, provide a starting point for discussion.
Academic text (1990) -
The old conception of the library, with its mammoth, unabridged dictionary, ordered sets of reference books, and collections of bounded materials, has become a relic.
Academic text (2012) -
Remember that this is still far less than the one million words included in an English-language unabridged dictionary.
Academic text (2014) -
The list is far from exhaustive, and you should have no difficulty coming up with an additional list of traits (for help, see any unabridged dictionary).
Academic text (1999) -
Last year at one of my junior high schools, it was an unabridged dictionary that defined the F word (hey, my students know how to find words in a print dictionary, not just on Dictionary.com—I was impressed).
Academic text (2015) -
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.
Academic text (2012) -
But with more than 300,000 words at your disposal in any unabridged dictionary, it did not seem necessary for you, to permit your characters the use of expressions that were frequently inelegant, often profane, and unless I misinterpreted their meaning, occasionally improper.
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You can find the meaning of complex words in an unabridged dictionary that offers detailed definitions.
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Whenever I encounter an unfamiliar term, I consult my unabridged dictionary for the complete definition.
Antonyms
How Comprehensive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'unabridged' means 'not shortened' and 'dictionary' is a book of word entries, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer it refers to a complete, comprehensive dictionary. This follows normal English adjectival modification and is cross-linguistically transparent, so the overall sense is predictable from the parts.
Etymology
Unabridged dictionary comes from the word abridge, which means 'to make shorter', and adding un- makes it 'not shortened'. Think of a big, heavy book that keeps every word instead of a small pocket book, so unabridged dictionary means a 'full' or complete dictionary.