Question

Advantages of dictionary

Answer 1

The point of dictionaries is to record how words are used in a specific area and specific time. There is a common confusion where people think that dictionaties give words their meaning, but that is definitely false.

Dictionaries simply describe how people use words. For this reason, you will often get notes of how different dialects use the word, or if there are multiple ways a word is used.

Dictionaries are useful because (1) if they are up-to-date they can help us understand what someone might mean when they use a particular word, or (2) they help scholars understand how a word used to be used if the dictionary is regarding word usage of an earlier place, language or time.

Ultimately, words get their meaning from their context: the words around them, how someone says the word, and similar factors. So, dictionaries are limited because they only give the common use of words and cannot consider all the possible ways people use words.