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Explanatory Notes Summary

Entries
Main entries consist of letters set solid, joined by a hyphen or separated by one or more spaces. Lightface shows present information about the main entry. Main entries follow one another in alphabetical order by letter. The ones that are accompanied by Arabic numbers are alphabetized as if the numeral were spelled out. Guide words (two) are printed in thetop of the page to indicate the entries falling alphabetically between the words at the top of the outer column, but the last printed entry is not always the last entry.
When the main entry has exactly the same written form as another, there should be distinguished by superscript numerals preceding each word. Solid compounds come before hyphenated compounds, hyphenated compounds come before opencompounds, and lowercase entries come before those with an initial capital. Centered dots within entry indicate division point at which a hyphen may be put at the end of a line of print or writing.
A double hyphen at the end of a line in this dictionary stands for a hyphen that is retained when the word is written as a unit on one line. When a main entry is followed by the word or anotherspelling, the two spellings are equal variants. If two variants joined by or are out of alphabetical order, they remain equal variants. The one printed first is, however, slightly more common than the second.
When another spelling is joined to the main entry by the word also, the spelling after also is a secondary variant and occurs less frequently than the first. The secondary variants belong tostandard usage and may be used according to personal inclination. When a compound is widely used and one styling predominated, that styling is down; when a compound is uncommon the styling shown is based on the comparison of other similar compounds. Boldface words that appear within parenthesis are run-in entries.

Pronunciation
Virgules after words entries indicate the pronunciation. A hyphen isused in the pronunciation to show syllabic division. A high-set mark indicates major accent and a low-set mark minor accent. The accent mark stands at the beginning of the syllable that receives the accent. Symbols between parentheses guide us to the different pronunciation of some speakers or elements that are present or absent in some speakers. When a main entry has less than a fullpronunciation, the missing part should be supplies from a pronunciation in a preceding entry.

Functional Labels
Italic label indicates parts of speech or another functional classification follows the pronunciation or, the main entry. The eight traditional parts of speech are indicated as: adjective, adverb, conjunction, interjection, noun, preposition, pronoun, and verb; sometimes they could be combined.Inflected Forms
Nouns
Shown in the dictionary when the noun ends in a consonant plus –o or in –ey, when it ends in –oo, when it has an irregular plural or a zero plural or a foreign plural, when the noun is compound that pluralizes any element but the last, when a final consonant is doubled, when the noun has variant plural, and when it is believed that the dictionary user might havereasonable doubts about spelling. Cutback inflected forms are used when the noun has three or more syllables. Nouns in plural are labeled as n pl.
Verbs
Suffixation brings about a doubling of a final consonant or an elision of a final –e or a change of final –y to –i, when: final –c changes to –ck, verb ends in –ey, inflection is irregular, there are variant inflected forms. Inflected forms ofEnglish verbs is the third person singular of present tense.
Adjectives & Adverbs
Also, Suffixation brings about a doubling of a final consonant or an elision of a final –e or a change of final –y to –i, when the inflection is irregular and when there are variant inflected forms. The superlative forms of adjectives and adverbs of two or more syllables are usually cut back. The inclusion of...