Properties of a good dictionary to be easily accessible

What is it about?

Since their very beginnings, dictionaries have arranged the information they contain into relatively short units under headwords. In the printed tradition, the entries are ordered alphabetically. Alphabetical order, which is known to all users and allows rapid retrieval of the information, has been used so frequently in these works that it has even become part of their definition. However, some dictionaries present information according to theme or subject. The advent of informatics represented a huge step forward in the creation of dictionaries, improving their internal consistency and multiplying the possibilities for retrieving information through dynamic searches. In electronic dictionaries, each entry constitutes a database record structured in various fields. In this case, rapid access to the information depends on the possibilities for consultation offered by the database’s own search engine and the possibilities for displaying the responses. Apart from simple consultations, electronic tools can allow the users to exploit the results to suit their own purposes, like the Enclave RAE platform of the Royal Spanish Academy. We also mention the lexicographic applications of generic Internet search engines and mobile devices.

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Photo by Pisit Heng on Unsplash

Photo by Pisit Heng on Unsplash