Table Of ContentLongman
DICTIONARY
OF AMERICAN
ENGLISH
XVCflv color dlu&tratlony
Boston Public Library
MA
Boston, 02116*
Pronunciation Table
Vowels
Symbol Keyword Itl means that /t/ may be dropped
Idl means that /d/ may be dropped
i beat, feed /'/ shows main stress
i bit, did /,/ shows secondary stress
ei date, paid /</ shows stress shift
£ bet, bed
ae bat, bad
a box, odd, father American English Sounds
3 bought, dog
ou boat, road
u book, good It/, IVI, Idl, Itl, Idl, and /nJ7
u boot, food, student
A but, mud, mother ItlThe Itl in tapor satis a voiceless sound.
3 banana, among ManyAmericans, however, use a voiced sound
2f shirt, murder like a quickIdlforthe tin words like latter,
ai bite, cry, buy, eye partyand little. The tin these words, shown in
au about, how this dictionary as It/, sounds like the din
DI voice, boy ladder, hardyand middle. This sound usually
ir beer occurs between vowels (especially before an
er bare
unstressed vowel], between rand a vowel, or
ar bar
3r door before a syllabic III.
ur tour
/t~yThis symbol means that many speakers
Consonants pronounce a glottalstop in place of ortogeth-
Symbol Keyword erwith Itl. A glottal stop is the sound in the
middle ofthe expression uh oh. For example,
P pack, happy in the words button /'bAtnn/ and football
b back, rubber /'futnbol/, the tdoes not sound the same as
t tie in the word tonIXatiI; it sounds more like a
d die short period of silence. The glottal stop usually
k came, key, quick occurs before a syllabic /n/ or a consonant
, 9 game, guest that beginsthe next syllable.
tj church, nature, watch
d3 judge, general, major Itl and IdlThese symbols mean thatthese
f fan, photograph consonants may be either pronounced or left
V van
e thing, breath out. For example, the tin restless/'resflis/
d then, breathe and the din grandfather /'graend.faoV/ are
zs zsiipp,, pcilteya,spe,sygchooelsogy eusvueanlltyhdoruogphpietdisinconnosrimdaelrecdonmnoercetecdorsrpeecetchin,
J ship, machine, slow, careful spe^ed^I I*U uriJHU'uncethe tand d
station, special, in these words.
discussion
3 measure, vision /nJ7 Many speniuj pi'unuuiiLLjhe sequence
h hot, who /nJ7 as /ntJV. For exampje^ttention
m men, some /a'tenjan/, conscjetf^Jwrri^s/ may also be
n sun, know, pronounced asTaTxntfan/, /'kantfas/. Only
pneumonia the pronunciation with Injl is shown.
sung, ringing
w
wet, white
1 light, long
r right, wrong
y yes, use, music
t butter, bottle
r
button
man
Long
tvKO'
'S
DICTIONARY
OF AMERICAN
ENGLISH
Acknowledgments
Pearson Education Limited
Edinburgh Gate Director
Harlow Delia Summers
EssexCM20 2JE, England UK
and associated companiesthroughouttheworld EditorialDirector
Adam Gadsby
Visitourwebsite:
http://www.longman.com/dictionaries Publisher
Laurence Delacroix
©Pearson Education Limited 1999
SeniorEditor
All rights reserved; no partofthis publication may Ruth Urbom
be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in anyform or byanymeans, elec- Production Editor
tronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or Peter Braaksma
otherwise, withoutthe prior permission ofthe
Publishers. PronunciationEditor
Rebecca Dauer
Firstedition 1999
Design
009 010008 Clive Russell
and
ISBN 0582 33251 6 (Paperbackedition) Simon Cuerdon
ISBN 0582 77643 (Cased edition)
Production
Setin Eurostile byThe Pen & InkBookCompany, Clive McKeough
Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
Illustrators
Printed in China Chris Simpson
EPC Fiona MacVicar
EditorialAssistants
Susan Braund
Pauline Savill
Contents
Page
Pronunciation Table inside front cover
What your dictionary tells you iv
How to find the word you need vi
in your dictionary
The dictionary A-Z 1-357
Color illustrations:
animals 183
sports 184
hobbies and games 185
the house 186
transportation 187
camping 188
verbs of movement 189
clothes 190
describing people 191
space 192
the shopping mall 193
prepositions 194
Irregular verbs 358
The Longman Defining Vocabulary 361
American names inside back cover
-
What your dictionary tells you
settle /'setl/ verb(settling, settled)
1 to begin to live in a new place: Myson set-
tledin LosAngeles.
different meanings toend an argumentbyagreeingto dosome-
ofthe word thing: We settled our disagreement without a
fight. The meaning ofthe
to rest on something in a comfortable posi- word is explained using
tion: /settledback on the chairandrelaxed. simple words. Anydif-
4 settle a bill to pay the money that you owe ficultwords are written
definition for something in SMALLCAPITAL LETTERS
5 settle down to become calmer and less and you will always find
phrasal verbs- noisy: Ittookthechildrenawhiletosettledown. them in the dictionary
6 settle in to become happier in a new place The examples show
orjob: Howareyousettlingin attheschool? you howto use the
7 settle for something to accept something word.
that is lessthan whatyou wanted: Mostofthe
example- ticketsweregone, so wehadtosettleforwhat
we couldget.
spelling_ settlement /'setlmant/noun~< part of speech
an official decision or agreement that ends an
argument: The two sides have reached a set-
fish1 and fish2 are, tlement. [=made an agreement)
separate even fish' mFpnoun
though they have the [pluralfish orfishes)
same spelling because an animal that lives
one is a noun and the i\ water and can
swW
other is a verb. Look andwhichpeo-
atWhich word? on ple ea£asfood
page vii. fish2 verb pictures with labels
for clarity
1 to try to catch a
fish
difficult pasttense'S* freeze /friz/ verb(freezing, froze, past^- This is shown when a
participlefrozen) verb does not add -ed
1 to become very cold and change from a liq- to form the pasttense.
uid into a solid: Waterfreezes to becomeice.
difficultcomparatives ~TiLLiy*iless, leasts This is shown when the
and superlatives comparative and
1 only a small amount of something: She eats superlative is not
very little. \ I have very little money at the formed with -er and
moment.
-est.
wom-an /'woman/noun[pluralwomen
difficult plurals- /'wimm/J This is shown when a
an adultfemale person »compare MAN noun does not add -s
nouns with no plural. traf-fic /'traefik/noun [U] to form the plural.
1 the cans and people moving on a" The dictionarytells you
road: The citystreets are fulloftraffic. when a noun is
split1 /spilt/ verb(splitting, pasttensesplit, uncountable. They are
pastparticiplesplit) not used with a oran.
2 [alsosplitup)todivide something into parts:
We splitthe njoruy.between^f. .You can find informa-
tion aboutwhich prepo-
prepositions sitionsto use with a
word.
happen
/'haepan/ verb
1 to start or continue, usually without being
planned: The accident, happened outside my
house.
2 happento dosomething todo something by
chance: Ifyou happen to see Susan, give her
this message.
notes- noOtTEp:lanIfneadn:eTvheentexopclcousriosnohraphpapepneendsF,riidtaiys Thhelepreyoauretonoutseesatoword
without making
evening. If an event takes place, it is the
result of a plan or arrangement: The mistakes.
weddingwilltakeplaceonJune 6th.
happen
inj Ihaepsnin,/ noun
an e\
pronunciation. hap'pi'l^/'haepali/ adverb
irra4ta|iQyway: Theywere laughinghappily.
happiness Sometimes it is useful
/'haepinis/ noun[U] or interesting to know
the state of being happy or pleased: Tht about anotherword
hadyears ofhappiness together. which is like the word
happy /'haepi/ adjective(happi^ happiest] you are looking at, or
information about, 1 feelin»g ovpeproysiptleeasUeNdH:AP/PaYmJyappyto see you tsioteknofowawwhoartdtihs.e oppo-
otherwords 2 Happy Birthday!, Happy New Year! said to You can find this infor-
someonetowish him orhergood luckon aspe- mation in your dictio-
cial occasion ch.i.p nary.
ch,i.pped,cups
pictures.
.There are pictures to
help you understand
the meanings of
words.
Remember, there are
also 12 color pictures
in your dictionarywhich
help you understand
lots ofwords.
potato chips computerchip
chip1 /tj'ip/ noun
1 asmallspaceorcrackwherea pieceismiss-
ing from something: Mycup hasa chip init.
2 a verysmall piece ofmetal or plastic used in
computers to store information and make the
computerwork
Now look atthe next page for more information on howto use your dictionary.
How to find the word you
need in your dictionary
This isthe English alphabet: The word afternoon comes before the word
alphabet in the dictionary. These words both
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz begin with the letter a, so you must look atthe
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUV second letters(fand I)to seewhich one comes
WXYZ first.
The following words all begin with the same
A isthe first letter in the alphabet and Z isthe letters. Put them in alphabetical order and
last. then look to see ifyour answers are correct.
Look atthe letters belowand putthem inthe fire
correct order. firedepartment
firefighter
ODJBQRZTNA
A fireworks
fireengine,
Now look atthe alphabet above to see if you furepUuce
have the right answers.
Inadictionary, thewordsare inthesame order fire
as the letters of the alphabet (this is called
alphabetical order), so thatwords which start
with a areatthe beginning ofthedictionaryand
words which startwith z are atthe end.
Look at these words and then put them in
alphabetical order.
In this dictionary, fire engine and fire depart-
alphabet teacher mentare in alphabetical orderinthe sameway
aunt orange asiftheywereoneword instead oftwo, sothat
afternoon- computer fire department comes before fire engine
dog schooL because d comes before e in the alphabet.
music yellow You can find phrasalverbs such as pick up and
sitdown by looking atthe mainverb (pick up is
at pick, sit down is atsit).
afternoon, Ifyou wantto find an idiom or an expression in
thisdictionary, lookatthe mostimportantword
ofthe idiom ( = a word which is NOT a, the, to
etc.). For example, tofindthe idiom give some-
one a hand, look at hand.
Where would you look to find these
expressions?
Now look inthe main partofthe dictionaryto
see ifyou have the right answers. just a minute
behind someone's back
take yourtime
Look in the dictionaryto find the answers.
