Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank those authors and publishers who kindly gave permission for copyright material to be used in the Collins Corpus. We would also like to thank Times Newspapers Ltd for providing valuable data.

Contents

How do I use a Collins Kindle Dictionary?

Title page

Copyright

Guide to dictionary features

Word classes

Pronunciation

COBUILD Advanced Learner's Dictionary A-Z

About the Publisher

Guide to dictionary features

Several special features in this dictionary help you to build your vocabulary in interesting and effective ways. These features help you to see how vocabulary items are used in real texts, how words are built, which words commonly go together, and which words have similar meanings. They help you to avoid common mistakes and to understand more about how certain words came into the language and how they got their meaning. You can read about all these features in more detail below.

Synonyms are shown at key entries, each with a lively, up-to-date example, taken from the Collins Corpus. The example will give you a clear idea of the context in which that particular synonym typically appears in English. The numbers refer to the particular meaning within the main entry. To find out more about each synonym, go to that word in the dictionary. The synonyms feature allows you to browse the dictionary, expanding your vocabulary as you go.

Collocations panels show you which words are typically used together. For example, we might talk about ‘glorious weather’ or ‘lovely weather’, but if the noun we want to use is ‘experience’, we would be more likely to talk about a ‘memorable experience’ or a ‘rewarding experience’. The numbers refer to the particular meaning within the main entry. A knowledge of collocations will help you to sound natural and fluent when you are speaking and writing in English.

Usage notes give tips on avoiding common learner errors in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. These include uncountable nouns that learners often mistakenly use as if they were countable, typical preposition errors, and commonly confused words. Browse the dictionary for these invaluable notes and find out how to avoid all the most frequent mistakes in English.

Prefixes and suffixes are parts of words that help to give them their specific meaning. For example, words that start with the prefix poly- usually have ‘many’ as part of their meaning, and words that end in -ly are often adverbs that indicate how something is done. Knowing a range of prefixes and suffixes will help you to work out the meanings of words by yourself, without always having to look the word up.

Word histories tell you where certain words come from and how they have changed in meaning over the years. For example, did you know that the word ‘slogan’ comes from a Gaelic word meaning ‘war cry’? Or that the word ‘hippopotamus’ comes from the Greek for ‘river horse’? Finding out the history of a word can be fascinating and sometimes surprising, and the images and ideas formed in our minds can help us to remember the word we have learnt about.

Word classes

ADJ

An adjective can be in the comparative or the superlative form.

ADV

An adverb can be in the comparative or the superlative form.

AUX

An auxiliary verb is used with another verb to add particular meanings to that verb, for example, to form the continuous aspect or the passive voice, or to form negatives and interrogatives. The verbs be, do, get, and have have some senses in which they are auxiliary verbs.

COLOUR

A colour word refers to a colour. It is like an adjective, e.g. The sky was blue, and also like a noun, e.g. She was dressed in red .

COMB