Collins Dictionaries - Collins Primary Illustrated Dictionary

Copyright

Published by Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

Westerhill Road

Bishopbriggs

Glasgow G64 2QT

Second Edition 2015

© HarperCollins Publishers 2010, 2015

eBook Edition © March 2015 ISBN 978-0-00-758365-2

Version: 2015-01-27

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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

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Using this dictionary

Dictionary A-Z

Aa

Bb

Cc

Dd

Ee

Ff

Gg

Hh

Ii

Jj

Kk

Ll

Mm

Nn

Oo

Pp

Qq

Rr

Ss

Tt

Uu

Vv

Ww

Xx

Yy

Zz

Word Wizard

2D shapes

3D shapes and angles

Numbers and fractions

Time

Parts of speech

Prepositions

Prefixes

Suffixes

Where words come from

Tips for tricky words

Punctuation

The Earth and Space

The Solar System

The Earth

The Moon

Continents

Mountains, rivers, and oceans

Flags of the world

Index

Picture credits

About the Publisher

Using this dictionary

A dictionary helps you to find out what a word means and how to spell it correctly. The words in a dictionary are arranged in alphabetical order.

How to find a word

Think of the first letter in the word you want to look up. Once you know this, there is more than one way to find your word in the dictionary:

• You can use the Indexat the back of the ebook which lists all of the dictionary words in alphabetical order. Scroll through the Index until you find the letter your word begins with, then look down the words until you find the one you are looking for. You can then follow the link to the entry in the dictionary.

• You can use the Contentspage at the front of the book, which has a link to every letter in the dictionary. Follow the link to the letter your word begins with, then look through the entries in this letter until you find the word you are looking for.

Finding your way around the dictionary

1. The headword is the word you are looking up.

2. After the headword there can be other forms of the word, such as plural nouns, verb tenses, and comparative and superlative adjectives.

3. The part of speech tells you what type of word the headword is, such as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, or pronoun.

4. The definition tells you what the word means.

5. If the headword has more than one meaning, each meaning has a different number.

6. Sometimes there is an example to show how the word is used.

7. A pronunciation shows you how to say a difficult word.

8. A word history tells you where a word originally came from.

9. Some entries have a related word, such as a noun, adjective, or adverb made from the headword.

10. Synonyms, or words that you can use instead, are given for some words.

11. Antonyms, or words that have the opposite meaning, are given for some words.

Other features of this dictionary

• Some headwords can be spelt in more than one way.

medieval; also spelt mediaeval

age ages, ageing or aging, aged

• Sometimes definitions include a label, such as FORMAL, INFORMAL, or TRADEMARK. This tells you a little more about the word or how it is used.

mum mums

NOUN INFORMAL mother

• Sometimes a photo or an illustration is included.

mollusc molluscs

NOUN an animal with a soft body and no backbone. Snails, slugs, clams and mussels are all molluscs.

• Grammar and spelling tips provide extra information on the spelling or use of words.

different

ADJECTIVE If one thing is different from another, it is not like it.

There are two es in different.

• Some definitions tell you where to find more information at another headword.

convex

ADJECTIVE A convex surface bulges outwards, rather than being level or curving inwards.

See concave

ANTONYM: concave

Extra help for you

Word Wizardis a special section after the A-Z to help you with your writing. It contains information on things like parts of speech, prefixes, suffixes, and punctuation. It also tells you how you can improve your spelling. There are interesting facts about where some words come from. It even has information on shapes, numbers, fractions, and angles, along with pictures.

The Earth and Spaceis a fact-filled section with colourful pictures. This is where to look if you want to know more about the Solar System, the Earth, the Moon, the continents, and the world’s mountains, rivers, and oceans. There are also pages showing you the flags of some of the nations of the world.

Aa

a an

ADJECTIVE A and an are used when you talk about one of something. A is used when the next sound is a consonant: a car, a dog. An is used when the next sound is a vowel (a, e, i, o or u): an apple, an elephant.

abacus abacuses

NOUN a frame with beads that slide along rods, used for counting

[from Greek abax meaning board covered with sand for doing sums on]

abandon abandons, abandoning, abandoned

VERB If you abandon someone or something, you leave them or give them up for good. • He abandoned all hope of catching the train on time.