Special Dictionaries
Special dictionaries are grouped into four major groups. They are dictionaries dealing with:
- Linguistic aspects of words
- Special class of words
- Literary aspects of words
- Words meant for particular type of persons
- Special dictionaries dealing with the special aspects of the language help to check pronunciation, meaning, spellings, usage and etymology of words. They are useful in finding synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms.
- Special dictionaries covering a special class of words are helpful in locating full forms of abbreviations and acronyms and meanings of signs and symbols. They cover slang, obsolete and dialect words which are usually not included in the general dictionaries. They specially deal with new, coined, or borrowed words, curious, difficult, and troublesome words. They also cover names, nicknames and surnames of people and place name of particular countries.
- Special dictionaries dealing with the literary aspects of the language aid in finding suitable proverbs, idioms, quotations, phases, foreign terms etc. They also cover words used by particular author or in a particular work.
- Some dictionaries are compiled with specialised approach to include words meant for specific type of persons. For instance, rhyming dictionaries and gradus are meant for poets. Dictionaries of folktales and nursery rhymes are meant for small children and parents and teachers teaching in nursery and primary schools.
Dictionaries of crossword puzzles and anagrams are useful aids for enthusiasts of crossword puzzles