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Q. Why do some words in the dictionary appear in red?
The item that appears in red text in a dictionary entry matches the form of a word you have searched for. If that word is the headword, then that will be in red. For example, if you search on the term ‘eye’ then the headword ‘eye’ will appear in red. The left-hand section lists entries … Read more
Help
Searching: Select Dictionary or Thesaurus by clicking the appropriate button.Enter the word you are looking for in the box above.Click the “Go” button or press the “Enter” key. A screen will appear giving the complete entry for the top hit, along with the number of other hits and a link to a listing of all … Read more
Grammar Guide
Grammar guide abbreviations abbreviations 1. An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word which stands for the whole word. Av Avenue A contraction is a special kind of abbreviation which starts and ends with the same letters as the full word. Ave Avenue 2. punctuation of abbreviations Rules for punctuating abbreviations have varied over … Read more
Terms And Conditions
Terms and conditions Thank you for visiting our website. These Terms and Conditions (‘Terms’) apply to your use of this website and any and all other websites operated by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd (ACN 001 184 014) (‘Macmillan’) (including its divisions and related bodies and any subsidiary or entity or imprint controlling or controlled … Read more
mondegreen
a word or phrase which results from a mishearing or misinterpretation of the original words, especially in song lyrics, as Australians all eat ostriches from Australians all let us rejoice, the first line of the national anthem.
Word of the Year category insight | Environment
There are a 15 categories in the Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year competition (you can check the full list of words here). Each category consists of five words, with the winner of each category forming part of our shortlist and going in to the running for Word of the Year. In light of the pandemic, … Read more
The Macquarie Dictionary COVID Word of the Year shortlist
The Macquarie Dictionary COVID Word of the Year is rona. The word was chosen from a list of 20 COVID-related words. You can see the shortlist below. Though there are 15 categories in this year’s Macquarie Dictionary Word of the Year, we decided to create a special COVID category to isolate the huge number of … Read more
Data – singular or plural?
A recent poll in the UK found that 74% of respondents treat the word ‘data’ as a singular collective nouns, compared to 14% that treat it as plural. The results of this poll were published on Twitter and sparked some mild outrage about the degradation of the English language. The word data comes to us from classical … Read more
Foreign affairs: bruschetta, lingerie and other words from abroad
Did you know that forte, as in ‘His forte is portrait photography’, which we pronounce ‘faw-tay in Australian English, is actually pronounced like ‘fort’ in French, with a silent ‘e’? Or that the sch in bruschetta is pronounced ‘sk’ rather than ‘sh’ in Italian, so ‘broos’ketuh’ rather than ‘broo’shetuh’? Similarly, you might think that the … Read more