新世纪学生英语词典

前
言      前
言 Preface to the first edition
This dictionary aims to provide a modern vocabulary of British, American andInternational English for the student.
The vocabulary of over 25,000 words and phrases has been selected firstlyaccording to various word frequency counts available both in Europe and in theUSA, then by looking at the various syllabuses for national examinations. Thewords and phrases have then been supplemented with a wider selection of morespecialized words and phrases such as greenhouse gases, peace process, searchand replace which are very common in current English usage.
Each word, even derived words such as adverbs, is clearly defined, and we havealso given examples of each word and phrase in simple illustrative contexts, so asto show how the words can be used in practice.
Because the dictionary is aimed at a wide spectrum of students, especially olderstudents, we have included over 300 encyclopaedic comments on cultural andhistorical matters Pancake Day, weddings, Estuary English, Guy Fawkes, MagnaCarta, Stonehenge, and so on and on more technical subjects search engines, theperiodic table, the Intemet, the metric system, etc. which may be of interest.
Some words in the dictionary are trademarks, and these have been indicated assuch.
Layout of the dictionary
We have tried to lay the dictionary out as clearly as possible, in order to make it aseasy as possible for the student to use.
Each entry begins with a main word, followed by the pronunciation in internationalphonetic symbols; this is followed by the part of speech. Entries where the sameword occurs as two or more different parts of speech are split by numbers. Withineach entry, major differences of meaning are highlighted by letter divisions.
The meanings of the words are written as simply as possible, using only a smalldefining vocabulary, supplemented as necessary by other words which appear inthe dictionary. For most words we give examples of usage, and for the commonestwords we give very many examples, all set in contexts which are easy tounderstand. Common idiomatic expressions and collocations are highlighted,explained, and examples are given for them also.
Throughout the book, usage notes beginning with the word NOTE: give irregularforms, British vs American usage, constructions, registers, derived words, wordswhich can be confused, etc. These notes are also used to give information about thecountries of the world which appear as entries.
Some words have fuller encyclopaedic comments in boxes, and these give moreinformation than can be given within a simple definition.
Phonetics
The following symbols have been used to show the pronunciation of the mainwords in the dictionary.
Stress has been indicated by a main stress mark '' , but these are only guides asthe stress of the word may change according to its position in the sentence.