1. Unit I: Writing Mechanics How to Use Your Dictionary

2. History of Dictionary ► First dictionaries were created by ancient Greeks and Chinese ~300-500 years B.C. ► First English dictionary written in 18. th century. Webster’s Dictionary created in early 1800s

3. The features of a Dictionary ► Dictionary lists certain traits of a word including: ► Definitions – what the word means. ► Spelling and alternate spellings. ► Pronunciation of the word. ► Etymology of the word – what the roots of the word are. ► Prefixes and suffixes that go with the word.

4. Sample Definition ► na·tion [ney-shuhn] –noun ► 1. a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own: The president spoke to the nation about the new tax. 2. the territory or country itself: the nations of Central America. 3.a member tribe of an American Indian confederation. 4.an aggregation of persons of the same ethnic family, often speaking the same language or cognate languages.

5. ► The splitting of the word nation into na-tion identifies the separate syllables of the word. ► ney-shuhn tells the reader how the word is pronounced. To understand how this works, you should find the dictionary’s pronunciation key. The fact that ney is in bold indicates that this syllable is stressed. ► Finally, the word is categorized into noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.