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Dictionaries

If you only use dictionaries and thesauruses for their most basic puropses, they're pretty boring. A dictionary defines words you don't know, and a thesaurus suggests words similar in meaning or connotation so you don't have to keep using the same ones. But leaving it at that is like saying Mt. Everest is pretty big, or that the sun is quite warm.

Dictionaries and thesauruses teach us about words. They show us how to use words properly, they open new realms of knowledge to us (what field of study doesn't have its own jargon?), they help us avoid saying the wrong thing and assist us in understanding what other people are saying.

A good dictionary doesn't just include every possible definition of any given word, it tells you what part of speech that word is, how it can be used in a sentence, how it has been used by past authors, how to pronounce it, and even what language the word derived from. How are all these useful? They provide context, and the less context a word has, the less meaning it has.

One reason communication seems to have deteriorated over the last several years is that literacy and the desire for a large and flexible vocabulary have been replaced by merely functional and highly truncated forms of expression. Kids no longer call their parents on the phone to tell them they'll be late, they text "b l8. @ j's. k?" and expect that to suffice. Unfortunately, because they don't understand the signficance of words themselves, most parents let that slide, and eventually communicate the same way.

Why isn't that okay? Why don't we all just limit our speech as much as possible and strain out everything "unnecessary"? The most obvious answer is that eventually language will be so abbreviated as to communicate nothing. But the deeper answer is more fundamental and more important: while we might be able to express basic needs and facts with shortened, out-of-context words, we can't communicate ideas, feelings, or real meaning that way.

Part of the reason people don't seem to mind things moving in this direction is that ideas are no longer thought to be important, at least, not as important as filling appetites. As Christians, we rebel against this concept: God has revealed Himself to us through His Word, which contains ideas and propositional statements for us to accept and understand. To understand them, we must understand language, which is also a creation and blessing of God.

Tools like the ones you'll find here help ensure we'll never be reduced to mere grunts and coughs. A word of wisdom for young thesaurus users: make sure you understand what your replacement word means, and don't just pick entries at random to mix things up. But do use these resources, and learn to love the words God has given us and to use them to communicate His glory and His majesty to everyone.

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American Dictionary of the English Language
by Noah Webster
10th edition from Foundation for American Christian Education
for 7th-Adult
$59.50
American Heritage Children's Dictoinary
Updated from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-6th grade
$10.00 (1 in stock)
American Heritage Desk Dictionary
Fourth Edition from Houghton Mifflin
for 7th-Adult
$13.95
American Heritage Dictionary
by Houghton Mifflin Company
5th edition from Dell Publishing
for 7th-Adult
Children's Illustrated Dictionary
from Parragon Publishing
for 4th-7th grade
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Children's Illustrated Dictionary
for 1st-4th grade
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Christian Student Dictionary
by Various
from Bob Jones University Press
for 4th-6th grade
$10.00 (3 in stock)
DK Children's Illustrated Dictionary
by John McIlwain
from DK Publishing
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
$9.00 (2 in stock)
DK Ultimate Visual Dictionary 2000
for 4th-8th grade
$27.00 (1 in stock)
Dorling Kindersley Ultimate Visual Dictionary
from DK Publishing
for 4th-8th grade
$25.00 (2 in stock)
First Dictionary
from Bounty Books
for 1st-4th grade
$5.00 (2 in stock)
First Dictionary
from Golden Books
for 2nd-4th grade
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Kingfisher First Dictionary
by John Grisewood
from Kingfisher
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
11th edition from Merriam-Webster
for 9th-Adult
$6.50
Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms
from Merriam-Webster
for 9th-Adult
$4.99
Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
11th edition from Merriam-Webster
for 9th-Adult
$23.95
Merriam-Webster's Rhyming Dictionary
2nd edition from Merriam-Webster
for 9th-Adult
$15.95
My First Dictionary
by Betty Root
from DK Publishing
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
$8.00 (1 in stock)
My First Dictionary
by Susan A. Miller
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
$5.00 (1 in stock)
My Storybook Dictionary
from Grolier Publishing
for Kindergarten-2nd grade
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Noah Webster's 1828 Dictionary - CD-ROM
by Noah Webster
from Foundation for American Christian Education
for 9th-Adult
Rhyming Dictionary
by Sue Young
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Scholastic Children's Dictionary
from Scholastic Inc.
for 1st-5th grade
$10.00 (3 in stock)
Scholastic Children's Dictionary
by Scholastic
Revised from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
$18.99
Scholastic Children's Dictionary
by Scholastic Inc.
Revised from Scholastic Inc.
for 2nd-4th grade
$11.00 (1 in stock)
Scholastic Children's Thesaurus
by John Bollard
from Scholastic Inc.
for 3rd-6th grade
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Scholastic First Dictionary
by Judith Levey
from Scholastic Inc.
for Preschool- 3rd Grade
$7.50 (3 in stock)
Scholastic Pocket Dictionary
by Usborne
from Scholastic Inc.
for 4th-6th grade
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Scholastic Rhyming Dictionary
by Sue Young
from Scholastic Inc.
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Scholastic Visual Dictionary
by Ariane Archambault, Jean-Claude Corbeil
from Scholastic Inc.
for Preschool-3rd Grade
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Webster's Children's Visual Dictionary
from Publications International
for 4th-6th grade
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Webster's Dictionary of English Usage
from Merriam-Webster
for 9th-Adult
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Webster's Elementary Dictionary
from Merriam-Webster
for Kindergarten-6th grade
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Where Words Were Born
by Arkady Leokum, Paul Posnick & Stanley J. Corwin
from Corwin Books
for 7th-12th grade
$3.50 (1 in stock)
Words You Should Know
by David Olsen
from Adams Media Corp.
for 6th-10th grade
$9.95
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