Bilingual dictionary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A bilingual dictionary is a dictionary that translates words or phrases from one language to another. Bilingual dictionaries can be either mono-directional, meaning it translates only from language A to language B, or can be bi-directional, translating to and from both languages. The bi-directional bilingual dictionary usually groups words of one language alphabetically, with corresponding translations, in one section of the dictionary, dedicating the other section to the other language.

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1 Challenges for the bilingual dictionary
2 Bilingual dictionary formats
3 Using a bilingual dictionary
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Challenges for the bilingual dictionary

Perhaps the most difficult aspect of creating a bilingual dictionary is the fact that lexemes or words cover more than one area of meaning, but these multiple meanings don't correspond to a single word in the target language. For example, in English, a ticket can get you into the movie theater, or can be given to you by a police officer for exceeding the posted speed limit. In Spanish these two meanings are not covered by one word as in English, but rather two different words: boleto and infracción.

[edit] Bilingual dictionary formats

Bilingual dictionaries are available in a number of formats

Printed dictionaries
Electronic dictionaries, including miniature scanners to read and translate text
Online dictionaries, often easy to search, not always free
Phrase books, not always considered dictionaries, but can serve the same purpose in a primitive fashion

[edit] Using a bilingual dictionary

One of the most important things to remember when using a bilingual dictionary is to always do a reverse lookup. In the above-mentioned example in English and Spanish of the word ticket, after finding that ticket is translated into boleto and infracción in the English-Spanish dictionary, it is advisable to look up both of those Spanish words in the Spanish-English section to help you identify which one has the meaning you are looking for.