How to Choose a Dictionary

General Comments

Many students have asked me to recommend a good dictionary for them. This is hard for me to do because there is no one 'best' dictionary for everyone. Which dictionary is best for you depends on your level of English ability and what you will be using the dictionary for. Will you use your dictionary mainly to look up words in reading assignments? Will you use it when you are watching American movies or listening to the radio? Will you use it to look up word in class? Will you be writing a lot in English? The type of dictionary you choose will depend in part your answers to these questions.

Almost all students, of course, will want to have good Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionaries to use at home. If you will be reading and writing at an advanced level, you will also want one or two English-English dictionaries. For understanding the words in movies or songs, a slang dictionary might be useful.

These days, electronic dictionaries are getting better and better. They are very light and easy-to-carry (so can carry it to class, use it on the train, and take it with you when you travel), and current models often have several different dictionaries and reference books all in one machine. For example, I have been using the e-dictionary by Sharp which includes a Japanese-Japanese dictionary (ŤLŽ«‰‘), an English-Japanese dictionary, a Japanese-English dictionary, an English-English dictionary (Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictioanary), a kanji dictionary, and more, all in one small machine.

After you've thought about how you will be using a dictionary you need to start thinking about what kinds of words you usually need to look up. I suggest this technique:

  1. For one or two weeks, keep a list of the English words you encounter that you would like to look up in a dictionary. The list could include new words or words that you know but don't understand well.

  2. Take this list with you to a large bookstore which has foreign books, such as Books Kinokuniya. If you are thinking of an electronic dictionary, go to a store like Bic Camera or Yodobashi Camera, where you can try many different models.Some dictionaries are also available on-line; you can look up definitions from the dictionary web site before going to the store.

  3. Look up the same few words in several different dictionaries and compare what you find. Which dictionaries have the words you want to know? Can you understand the definitions? What kind of additional information (in addition to meanings) are listed in the dictionary? You may need to look at many dictionaries to find the one that is best for you.