Meaning of dictionaryese | Babel Free

Definitions

The style of language used in dictionary definitions, characterized by dry, straightforward, and occasionally awkward phrasing.

informal, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“For a concise dictionary the extent of the German vocabulary dealt with is commendable and fairly searching spot-checks in many fields have shown no serious gaps, but an English reviewer must be forgiven for commenting on the ‘dictionaryese’ of some of the English renderings.”

“'Cause to die' is immediately recognizable as dictionaryese, which is to say that dictionaries do not, in general, honor the condition that definitions must be couched in the syntax of surface English.”

“Such an approach has two immediate advantages: it disposes of the need to present what is not fact as fact; and it goes some way to seeing off the need to employ dictionaryese, the crabbed and clipped prose-style that, in many reference-books, only ossifies its subject-matter.”

“Oxford American’s usage notes are among the best I’ve found: clear, consistent, sensibly prescriptive, and up-to-date (it’s the only dictionary to acknowledge that “nonplussed” is frequently misused to mean “unperturbed”). Its rendering of slang into dictionaryese—“shake one's booty” is defined as “dance energetically”—is a thing of beauty.”

“If I were defining "hella" without using substitutability, I would probably come up with something long-winded and full of dictionaryese, like "to an excessive degree."”

“<https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sodomy> runs down to "Sexual intercourse that is not the union of the genital organs of a man and a woman", but in dictionaryese that /could/ mean one specific sexual intercourse that they're choosing not to describe.”

CEFR level