Getting Started FAQ: Basic User Instructions
Dictionary & Thesaurus Search Options
Search
Fields
Each type of information in the
dictionary or thesaurus (e.g., definition, pronunciation,
etymology, synonyms list) is displayed in its own field. The
table below describes the fields in the dictionary and thesaurus
and identifies the information you can search for in each field.
Search Fields |
|
| Use this field: | If you want to look up |
| Entry Word/Main Entry | A word or phrase. |
| Crosswords | Words where you know some letters, but not others. |
| Jumble | Words that can be made if you unscramble a group of letters (if you use each letter only once). |
| Cryptogram | Cryptograms or coded words. |
| Letter Bank | Words that can be created from a group of letters (if you can use each letter more than once). |
| Rhyme | Rhyming words. |
| Homophone | Words that sound alike, but are spelled differently. |
| Phonetic Jumble | Words containing the same sounds in different order. |
| Function | Words with a certain function (e.g., trademark) or part of speech. |
| Usage | Words with special usage (e.g., slang), words from the English of a particular region (e.g., Scottish), or words with special uses in a particular field (e.g., law). |
| Etymology | Words that derive from a given language or root. |
| Date | Words first recorded in English in a given year or century. |
| Defining Text/Text | All definitions containing a given word or words. |
| Verbal Illustration | Examples of a word used in context. |
| Authors Quoted | Quotes by a specific author. |
| Synonymy Paragraph | Paragraphs describing differences among synonyms. |
| Usage Paragraph | Paragraphs explaining word usage. |
See Dictionary & Thesaurus Search Options for more details on each of the search options in the table.
Program
Commands
The following table gives an overview
of the program commands for the dictionary and thesaurus.
If you want to: |
Use this command: |
| Clear the search form | Click on the on-screen Clear button |
| Move cursor to the next field | Press TAB or click in new field |
| Move cursor to the previous field | SHIFT+TAB or click in new field |
| Start a search | Click on the on-screen Search button |
| Look up a word in the Results List | Single-click on the word, then click on the on-screen Go To button |
| Look at an illustration or table | Single-click on the highlighted link at the end of the related entry |
| Print an entry | Use the browser’s Print function |
| Copy text | Use the browser’s Copy function |
Getting Started FAQ: Basic User Instructions
How do I
look up a word?
To look up a word:
How can I
look up a word if I don’t know how to spell it?
If you misspell the word you are trying
to look up, the program will automatically display a list of
words that sound like or that are spelled similarly to the word
you typed. If you see your word in the list of suggestions,
simply highlight it and click on Go To to see its entry.
TIP: If you aren’t sure how to spell a word, try spelling it the way it sounds. The spelling help feature will looks for words that sound like one you have typed.
What are
fields and how can I use them?
Fields are the rectangular boxes you
see on the screen. Each distinct kind of information in the
dictionary or thesaurus (e.g., definition, pronunciation,
etymology, synonyms list) is displayed in its own field, and each
field (except the last one, which displays the definition or list
of synonyms) is labeled. You use fields to search for words or
phrases in the dictionary or thesaurus.
The Search Fields Table in the Quick Reference Tables section of this guide gives a brief overview of all of the search fields and what they are used for.
Follow these steps to look up a word or phrase in any field of the dictionary or thesaurus.
Examples to try:
What is
the Results List and how can I use it?
After you look up a word, you see a
dictionary entry and, in many cases, a Results List. The Results
List shows all the entries containing the word, phrase, or
date you searched for. If you want to see the entry for any word
in the Results List, follow these steps.
The words in the Results List are generally in alphabetical order, with homographs for the word listed first, followed by compounds containing the word. If you search for a term that is also a proper name , place name, or abbreviation, the Results List will show those terms after the general vocabulary words.
The complete entry for the first word in the Results List is automatically displayed.
Homographs. Homographs are words that are spelled the same but that are entered separately in the dictionary because they differ in pronunciation, derivation, or part of speech. For more information about homographs, see the Explanatory Notes for the Dictionary.
If more than one homograph exists for a word you look up, the program will list each homograph in the Results List, with the part of speech of each homograph shown in brackets next to the word.
How
many illustrations and tables are in the dictionary?
The Network Dictionary includes
1,000 full-color illustrations and 25 tables. If an entry has an
illustration or table, a hypertext link to it will appear at the
end of the entry. To see the illustration or table, click on the
link. Use the browser’s Back feature to return to the
entry.
How
do I clear the search screen?
You can clear all fields in the search
form by clicking on the Clear button.
How do
I start a new search?
After you have looked up a word, you
can quickly return to the search screen by clicking on New
Search. This will automatically clear the search form.
What is M-W Link(TM) and how do I use it?
What is M-W Link™?
M-W Link is a simple but powerful
application that connects Merriam-Webster’s fine products to
your computer system. With M-W Link "shortcuts" in place, you have immediate access to these
references from your other Windows and Macintosh programs. The
link must be installed and running on your computer (not the
server) to work. See your system administrator for help
installing M-W Link.
How to use M-W Link
Ensure that the link program is open and
running in the background. If you need assistance, contact your
system administrator.
M-W Link will find the dictionary or thesaurus, look up the word you have highlighted, and display its entry.
M-W
Link Shortcut Keys
M-W Link comes with two preconfigured sets of
shortcut keys for Windows and one for Macintosh. On Windows
computers, one of these default shortcuts opens Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition and the other opens Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Thesaurus. On the Macintosh, the shortcut opens Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition. The default shortcuts
are:
Windows shortcuts:
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary CTRL + ALT + D
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus CTRL + ALT + T
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary CTRL + ALT + M
Macintosh shortcuts:
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary COMMAND + OPTION + D
TROUBLESHOOTING TIP:
If a program already uses one of the
default shortcuts for another function, you may experience a
conflict when you try to use M-W Link with that program. To
correct the problem, choose a new shortcut. See below for
instructions on changing your shortcuts.
Changing
M-W Link Shortcuts
You can change an M-W Link shortcut key
combination by following these steps.
Disabling
an M-W Link Shortcut
To disable a shortcut, follow these steps.
When the Enable box shows a check mark, the shortcut is active; if there is no check mark in the box, the selected shortcut is disabled. To reenable a shortcut, click the Enable box again to restore the check mark.
How
do I switch from one reference to another?
To switch from the dictionary to the
thesaurus or vice versa, click on the on-screen button for the
reference you want.
How
do I print an entry or illustration?
You can print an entry or illustration
using the browser’s Print function. The complete Results
List cannot be printed. If you need help adjusting the
printer settings for your browser, consult the documentation that
came with it or contact your system administrator.
How do I
copy and paste text?
You can copy or paste text using your
browser’s Copy and Paste functions.
If you need help adjusting the copy settings for your browser,
check its Help menu or contact your system administrator.
Where can
I find more help using this program?
Need more help? Check the following
sources.
Quick
Start Guide:
The Quick Start Guide can be found in
the jewel case holding the CD-ROM. It provides basic information
to help you get started using the dictionary and thesaurus
program.
On-line
Help for M-W Link:
M-W Link has its own Help menu, which
can be accessed from the M-W Link window.
Explanatory
Notes:
The Explanatory Notes
explain the types of information in the dictionary and thesaurus
and the conventions used in displaying that information in this
program.
Guide.rtf:
Guide.rtf is a file on the CD-ROM that
includes a complete printable copy of this User’s Guide that
is saved in Rich Text Format. You can open this document and
print all or part of it using your word processor.
Readme.txt:
Readme.txt is a text file on the CD-ROM
that includes last-minute information about the program that
became available after the other instructions or manuals were
printed. You can open it with a word processor or with a simple
text reader such as Windows NotePad or Macintosh Simple Text.
Dictionary & Thesaurus Search Options
Main
Entry/Entry Word Searches
A Main Entry or Entry Word search
lets you look up any boldface word in the dictionary or
thesaurus. In this type of search, the program finds the word you
looked up plus compounds or phrases including the word. For
example, if you look up dog, the Results List will
include all the dog homographs, as well as
compounds and phrases such as chili dog and dog-eat-dog.
You can use the wildcard characters * and ? in Main Entry/Entry Word searches. For more information on using these characters, see the Wildcard Characters section later in this manual.
TIP: If you don't get the results you expect from a search, capitalization may be the problem. For example, an Authors Quoted search for shakespeare will find no hits, but one for Shakespeare finds 135 hits. Try capitalizing (or not capitalizing) the first letter in the word and running your search again.
Word Game
and Puzzle-Solving Searches
The Main Entry of the dictionary
field has a drop-down list that includes the following searches.
To access these searches, click on the drop-down arrow of the Main Entry field. The Entry Word option is the default search. More information on the other search types follows.
To perform a word game or puzzle search, follow these steps:
The program will display the first entry in the Results List. To view any other entry from the Results List, click on the entry, then click on the Go To button.
Crosswords or
Partial Word Searches
In a Crosswords or Partial Word
search, you type the letters in a word that you know and use the
wildcard symbol ? to
represent letters you do not know; it’s useful for
everything from transcribing business documents written in messy
handwriting to solving crossword puzzles. For example, if you
type te????r, the program will find the words teacher,
teether, terrier, and other seven-letter words that start
with te and end with r.
To conduct a Crosswords or Partial Word search:
Jumble Searches
Jumble searches can help you unscramble
mixed-up words. (Note: Jumbles are also called anagrams,
transposals, or transpositions). In a Jumble
search, you simply type a group of letters and the program
displays a list of the words that can be made from those letters
if each letter is used only once per word. For example, if you do
a Jumble search for lmies,the program will find smile,
limes, miles, and slime.
To conduct a Jumble search:
Cryptogram
Searches
Cryptogram searches can help you decode
cryptograms, which are word puzzles in which each letter of the
original has been replaced by another letter, but always by the
same letter throughout. (Note: Cryptograms are also called substitution
ciphers.) For example, if you do a cryptogram search for xyzzy,
the program will find belle, boffo, gamma,
and other words that might be decoded from the pattern you typed.
To conduct a Cryptogram search:
Letter Bank
Searches
Letter Bank searches let you find the
words that can be made from a group of letters if letters can be
repeated in a word. For example, if you type the letters elns,
the program will find lens, senselessness, and
other words that can be made from those letters.
To conduct a Letter Bank search:
Pronunciation
Searches
Pronunciation field searches let
you find rhymes, homophones, and phonetic jumbles. To search in
the Pronunciation field:
Type only regular alphabetical characters; you don’t need to type any special phonetic characters when searching in the Pronunciation field.
Like the Main Entry field, the Pronunciation field has a drop-down field that allows you to access the following additional searches:
To perform a Pronunciation search:
Rhyme Searches
You can use a Rhyme search to find
words that rhyme with the word you type. For example, if you do a
Rhyme search for the word name, the program will find game,
same, and other words that rhyme with name. The
Rhyme search is the default search in the Pronunciation
field. To perform a Rhyme search, simply type a word in
the Pronunciation field, then click Search.
Homophone
Searches
Homophones are words that sound alike but that
may be spelled differently. For example, to, too,
and two are homophones. Homophone searches allow
you to find all the homophones for a word.
To conduct a Homophone search:
Phonetic Jumble
Searches
Phonetic Jumbles are words that contain the
same sounds, but not in the same order. For example, earthy
and ether are phonetic jumbles. A Phonetic Jumble
search allows you to find phonetic jumbles for a word.
To conduct a Phonetic Jumble search:
Function
Label Searches
In Merriam-Webster dictionaries,
function labels identify a word’s part of speech or provide
other information about how it functions in the language. You can
use Function field searches to look up words by their part
of speech (e.g., pronoun, prefix, interjection) or
other function label (e.g., trademark, abbreviation,
and plural in construction). See the Functional Labels section of the Explanatory Notes for
more information about function labels.
To perform a search in the Function field:
WARNING!
A search for extremely common parts of speech, such as noun, will bring back thousands of entries. Unless your computer has a very large amount of RAM, the number of entries returned may be so large that your computer or server will run out of memory and will not be able to display the entire list. In some cases, your computer or server may even hang trying to retrieve huge word lists. To avoid this problem, make your search as specific as possible.
Usage
Label Searches
In Merriam-Webster dictionaries, usage
labels provide information about how a word is typically used in
speech or writing. You can use Usage field searches to
look for all the words that carry labels indicating that they are
used in a certain way (e.g., that they are slang or nonstandard),
or that are most often used in a regional "flavor" of
English (e.g., Scottish, chiefly Northern), or that
have specialized uses in a particular subject area (e.g., basketball,
law, physics). See the section on Usage Labels in the Explanatory Notes for
more information about usage labels.
To perform a search in the Usage field:
TIP: If you don’t get the results you expect in a Usage field search, try searching in the Text field. Some usage labels are included within the defining text rather than in their own field.
Etymology
Searches
The Etymology field displays
information about the history and origin of a word. You can use Etymology
field searches to find all the words that come from a particular
language or root word. For example, you can find all of the words
in the dictionary that come from Japanese or Yiddish, or that
derive from the Greek root logia.
To find the words that come from a given language or root:
Foreign Words in Etymologies. Etymologies contain many foreign words; these terms appear in italic type. You can search for these foreign words in the Etymology field. For example, you can find all the entries in the dictionary whose etymologies include the Latin verb ducere by searching for that word in the Etymology field. However, because ducere is not an English word, it does not have its own entry in the dictionary. Brief definitions for foreign words are given in the etymologies where they occur. To learn more about how etymologies are structured, see the Explanatory Notes.
Date
Searches
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary, Tenth Edition includes the date of a word’s
first documented use in English. You can search in the Date
field to find all the words that were first recorded in a given
year, decade, or century. You can learn more about how the dates were determined in the Explanatory Notes.
To find the words that come from a given date:
You can use wildcard characters in Date searches to find all the words first recorded in a given decade or century. The Results List for such a search will show dates, not words. To see the words for a selected year within a decade or century, highlight that date in the list and click Go To.
To find words by decade:
To find words by century:
Words Dated by Century. In this dictionary, words first recorded in English before 1500 are generally dated by century rather than by individual year because the publication dates for texts produced before 1500 are often uncertain.
Words that date from before the 12th century are labeled before 12th century in this electronic dictionary. You can locate a list of these words by searching for the date 1100.
Definition
and Text Searches
The Text field is the bottom
field on the screen; it appears immediately below the Date field in the dictionary and below the Function field in the thesaurus. In the dictionary, it displays
definitions and related information, such as illustrative
quotations, usage notes and paragraphs, and paragraphs discussing
distinctions in the use of synonymous words. In the thesaurus, it
displays lists of synonyms, antonyms, related and contrasted
words, and idioms.
Finding Words Within Definitions
You can use the Text field to search through this text,
for example, to find all of the definitions that include a
particular word or to determine if the dictionary contains a
example phrase for a particular word.
For example, if you were doing a project on baseball, you might want to see all the entries in the dictionary that have to do with that sport (and which therefore include the word baseball in their definition). You could find those words by searching for baseball in the Text field.
To search in the Text field:
TIP: The program will automatically look for inflected forms of the search word as well as the base word. For example, if you search for swim in the Text field, the Results List will include all entries whose definitions contain swim, swam, swum, swimming, or swims.
Searching for More Than One Word in a Definition. You can search for two or more words at the same time in the Text field. For example, you can search for red flower to find all of the entries whose definitions include the words red and flower (although not necessarily adjacent to one another or in that order).
Like the Main Entry and Pronunciation fields, the Text field has a drop-down menu that allows you to access additional search options. The following searches can be accessed from the drop-down menu of the Text field.
To perform a Text search, follow these steps:
The Defining Text option is the default search.
Verbal Illustration
Searches
You can use Verbal Illustration
searches to find sample phrases, sentences, or quotations showing
how a word is typically used.
To conduct a Verbal Illustration search:
Authors Quoted
Searches
You can use an Authors Quoted search to
locate all of the quotes by an author that appear in the
dictionary or thesaurus.
To conduct an Authors Quoted search:
This program will only search for surnames, not first names or courtesy titles such as Dr. or Ms. Remember to capitalize the author's last name.
Synonymy
Paragraph Searches
A number of entries in the dictionary include
brief paragraphs discussing differences among synonyms; these
descriptions are called Synonymy Paragraphs. For more
information about the content of Synonymy Paragraphs, see the Explanatory Notes.
You can use a Synonymy Paragraph search to find out if a word is included in one of these paragraphs. To conduct a Synonymy Paragraph search:
Usage Paragraph
Searches
Brief usage paragraphs appear at dictionary
entries that are considered to present problems of confused or
disputed word use. For more information about the content of Usage Paragraphs, see the Explanatory Notes.
You can find out if a word is discussed in a usage paragraph by conducting a Usage Paragraph search. To conduct a Usage Paragraph search:
Remember that a Usage Paragraph search finds words that are discussed in paragraphs about confused or disputed usage. These searches are different from Usage field searches, which find dictionary entries that include labels indicating that a word is used in restricted ways, or that it has specialized uses in particular geographic areas or fields.
Searching
in More Than One Field
This program allows you to search for
words, phrases, or dates in several fields simultaneously. For
example, you could find all of the slang nouns that derive from
Spanish in the dictionary by performing a multiple-field
search. In this kind of search, you type words or dates into
two or more fields and the program finds entries containing all
of the words or dates you have specified.
To conduct a multiple-field search, follow these steps.
For example, to search for slang nouns that are derived from Spanish, you would insert noun in the Function field, slang in the Usage field, and Spanish in the Etymology field.
Wildcard
Characters
Wildcard characters help you look up
words when you aren’t sure how to spell them, when you need
to look up a partial word, or when you want to find all the words
that have a group of letters in common. For example, you can use
wildcards to find all the words in the dictionary that end with
the letters ade. Two wildcard characters are available:
Wildcard |
Represents |
? |
Any single character |
* |
Any string of characters |
For example, a search for m?n in the Main Entry field will find all the three-letter words and abbreviations in the dictionary that start with m and end with n, such as man and men, as well as the abbreviations min, mon, mtn and mun. A search for m*n will find all of the words in the dictionary that begin with m and end with n, regardless of how many letters are in the word (e.g., macaroon, magnification, maiden, maintain).
WARNING!
Searches that include wildcards can produce very large Results Lists that may take a long time to display. Searches for terms that begin with wildcard characters will take the longest.
Searching
for Inflected Forms
An inflected form of a word is a
form that shows the case, number, gender, tense, or other
grammatical distinction of the word. For example, the plural of a
noun and the past tense of a verb are inflected forms. For
more about inflected forms, see the Explanatory Notes.
If you try to look up an inflected form of a word, this program will automatically display the main entry of the word that is the basis for the inflected form. For example, if you look up the plural flowers, the program will display the entry for flower, the appropriate singular form.
This special search capability works in most cases, but there may be times when you will try to find a valid regular inflected form and the program will fail to recognize it. In such cases the program will display a Results List of possible alternatives for the word you typed.
What
Information is in the Thesaurus?
The entries in this thesaurus may
include a brief description of the meaning shared by synonyms; a
part-of-speech label; and one or more lists of synonyms (i.e.,
words that share the same meaning), antonyms (i.e., words that
have the opposite meaning), related words (i.e., words that are
almost but not quite synonymous with the entry), contrasted words
(i.e., words that strongly contrast with the entry but that are
not full antonyms of it), and idiomatic equivalents (i.e., words
or phrases that have a meaning similar to that of the entry). You
can find more details about the content of the thesaurus and the
typographical conventions used in that reference in the Explanatory Notes for
the Thesaurus.
Searching
in the Thesaurus
In general, you can look up a word in
the thesaurus using the same technique you would use to look up a
word in the dictionary:
Thesaurus
Entry Word Searches
You can use the Entry Word field
to look up any term that appears in boldface in the thesaurus.
When you search in the Entry Word field, the program finds
the main entry for the word you looked up, as well as any other
main entries that include it. For example, if you look up the
word quick in the Entry Word field, the program
will find the entry for quick, as well as for the entries
for compounds and phrases including the word(e.g., quick-tempered,
quick-witted).
Thesaurus
Function Searches
You can use Function field
searches to look up words by their part of speech (e.g., pronoun,
prefix, interjection).
To search in the Function field of the thesaurus:
Thesaurus
Text Searches
In the thesaurus, the Text field
is the bottom one; it appears immediately below the Function field. It displays lists of synonyms, antonyms, related
and contrasted words, and idiomatic equivalents. You can use the Text
field to search through these lists and find all entries that
include a particular word in one of those lists.
To search in the Text field of the thesaurus:
Verbal
Illustration Searches
You can use Verbal Illustration
searches to find sample phrases, sentences, or quotations showing
how a word is typically used.
To perform a Verbal Illustration search:
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