Table Of Content. - a
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Common labels and symbols in the dictionary
noun book, person, happiness
verb walk, write, be
adj (=adjective) good, blue, quiet
adv (=adverb) slowly, always, nearly
auxiliary verb have, be
modalverb can, must
preposition in, on, at
conjunction and, because, so
determiner a,an,the
quantifier some, few, much
suffix -proof, -less
prefix anti-, eco-
exclamation oh, hi, wow
pastt (=past tense) gave, hid, swam
pastp (=past participle) given, hidden, swum
past (=past tense and past participle) bought, found, lost
{c] countable noun
[U] uncountable noun
(1] intransitive verb
[Tt] transitive verb
(for an explanation of all other grammar notes, see p.8)
o« This symbol is found next to very common words which are
important to learn.
REA ACPL ITEM
_ Se ee DISCARDED een nee
Cambridge
Learner's
Dictionary
POS SHOOSOO HOES OTT TOE HEHE OOOO TOO SOTO DE DE EE EOT EEO OOH OSE HOSES ESOS OSD EO ET OS HOSES EHES OOOOH OSES SEES OE OEESS
5 CAMBRIDGE
5) UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Contents
page Introduction
How to use this dictionary
More information on using the dictionary
Grammar labels 11 Pronunciation
Usage labels 12 Regular inflections
UK/US labels
The dictionary, A-Z
739 Appendices
740 Common first names 748 Irregular verbs
741 Geographical names 751 Word beginnings and endings
746 Regular verb tenses 753 Word building
CENTRE PAGES
Colour topic pictures
Centre The Bathroom Hair
The Body 10 The Kitchen
Car 11 The Living Room
The Classroom 12 The Office
Clothes 13 Phrasal Verbs
Colours 14 Quantities
Food 15 Sports
Fruits and Vegetables
Study pages
Adjectives 31 Modal verbs
Checking your work 33 Numbers
Classroom language 34 Phrasal verbs
Collocations 36 Pronunciation
(words that go together) 37 Punctuation
22 Countable and 38 Spelling
uncountable nouns 40 Transport and travel
24 Family and relationships 41 UK and US English
25 Food and eating Verb patterns
26 Idioms 43 Word formation
27 The Internet 45 Writing letters
29 Measurements 47 Answer key
30 The media
Cambridge Learner's Dictionary
Senior Commissioning Editor Systems Development Manager
Patrick Gillard Andrew Harley
Managing Editor Software Development
Elizabeth Walter Dominic Glennon
Senlorexi h Richard Eradus
oe eee DENS Robert Fairchild
eee Richard Matsen
bextcogrenners Corpus Development
Diane Cranz :
Ann Fiddes
Guy Jackson ;
sa : Anne Finell
Virginia Klein j
Marie Allan
Kegs eoeell Michael Stevens
Clea McEnery
Julie Moore Design and Production
Martine Walsh Andrew Robinson
Sally Webber Samantha Dumiak
Peter Burgess
Cambridge Publishing Management
Illustrators
Corinne Burrows
Ray Burrows
Eikon Illustrators Ltd
Thanks are also due to the following people for their
lexicographic and editorial contributions:
Margit Aufterbeck, Jane Bottomley, Pat Bulhosen, Rebecca
Campbell, Carol Cassidy, Eric Fixmer, Lucy Hollingworth,
Tess Kaunhoven, Geraldine Mark, Mairi MacDonald,
Kate Mohideen, Diane Nichols, Elizabeth Potter, Glennis Pye,
Mira Shapur, Penny Stock, Alison Tunley, Laura Wedgeworth,
Susannah Wintersgill
Introduction
The Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary aclear and attractive page. The corpus
is acompletely new dictionary for helps us to decide which are the most
students and users of English important words and meanings, and
throughout the world. to find the most common patterns in
It has been written by a team of which they are used. This means we
dictionary writers with a strong do not waste space on rare words that
background in English language students are less likely to need. The
teaching, who really understand the corpus also helps us find natural and
needs of learners and the best way to typical examples to show how words
explain what words mean and how and phrases are used.
they are used. Another extremely valuable tool we
While writing this dictionary, we have is the Cambridge Learners’ Corpus,
have spoken to hundreds of teachers several million words written by
_and students in many different learners of English. This corpus shows
countries, asking them what they need, which words cause the greatest
what they would like, and how they problems for learners. We used it to help
would like it presented. This has helped us to decide which words should have
us to develop a style which is easy to usage notes and which subjects to cover
understand while giving enough detail in our Study Section in the centre of the
to help students understand and use book. In other words, the information
English with confidence. we show is there to deal with real
One way that teachers and students problems met by real learners.
helped us was in choosing the words The Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary
we used in our explanations. We is available with or without a CD-ROM
already used a strictly controlled list which contains everything that is in the
of meanings, but as a result of our dictionary as well as some great extra
research we cut out even more words, features such as spoken pronunciations
so now we can be sure that we only in British and American accents, anda
use words that students are really unique thesaurus search feature so that
likely to know. you can search for words by meaning.
This dictionary was written using We hope you enjoy using the
the Cambridge International Corpus, Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary. If you
a computerized collection of over have any comments about it, we would
300 million words from a huge range like to hear from you. Our dictionaries
of sources, both written and spoken, are all available for you to search online
British and American. Our aim has on our website:
been to include as many words and
phrases as possible, while keeping http://dictionary.cambridge.org
[ORGANIZAT[IC,O UN]] a n
official organization thatgives money, food, or
help to people who need it
excentage of the
company’s profits go to charity.
{U] money, food, or other help that is given to
people I won’t accept charity. 3
kindness towards other people an act of
‘indo
_ UK (US thrift shop) noun [Cc] a
s 10p which sells goods given by the public,
especially clothes, to make money for a partic-
ular charity
will certainly happen Shea roned
to write to me every week. @ [+ (that)] Paul prom-
ised me that he’d cook dinner tonight. 2 [+ two
objects] to say that you will certainly give some-
thing to someone They promised us a reward.
Grandma’s ring was promised to me.
3 promise to be sth If something promises to
be good, exciting, etc, people expect that it will
be good, exciting, etc. It promises to be a really
/‘promis/ noun 1 [C] when you say | ~
very common that you will certainly do something I’m not
words which are
important to learn. you said that you would do 3 show promise If |
someone or something shows promise, they |
are likely to be successful. As a child, he _
showed great promise as an athlete.
g from someone else so that you own all :
of it He bought out his partner for £3 million.
buy sth up to quickly buy a lot of something
often allt hat is available Z
_based onn theC ambridge
y* /bat/ noun a good buy when you Sj
something good for a cheap price This coat was | International Corpus,
areally good buy. show how words are
buyer /'bara‘/ noun [C] someone who buys some- used in typical
thing
situations.
buyout /'baraut/ noun [C] when a group of
people buy the company that they work for
iP honetic Alphabet. There is a
explatat hei bonttoem odfe a ch
ee
become solid Gerry slipped on the ice and broke
his arm. e I’ve put a couple of bottles of cham-
pagne on ice (= in a bucket of ice to get cold).
met before feel relaxed with each other, often
by starting a conversation
ice? Jars! (also US frost) verb [1] “Allouor .a e
use very simple
| words. Where we have
hatdo u se a more
‘difficult word than
_ Usual, that word is
__ explainedi nb rackets.
These labels show you when a word
| is usedi n British English or American
English. There is an explanation of
_| these labels onp age 10.
skive /skarv/
go to school or work when you should, or to
leave school or work earlier than you should
someone who These labels tell
you how formal,
informal, etc a
word is.T here is
an explanation of
ail these labels on
page 10,
How to use this dictionary
More information on using the dictionary
Grammar labels
When a word must always be used in a particular grammatical
form, that form is shown at the beginning of the entry or the begin-
ning of the meaning. Patterns which are common and typical, but
are not always used, are given next to example sentences showing
how they are used.
Nouns
countable noun pencil, friend, house
uncountable noun, does not water, advice, health
have a plural
C,U noun which can be countable ability, quantity, exercise
or uncountable > You should take some exercise.
> Idomy exercises every morning.
see also Study Page Countable and uncountable nouns, on
p. centre 22.
group noun which refers to government, class, team
a group of people or things > The French team are European
and can be used with either champions.
a singular or a plural verb > His team is top of the league.
plural plural noun, used with trousers, scissors, pliers
a plural verb
no plural noun which can be used rush, vicious circle, wait
with a and an, but does not > Sorry, ’minarush.
have a plural
usually plural noun usually used in the statistics, resources, regulations
plural form
usually noun usually used in the mess, range, world
singular singular form
Verbs
intransitive verb, does not sleep, glance, fall
have an object > Anna’s sleeping.
transitive verb, must cure, hit, catch
have an object > Fiona hit her sister.
verb that can be intransitive sing, explain, drive
or transitive > Lalways sing in the bath.
> Hesanga love song.
+ two objects ditransitive verb, that give, send, lend
has two objects > She gave me the keys.
