Synonyms
eDictionary; Machine-readable dictionary (MRD); Terminological database
Definition
An electronic dictionary contains lexicographic information that is stored and accessed via a computer. The term “electronic dictionary” may refer to the data alone (e.g., a machine-readable dictionary), but more typically refers to a software or software/hardware system that provides access to dictionary data. Although a dictionary may include encyclopedic entries, it is typically distinct from an electronic encyclopedia. Terminological databases are special-purpose dictionaries that are used primarily to distinguish domain-specific terminology and choose appropriate terms when translating technical documents. Thesauri are special-purpose word books organized by relationships between words. They may contain definitions, but most famously, Roget’s Thesaurus (available in electronic form from Project Gutenberg) does not.
Historical Background
The first widely available electronic data from print...
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Recommended Reading
Amsler RA. Machine-readable dictionaries, Chapter 6. In: Williams ME, editor. Annual review of information science and technology (ARIST). vol. 19. Knowledge Industry Publications; 1984.
Amsler RA. The Structure of the Merriam-Webster Pocket Dictionary [Ph.D. dissertation]. Austin: The University of Texas at Austin; 1980.
Byrd RJ, Calzolari N, Chodorow MS, Klavans JL, Neff MS, Rizk OA. Tools and methods for computational lexicology. Comput Linguist. 1987;13(3–4):219–40.
Fellbaum C. WordNet: an electronic lexical database. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press; 1998.
Sérasset G. Recent trends of electronic dictionary research and development in Europe. In: Technical Memorandum, the Japan Electronic Dictionary Research Institute, LTD. Tokyo; 1993. p. 93.
TEI Consortium. Dictionaries. TEI P5: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange. Available online at: http://www.tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/html/DI.html. Accessed 21 Feb 2008.
Weiner ESC. Computerizing the Oxford English dictionary. J Sch Publ. 1985;16(3):239–53.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Amsler, R.A. (2018). Electronic Dictionary. In: Liu, L., Özsu, M.T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Database Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_809
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8265-9_809
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-8266-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-8265-9
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceReference Module Computer Science and Engineering