Macquarie Little Dictionary 2010 [antikvár]

Explanatory notesTHE ENTRYAll infomiation within one complete entry has been arranged for the convenience of the user. In general, information about spelling and pronunciation comes first, meanings next, then run-on headwords, and usage notes last.HEADWORDThe headword is the word or words which are being defined in a particular entry; it appears in large bold-face type at the left, slightly farther into the left margin than the usual line of text.Separate entries are made for all words which, although spelt identically, are of quite distinct derivation; in such cases, each headword is followed by a small superscript number, as in, for example, gum^ and gum^. Entries are arranged under headwords in strict alphabetical order. A particular headword can be located by taking each successive letter of the headword in alphabetical order, ignoring hyphens, apostrophes and word spaces.VARIANT SPELLINGSDefinitions always appear under the most common spelling of a word. Less common variants cross-refer to the main headword. For example, the word gypsy has a variant gipsy which appears as a headword followed by gypsy to show that the entry is at the main spelling gypsy.Variants regarded as equally acceptable appear in the headword itself, separated by an equals sign, as in colour=color. The variation shown in the headword applies to all other forms of the word in the entry - inflected forms, secondary headwords and run-ons - as well as to any use of the word within the definition (or anywhere else in the dictionary). They are not repeated on every occasion for reasons of space and to avoid cumbersome presentation.PRONUNCIATIONThe pronunciation, where given, follows the headword within slant brackets. It is given in the International Phonetic Alphabet, for which a guide may be found on pages x and xi.PARTS OF SPEECHThe pronunciation is usually followed by an abbreviation in italics which indicates the part of speech of the headword, such as n. (noun) and adj. (adjective).