Worse, the words themselves take on the character of their definitions: they are likewise reduced. Which trains you to think of the dictionary as a utility, not a quarry of good things, not a place you’d go to explore and savor. But that essence is dry, functional, almost bureaucratically sapped of color or pop, like high modernist architecture. the power of apparently influencing the course of events by using mysterious or supernatural forces. an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. a thing characteristic of its kind or illustrating a general rule. The entries are pedestrian:Įxample /igˈzampəl/, n. Indeed, if you look up those particular words in the dictionary that comes with your computer - on my Mac, it’s the New Oxford American Dictionary, 3rd Edition - you’ll be rewarded with… well, there won’t be any reward.
You would never look up an ordinary word - like example, or sport, or magic - because all you’ll learn is what it means, and that you already know. The way I thought you used a dictionary was that you looked up words you’ve never heard of, or whose sense you’re unsure of.
