Grade 4 English: Dictionary skills poster

1The alphabet

There are 26 letters in the alphabet. The words in a dictionary are listed in alphabetical order.

2Alphabetical order

• Look at the first letter of each word.
• If the first letters are the same, look at the second letter. Then the third. Keep going until the letters are different.
• If one word is the start of another, the shorter word comes first.

3Guide words

Guide words are the two words at the top of a dictionary page. The first is the first word on the page. The second is the last word on the page. Words that come between them are on that page.

4A dictionary entry

The headword is the word being explained. Next comes the kind of word: noun, verb or adjective. Then comes the meaning, and often an example sentence.

5Finding a word

• 1. Look at the first letter.
• 2. Open the dictionary near that letter.
• 3. Check the guide words.
• 4. Look down the page for your word.

6Why use a dictionary?

• to find what a word means
• to check how to spell a word
• to find out what kind of word it is
• to see how to use a word in a sentence