In the word “ferret”, you will see that it is followed
by the letters “n&v”. This means that the word can be used
as a noun, a word that names a person, place, or thing, or it can be used as a
verb to describe an action.
The ferret curled up in its cage and went
to sleep.
They are so nosy that they always ferret
out everyone’s private affairs.
The part of speech abbreviations are listed here. You should be
familiar with them. More abbreviations can be found inside the back cover.
Other dictionaries also include a list of “Abbreviations”. Look for
it in the Table of Contents.
| n............................noun |
pron...................pronoun |
| adj...................adjective |
adv.......................adverb |
| vb...........................verb |
conj................conjunction |
| prep..............preposition |
interj...............interjection |
7. SPECIAL FORMS
Some words in English are inflected(14). If a word has
some special forms, they are listed after the part of speech. What is the
plural of “ox”, “tomato”, or “formula”? What is
the past tense of “dive”, “rise”, or “spell”? If
a word has more than one acceptable spelling, it is also listed here. Usually
the preferred spelling is given first.
8. DEFINITIONS(15)
Many words have several, or multiple meanings, and most
dictionaries list the oldest meaning first. The first symbol in this part of
the entry is “.n”. This means that the first definition
shows how the word is used to name a person, place or thing (noun): “a
small half-domesticated animal of the weasel family, Mustela putorius
furo(16), kept as a pet or (in Europe) used to catch rabbits,
rats, etc.”
The next symbol (·v) means that the
definitions which follows shows how to use the word to talk about an action
(verb). The first definition (1a): is “to search
out”. This entry also says that “ferret” as a verb is usually
followed by the word “out”. The entry “1a” begins with the
abbreviation tr. This is a grammar term that means that the verb must
be followed by a noun. In this case, the nouns “secrets” and
“criminals” are suggested. You might read a sentence like this:
Mothers have the ability to ferret out secrets
with ease.
The detective ferreted out the information on
the drug deal.
14.change their form, especially for plurals and some
verb forms
15.explanation of, or meaning of a word
16.the weasel's proper scientific name
|