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The ''Macquarie Dictionary'' () is a
dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...
of
Australian English Australian English (AusE, AusEng, AuE, AuEng, en-AU) is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to Australia. It is the country's common language and ''de facto'' national language. While Australia has no of ...
. It is considered by many to be the standard reference on Australian English. It also pays considerable attention to
New Zealand English New Zealand English (NZE) is the variant of the English language spoken and written by most English-speaking New Zealanders. Its language code in ISO and Internet standards is en-NZ. It is the first language of the majority of the populati ...
. Originally it was a publishing project of Jacaranda Press, a Brisbane educational publisher, for which an editorial committee was formed, largely from the Linguistics department of
Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...
in
Sydney, Australia Sydney is the capital city of the state of New South Wales and the most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about 80 km (50 mi) from the Pacific Ocean ...
. It is now published by Macquarie Dictionary Publishers, an imprint of Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd. In October 2007 it moved its editorial office from Macquarie University to the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
, and later to the Pan Macmillan offices in the
Sydney central business district The Sydney central business district (CBD) is the historical and main Central business district, commercial centre of Sydney. The CBD is Sydney's city centre, or Sydney City, and the two terms are used interchangeably. Colloquially, the CBD or ...
. In addition to its two-volume flagship dictionary, shorter editions including the ''Macquarie Concise Dictionary'', ''Macquarie Compact Dictionary'', ''Macquarie Budget Dictionary'' and ''Macquarie Little Dictionary'' are published.


History

The first seven editions of the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' were edited by lexicographer Susan Butler, who joined the project in 1970 as a
research assistant A research assistant (RA) is a researcher employed, often on a temporary contract, by a university, research institute, or privately held organization to provide assistance in academic or private research endeavors. Research assistants work under ...
, and was its chief editor by the time the first edition was published in 1981. Butler retired as the ''Macquaries editor in March 2018 after 48 years with the publisher. A detailed history of the dictionary and its associated publications is Pat Manser's ''More Than Words: The Making of the Macquarie Dictionary'' (Sydney: Macquarie Dictionary, 2021).


First Edition

The original version of the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' was based on Hamlyn's ''Encyclopedic World Dictionary'' of 1971, which in turn was based on
Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
's '' American College Dictionary'' of 1947, which was based on the 1927 '' New Century Dictionary'', which was based on '' The Imperial Dictionary of the English Language'', which itself was based on Noah Webster's '' American Dictionary of the English Language'' second edition of 1841. The first edition had an introduction by Australian historian Manning Clark. Since its first publication in 1981, its use has grown so that it has come to rival longer-established dictionaries from elsewhere in the English-speaking world as a standard authority on the English language within Australia.


Second Edition

The second edition was published in 1991 and introduced encyclopedic content to many entries. It has an introduction by Australian author
Donald Horne Donald Richmond Horne (26 December 1921 – 8 September 2005) was an Australian journalist, writer, social critic, and academic who became one of Australia's best known public intellectuals, from the 1960s until his death. Horne was a proli ...
.


Third Edition

The third edition, published in 1997, made use of an in-house corpus of Australian writing, Ozcorp, to add a large number of examples of Australian usage, to give some of the flavour of an historical dictionary. This edition also gave a good coverage of English in Asia. It has an introduction by Australian author
David Malouf David George Joseph Malouf (; born 20 March 1934) is an Australian poet, novelist, short story writer, playwright and Libretto, librettist. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2008, Malouf has lectured at both the University ...
.


Fourth Edition

The fourth edition, published in 2005, increased the number of citations, includes etymologies for many phrases, and pays particular attention to Australian regionalisms. It has an introduction by Australian author
Thomas Keneally Thomas Michael Keneally, Officer of the Order of Australia, AO (born 7 October 1935) is an Australian novelist, playwright, essayist, and actor. He is best known for his historical fiction novel ''Schindler's Ark'', the story of Oskar Schindler' ...
.


Fifth Edition

The fifth edition was published in October 2009 and places particular emphasis on words relating to the environment and
climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...
. It has an introduction by the then Australian Governor-General Quentin Bryce.


Sixth Edition

The sixth edition was published in October 2013 and includes an update of new words and senses as well as words and phrases from other varieties of English that impinge on Australian English, such as British English, American English and English in Southeast Asia, China and India. It has an introduction by Australian author Les Murray.


Seventh Edition

The seventh edition of the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' was published on 28 February 2017. With a foreword by Australian author
Kate Grenville Catherine Elizabeth Grenville (born 1950) is an Australian author. She has published fifteen books, including fiction, non-fiction, biography, and books about the writing process. In 2001, she won the Orange Prize for Fiction, Orange Prize for ...
, this edition included thousands of new words and senses along with Australian regionalisms and a collection of words from the Australian experience in
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
.


Eighth Edition

The eighth edition of the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' was published on 28 July 2020. With a foreword by Australian author Kim Scott, it featured 3500 new entries.


Ninth Edition

The ninth edition of the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' was published on 12 September 2023. With a foreword by Australian author Markus Zusak, the ninth edition featured hundreds of new entries and updated definitions. *


Preferred spellings

The dictionary records standard Australian English spelling, which is closer to
British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
than American spelling, with spellings like ''colour'', ''centre'', ''defence'' and ''practice/practise'' (noun/verb). It gives ''-ise'' spellings first, listing ''-ize'' spellings as acceptable variants, unlike the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...
'' and some other dictionaries of British English, which continue to prefer ''-ize'' to ''-ise'' in spite of the opposite tendency among the British general public (see
Oxford spelling Oxford spelling (also ''Oxford English Dictionary'' spelling, Oxford style, or Oxford English spelling) is a spelling standard, named after its use by the Oxford University Press, that prescribes the use of British spelling in combination with ...
). ''Labour'', however, is spelt ''Labor'' when referring to the Australian political party. One difference from British spelling is the noun ''program'', which the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' gives as the preferred spelling in preference to ''programme''.


Collaborations


Word of the Year

Each year the editors select a short-list of new words added to the dictionary, and invite the public to vote on their favourite. The public vote is held in December and results in the People's Choice winner. There is also a word selected by a committee.


Word for Word podcast

The team behind the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' produced a podcast called ''Word for Word'' from 2016 through to the end of 2021. The podcast explored surprising histories behind everyday words and phrases, went behind the scenes with the dictionary editors, and highlighted some of Australia's word lovers, from
Scrabble ''Scrabble'' is a word game in which two to four players score points by placing tiles, each bearing a single letter, onto a Board game, game board divided into a 15×15 grid of squares. The tiles must form words that, in crossword fashion, re ...
champions to hip-hop artists.


Versions

A number of smaller versions of the dictionary are available, including a compact edition, as well as companion volumes such as a
thesaurus A thesaurus (: thesauri or thesauruses), sometimes called a synonym dictionary or dictionary of synonyms, is a reference work which arranges words by their meanings (or in simpler terms, a book where one can find different words with similar me ...
. The latest edition of the main complete version of the ''Macquarie Dictionary'' is th
eighth
published in 2020. Both the complete dictionary and a student dictionary are available as
iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...
applications.


''Macquarie Dictionary Online''

The ''Macquarie Dictionary Online'' is the most comprehensive and up-to-date version of the dictionary available, with new words, phrases, and definitions added twice annually. It has the greatest coverage of encyclopedic and non-encyclopedic entries, and provides spoken pronunciations. Subscriptions are available to the complete version as well as a student version.


Apps

The ''Macquarie Dictionary'' is available in two iOS app editions: the Macquarie Dictionary Complete app, and the Macquarie School Dictionary app.


See also

*
WordGenius WordGenius is a system for publishing dictionaries and reference books electronically, based on technology from Eurofield Information Systems. The Unabridged and College versions of the '' Random House Dictionary'' known as ''Random House Webster ...
, an electronic dictionary publishing system used by the ''Macquarie Dictionary''


References


External links

* {{University of Sydney 1981 non-fiction books Australian books Australian English English dictionaries Online English dictionaries Macquarie University University of Sydney Macmillan Publishers books