Children's Illustrated Dictionary.

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How the entries work

Plural

This tells you how to

write a noun when there

is more than one of the

thing it is referring to.

Here,rams is the plural

of the headword ram.

Tenses of verbs

These three forms of

the verb share show

how it is written

in the present,

continuous present,

and past tenses.

These tenses are

explained on page 4.

Definition

This part of the

entry explains what

the headword means.

If a word has more than

one meaning, the first

meaning given is

normally the one that

is most common.

Other meanings are

listed below.

Opposite

This tells you the word
that is the opposite
of the headword. For
example,common
is the opposite of
the headword rare.

Comparisons

The two forms of an adjective that are
shown here are called the comparative and
superlative. They are explained on page 5.
Rarer means “more rare” and rarest
means “the most rare.”

Pronunciation guide

This guide helps you to pronounce

difficult words. It respells the

word so that you can sound out

the letters. Part of the guide is in

heavy, black type. This shows you

which part of the word to stress,

or say more loudly.

Related words

Other words that are

related to the

headword are listed

here. This related

word,radioactive,

is the adjective

that comes from

the headword

radioactivity.

Part of speech

This shows whether

the word is a noun, verb,

adjective, interjection,

adverb, or preposition.

Find out more about

parts of speech on

pages 4–5.

Sample sentence

The sentence that follows the definition gives

you an example of how the headword is used. In

the sample sentence the headword is always

written in heavy, black type like this: shared.

Headword

The headword is printed

at the start of the entry.

This shows you how to

spell the word.

ram

rams noun

1 a male sheep.

2 a device for pushing against

something with force.

They used the log as a ram

to break down the door.

ram verb

share

shares sharing shared

verb

1 to have or

use together.

2 to divide

something into

parts to give

to others.

radioactivity

noun

the energy released by the

center of atoms breaking up

in some substances. High

amounts of radioactivity can

be harmful to living things.

They tested for radioactivity

outside the nuclear

power plant.

N say ray-dee-oh-ak-tiv-i-tee

radioactive adjective

rare

adjective

unusual or not common.

A rare blue

morpho butterfly.

N comparisons rarer rarest

N opposite common

They shared the melon.