Wikipedia:Dictionaries as sources

This is a good quality dictionary; however, even the best dictionaries have their limits as sources for an encyclopedia article in Wikipedia.

Wikipedia generally prefers secondary sources in support of articles. It has a policy distinguishing among primary, secondary, and tertiary sources. Dictionaries and glossaries present a special challenge in determining whether the source is primary, secondary, or tertiary. One dictionary or glossary may be considered a primary source among linguists, whereas for Wikipedia's purposes it is a secondary source. Another dictionary or glossary that among linguists is considered derivative, and thus secondary, is likely considered a tertiary source for Wikipedia's purposes. Additionally, some glossaries are considered primary sources for Wikipedia's purposes.

Dictionaries have limits to their utility. In general, the earliest known usage of a word cannot be definitively determined using a dictionary alone, and the same is true of stylings, such as hyphenated or open formats. Additionally, definitions are separate from etymologies; to use a centuries-old etymology as a modern definition is a mistake, and while dictionary definitions are usually reasonably precise, they are not necessarily mathematically precise for every word.


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