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Dictionary vs Assay - What's the difference?

dictionary | assay |

As nouns the difference between dictionary and assay

is that dictionary is a reference work with a list of words from one or more languages, normally ordered alphabetically and explaining each word's meaning and sometimes containing information on its etymology, usage, translations and other data while assay is trial, attempt, essay.

As verbs the difference between dictionary and assay

is that dictionary is (label) to look up in a dictionary while assay is to attempt (something).

dictionary

English

Noun

(dictionaries)
  • A reference work with a list of words from one or more languages, normally ordered alphabetically and explaining each word's meaning and sometimes containing information on its etymology, usage, translations and other data.
  • *
  • But what other kind(s) of syntactic information should be included in Lexical Entries? Traditional dictionaries' such as Hornby's (1974) ''Oxford Advanced Learner's '''Dictionary of Current English'' include not only ''categorial'' information in their entries, but also information about the range of ''Complements which a given item permits (this information is represented by the use of a number/letter code).
  • By extension, any work that has a list of material organized alphabetically; e.g. biographical dictionary, encyclopedic dictionary.
  • (label) An associative array, a data structure where each value is referenced by a particular key, analogous to words and definitions in a physical dictionary.
  • * 2011 , Jon Galloway, ?Phil Haack, ?Brad Wilson, Professional ASP.NET MVC 3
  • User calls RouteCollection.GetVirtualPath, passing in a RequestContext, a dictionary of values, and an optional route name used to select the correct route to generate the URL.
    * (Citations dictionary)

    Synonyms

    * wordbook

    Derived terms

    * encyclopedic dictionary * explanatory dictionary * fictionary * pedagogical dictionary * Pictionary * pronunciation dictionary * subdictionary * translating dictionary * translationary

    See also

    * lexicon * encyclopedia * vocabulary

    Anagrams

    *

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • (label) To look up in a dictionary.
  • (label) To add to a dictionary.
  • * 1866 , William Henry Ward, The international day, night, and fog signal telegraph (page 12)
  • By a reference to the following dictionaried abbreviations, the simplicity and harmony of each sentence will be manifestly apparent; although it does not embrace everything, and could not, as it would be far too voluminous for general use.
  • * 2001 , The Michigan Alumnus (page 25)
  • Should I use a word that a lot of people use but isn't in the dictionary? Uncle Phil would rather get a root canal than say he was scrapbooking, because the word isn't dictionaried .
  • To compile a dictionary.
  • * 1864 , Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine (volume 96, page 334)
  • They [dictionary-makers] may have had their romance at home — may have been crossed in love, and thence driven to dictionarying ; may have been involved in domestic tragedies — who can say?
  • (label) To appear in a dictionary.
  • assay

    English

    Noun

    (wikipedia assay) (en noun)
  • Trial, attempt, essay.
  • * Milton
  • I am withal persuaded that it may prove much more easy in the assay than it now seems at distance.
  • Examination and determination; test.
  • * Shakespeare
  • This cannot be, by no assay of reason.
  • The qualitative or quantitative chemical analysis of something.
  • Trial by danger or by affliction; adventure; risk; hardship; state of being tried.
  • * Spenser
  • Through many hard assays which did betide.
  • Tested purity or value.
  • * Spenser
  • With gold and pearl of rich assay .
  • The act or process of ascertaining the proportion of a particular metal in an ore or alloy; especially, the determination of the proportion of gold or silver in bullion or coin.
  • The alloy or metal to be assayed.
  • (Ure)

    Verb

  • To attempt (something).
  • *Shakespeare
  • *:To-night let us assay our plot.
  • *Milton
  • *:Soft words to his fierce passion she assayed .
  • *1936 , (Alfred Edward Housman), More Poems , IV , The Sage to the Young Man, ll.5-8:
  • *:Who seest the stark array / And hast not stayed to count / But singly wilt assay / The many-cannoned mount.
  • *2011 , ‘All-pro, anti-American’, The Economist , 28 May:
  • *:Speaking before a small crowd beneath antique airplanes suspended in the atrium of the State of Iowa Historical Museum, an effortfully cheerful Mr Romney assayed an early version of a stump speech I imagine will become a staple of his campaign for the Republican nomination, once it "officially" begins some time next week in New Hampshire.
  • (archaic) To try, attempt ((to) do something).
  • *1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts IX:
  • When Saul cam to Jerusalem he assayde to cople hymsilfe with the apostles, and they wer all afrayde of hym and beleved not that he was a disciple.
  • To analyze or estimate the composition or value of (a metal, ore etc.).
  • (obsolete) To test the abilities of (someone) in combat; to fight.
  • *:
  • *:I wold not by my wille that ony of vs were matched with hym / Nay said sir Gawayne not so / it were shame to vs were he not assayed were he neuer soo good a knyghte
  • *1977 , (Geoffrey Chaucer), (The Canterbury Tales) , Penguin Classics, p.351:
  • *:The marquis, in obsession for his wife, / Longed to expose her constancy to test. / He could not throw the thought away or rest, / Having a marvellous passion to assay' her; / Needless, God knows, to frighten and dismay her, / He had ' assayed her faith enough before / And ever found her good; what was the need / Of heaping trial on her, more and more?
  • To affect.
  • *Spenser
  • *:when the heart is ill assayed
  • To try tasting, as food or drink.
  • Derived terms

    * assay office * assay mark * bioassay * immunoassay * radioimmunoassay

    Anagrams

    *