Dictionary, n. A malevolent literacy device for cramping…

“Every dictionary contains a world. I open a book of thieves’ slang from Queen Anne’s reign and they have a hundred words for swords,…

— Mark Forsyth

Alphabetical order had to be invented to help people organize the first dictionaries. On the other hand, we may have reached a point where…

— James Gleick

I am not learning definitions as established in even the latest dictionaries. I am not a dictionary-maker. I am a person a dictionary-maker has…

— William Stafford

“Wake up to think of words… want to walk through pages of meanings, the links in assonance, alliteration, or just simple sense that moves…

— Initially NO

Dictionaries stop where the heart starts.

— David Foenkinos

Lexicographer: a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words.

— Samuel Johnson

“Tugs used to think that everyone's name was in the dictionary, and when she had realized it was only hers, both Tugs and Button,…

— Anne Ylvisaker

“Dictionaries are like vitamins and floss; we buy them and then never use them. Even I, an English teacher, a lover of words, have…

— Jenny Baranick

My desk is like a 'U,' so I have my computer and lots of dictionaries because I write in Spanish and I live in…

— Isabel Allende

“In this case, consulting the dictionary would simply mean discovering what one already knew, Dictionaries only provide information that is likely to be useful…

— Jose Saramago

Dictionaries are always fun, but not always reassuring.

— M F K Fisher

“Your dictionaries are too small for my voice, your disciplines are too primitive for my existence - to read me you have to think…

— Abhijit Naskar

“Collect and read dictionaries. Take a couple of minutes every day to read a page. Highlight fun words you didn't know before and write…

— Douglas Wilson

“And Rose knows that dictionaries will never be the same again. Dictionaries will be forever imbued, sanctified, significant, suggestive. They will not be just…

— Penelope Lively

People are under the impression that dictionaries legislate language. What a dictionary does is keep track of usages over time.

— Steven Pinker