The Macquarie Dictionary is a dictionary of Australian English. It also pays considerable attention to New Zealand English. 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 in Sydney, Australia. It is published by Macquarie Dictionary Publishers Pty Ltd, a company specifically established for the task. In October 2006 it moved away from Macquarie University to the University of Sydney where it is located in Fisher Library. It is notable for its extensive inclusion of encyclopaedic content: a great many proper names, particularly of Australian people and places, are included.

History

Since its first publication, in 1981, it has been progressively adopted by Australian schools, businesses and courts as their standard dictionary.

The second edition was published in 1991 and it introduced encyclopaedic content to many entries. The third edition, published in 1997, made use of an inhouse corpus of Australian writing, Ozcorp, to add a large number of examples of Australian usage, in a style reminiscent of the original Oxford English Dictionary. The fourth edition, published in 2005, increases the number of citations, includes etymologies for many phrases and pays particular attention to Australian regionalisms.

Spelling

The dictionary records standard Australian English spelling, which is closer to British and Canadian English than American English, with spellings like colour, centre, defence and practice/practise (noun/verb). It also gives -ise spellings first, listing -ize spellings as acceptable variants, unlike the Oxford English Dictionary and some other dictionaries of British English, that continue to prefer -ize to -ise in spite of the opposite tendency amongst the British general public (see Oxford spelling).

Critical comment

It has at times been criticised for its omissions especially in the coverage of recent formations, a criticism that most new editions of dictionaries encounter because of the focus on new words. It has also been criticised for its pronunciations.

Versions

A number of smaller versions are available, including a pocket edition, as well as companion volumes such as a thesaurus. An online subscription-based version is also available. The latest edition of the main complete version of the Macquarie Dictionary is the fourth, which was published in 2005. The Macquarie Australian Slang Dictionary published in 2004 is an up-to-date record of Australian slang.

External links

• Macquarie WordGenius Offline version offering the unabridged Macquarie Dictionary, the Concise Dictionary and the Macquarie Thesaurus with novel drag and drop functionality
• Macquarie Dictionary Online version (paid subscription based)
• MacquarieNet Australian reference site for schools