I use the dictionary application on my mac constantly. Unfortunately for the life of me I cannot figure out how to cite it in a paper any ideas? I can tell that it is using the

New Oxford American Dictionary

But I can't find more information than that.

I am running Mac OS X, 10.4.11 with Dictionary version 1.0.2

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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

(note: I'm on 10.6, so you may see things somewhat differently, but it should be close enough…)

Are you using the little Dictionary popup windoid, or the full Dictionary app? If the former, click on "More…" so that you get the Dictionary app.

When there, click on either:

  • Go > Front/Back matter

    which displays all the introductory text from the Dictionary.

    or

  • Dictionary > Preferences

    and select Dictionary from the list. It says there:

    New Oxford American Dictionary 2nd edition © 2005 by Oxford University Press, Inc.

Is that what you need?

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You shouldn't cite Dicitonary.app, but the dictionary that is displayed in Dictionary.app. The .app can display more than one Dictionary (see tekl.de/english/Dictionary_Plugins.html ). Dori's hints may help you finding out who compiled the dictionary you are using. In fact she did it for you. – lajuette Jul 19 '10 at 6:51
Hi Dori, I saw looked in the preferences, unfortunately it doesn't give me quite as much info as it gave you. Mine just gives "New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd Edition". It would be nice to know the year, etc. I guess that since both are the second edition it would probably be 2005 but this seems a bit flaky. – sixtyfootersdude Aug 4 '10 at 20:42
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APA format Oxford University. (2005). New Oxford American Dictionary, 2nd edition. NY: Oxford U. Press.

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You can also simply cite the New Oxford American Dictionary's online edition- it has the same entries and tells you at the bottom of the page how to cite it. I tried one word and it showed me this (the xxx replace the location from where you accessed the dictionary):

"cat" World Encyclopedia. Philip's, 2008. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. xxx. 24 May 2011 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t142.e2103

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