{"id":15100,"date":"2020-11-06T09:24:02","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T08:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/?p=15100"},"modified":"2022-06-16T12:44:13","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T10:44:13","slug":"dictionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/","title":{"rendered":"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"kb-textbox border-left yellow\">This article reflects the\u00a0<strong>APA 7th edition<\/strong>\u00a0guidelines. <a href=index-5020.html>Click here<\/a> for APA 6th edition guidelines.<\/figure>\n<p>To cite a dictionary definition in APA Style, start with the author of the dictionary (usually an organization), followed by the publication year, the word you\u2019re citing, the dictionary name, the publisher (if not already listed as author), and the URL.<\/p>\n<div class=\"scribbr-citation-example-generator\" data-citation-styles=\"apa\" data-source-type=\"entryDictionary\" data-locale=\"en-US\"><\/div>\n<p>\t<h6 class=\"h3\">Generate accurate APA citations with Scribbr<\/h6>\n\n<div style=\"min-height: 96px\">\n  <auto-cite style=\"position:relative;z-index:1\" locale=en_US baseurl=https:\/\/autocite.cgs.scribbr.com domain=com citationstyle=apa env=production><\/auto-cite>\n<\/div>\n<br \/>\n<script async src=index-2689.html charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"online\">How to cite an online dictionary entry<\/h2>\n<p>Online dictionaries tend to be continuously updated, so you usually won\u2019t have a specific publication date. In this case, write \u201cn.d.\u201d (no date) in place of the year and include a retrieval date:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"kb-textbox border-left\">Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Citation. In <em>Merriam-Webster.com dictionary<\/em>. Retrieved October 21, 2020, from https:\/\/\u200bwww.merriam-webster.com\/\u200bdictionary\/\u200bcitation<\/figure>\n<h2 id=\"print\">How to cite a print dictionary<\/h2>\n<p>Citing from a print dictionary differs in that you\u2019ll always be using a specific edition with a publication date, so this information should appear in your citation. Do not list the publisher a second time if it is already listed in the author position.<\/p>\n<table class=\"kb-apa-example\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th>APA format<\/th>\n<td><span class=\"text-color-purple\">Publisher Name<\/span>. (<span class=\"text-color-purple\">Year<\/span>). <span class=\"text-color-purple\">Entry name<\/span>. In <em><span class=\"text-color-purple\">Dictionary name<\/span><\/em> (<span class=\"text-color-purple\">Edition<\/span>, p. <span class=\"text-color-purple\">Page number<\/span>). <span class=\"text-color-purple\">Publisher<\/span>.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-style\/apa-reference-page\/\">APA reference entry<\/a><\/th>\n<td>HarperCollins. (2019). Rehabilitate. In <em>Collins English dictionary<\/em> (8th ed., p. 672).<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-style\/in-text-citation\/\">APA in-text citation<\/a><\/th>\n<td>(HarperCollins, 2019)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Print dictionaries still don\u2019t usually list authors, although in some specialist dictionaries an author may be listed. If an author for the individual entry is listed, list them in the author position instead of the publisher, and do include the publisher at the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article reflects the\u00a0APA 7th edition\u00a0guidelines. Click here for APA 6th edition guidelines. To cite a dictionary definition in APA Style, start with the author of the dictionary (usually an organization), followed by the publication year, the word you\u2019re citing, the dictionary name, the publisher (if not already listed as author), and the URL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":""},"categories":[185],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<title>How to cite a dictionary in APA Style<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For an APA dictionary citation, list the author, publication year, entry, dictionary name, publisher, and URL.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This article reflects the\u00a0APA 7th edition\u00a0guidelines. Click here for APA 6th edition guidelines. To cite a dictionary definition in APA Style, start with\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Scribbr\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-06T08:24:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-16T10:44:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/open-graph-scribbrcom.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"627\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Caulfield\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jack Caulfield\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jack Caulfield\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c4e9c81ce7b66561129cb53a0f77809\"},\"headline\":\"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-06T08:24:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-16T10:44:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/\"},\"wordCount\":263,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"APA citation examples\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/\",\"name\":\"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-06T08:24:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-16T10:44:13+00:00\",\"description\":\"For an APA dictionary citation, list the author, publication year, entry, dictionary name, publisher, and URL.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/\",\"name\":\"Scribbr\",\"description\":\"The checkpoint for your thesis\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Scribbr\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/scribbr-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/scribbr-logo.png\",\"width\":902,\"height\":212,\"caption\":\"Scribbr\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/scribbr_\",\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/scribbr\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Scribbr-us\/\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c4e9c81ce7b66561129cb53a0f77809\",\"name\":\"Jack Caulfield\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc63abace994444c656c4b53509c1f28?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc63abace994444c656c4b53509c1f28?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jack Caulfield\"},\"description\":\"Jack is a Brit based in Amsterdam, with an MA in comparative literature. He writes for Scribbr about his specialist topics: grammar, linguistics, citations, and plagiarism. In his spare time, he reads a lot of books.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/author\/jackcaulfield\/\"}]}<\/script>","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style","description":"For an APA dictionary citation, list the author, publication year, entry, dictionary name, publisher, and URL.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style","og_description":"This article reflects the\u00a0APA 7th edition\u00a0guidelines. Click here for APA 6th edition guidelines. To cite a dictionary definition in APA Style, start with","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/","og_site_name":"Scribbr","article_published_time":"2020-11-06T08:24:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-06-16T10:44:13+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":627,"url":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/open-graph-scribbrcom.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Jack Caulfield","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jack Caulfield","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/"},"author":{"name":"Jack Caulfield","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c4e9c81ce7b66561129cb53a0f77809"},"headline":"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style","datePublished":"2020-11-06T08:24:02+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-16T10:44:13+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/"},"wordCount":263,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["APA citation examples"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/","name":"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-11-06T08:24:02+00:00","dateModified":"2022-06-16T10:44:13+00:00","description":"For an APA dictionary citation, list the author, publication year, entry, dictionary name, publisher, and URL.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/apa-examples\/dictionary\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to cite a dictionary in APA Style"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/","name":"Scribbr","description":"The checkpoint for your thesis","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#organization","name":"Scribbr","url":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/scribbr-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/scribbr-logo.png","width":902,"height":212,"caption":"Scribbr"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/scribbr_","http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/scribbr","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/c\/Scribbr-us\/"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/person\/4c4e9c81ce7b66561129cb53a0f77809","name":"Jack Caulfield","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc63abace994444c656c4b53509c1f28?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc63abace994444c656c4b53509c1f28?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jack Caulfield"},"description":"Jack is a Brit based in Amsterdam, with an MA in comparative literature. He writes for Scribbr about his specialist topics: grammar, linguistics, citations, and plagiarism. In his spare time, he reads a lot of books.","url":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/author\/jackcaulfield\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15100"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15100"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":385665,"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15100\/revisions\/385665"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scribbr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}