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CAMBRIDGELearner’s

Dictionary

© Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org

Cambridge University Press978-0-521-68196-4 - Cambridge Learner’s DictionaryFrontmatterMore information

http://www.cambridge.org/0521681960

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C A M B R I D G E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

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Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary

Managing EditorKate Woodford

Senior Commissioning EditorElizabeth Walter

Editorial ContributorsMelissa Good, Lucy Hollingworth, Kerry Maxwell, Duncan O’Connor

IllustrationsDavid Shenton, Corinne Burrows, Ray BurrowsEikon Illustrators Ltd

Previous edition:

Managing EditorElizabeth Walter

LexicographersDiane Cranz, Guy Jackson, Virginia Klein, Kerry Maxwell Clea McEnery, Julie Moore, Martine Walsh, Sally Webber, Kate Woodford

Editorial ContributorsMargit Aufterback, Jane Bottomley, Pat Bulhosen, Rebecca Campbell, Carol Cassidy, Eric Fixmer, Lucy Hollingworth,Tess Kaunhoven, Geraldine Mark, Mairi MacDonald, Kate Mohideen, Elizabeth Potter, Glennis Pye, Mira Shapur, Penny Stock, Alison Tunley, Laura Wedgeworth, Susannah Wintersgill






Contents

page vi Introduction

viii How to use this dictionary

xiii More information on using the dictionaryxiii Grammar labels xvi Pronunciationxv Usage labels xvii Regular inflectionsxv UK/US labels

xviii New words

1 The dictionary, A – Z

818 Appendices819 Common first names 827 Irregular verbs820 Geographical names 830 Word beginnings and endings825 Regular verb tenses 833 Word building

CENTRE PAGES

Colour topic picturesCentre 1 Pieces and quantities 8-9 Clothes

2 The kitchen 10 Fruits and vegetables3 The bathroom 11 Food4 The living room 12 Colours5 The office 13 The body6 The classroom 14-15 Sports7 Car 16 Phrasal verbs

17 Extra help pages18 Checking your work 34 Spelling19 Classroom language 36 The Web and the Internet20 Countable and 37 Emailing and texting

uncountable nouns 38 UK and US English22 Modal verbs 39 Writing letters24 Phrasal verbs 41 What is a collocation/word 26 Idioms partner?27 Verb patterns 47 Speaking naturally28 Word formation 1: language for different 30 Numbers situations31 Measurements 51 Speaking naturally32 Pronunciation 2: conversation exercises33 Punctuation 58 Answer key






Introduction

Welcome to the new, updated edition of the Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary(3rd edition). You have in your hand the perfect dictionary for the intermediate andupper-intermediate learner of English, perfect for many reasons:

Clear word meanings (definitions)You need to know what words mean. Our explanations of words are short, clearand accurate. Our definitions use only simple English that you will understand.

Help with grammarYou want to be able to speak and write English that is correct. Our grammarinformation is presented in a way that is clear and helpful and will show you howto avoid mistakes.

Natural-sounding examplesYou want to know how to use words in a way that sounds natural. This dictionarycontains over 27,000 examples. They show the context in which a word is mostoften said or written and the type of words that are often used with it.

Word partners (collocations)Words that are often spoken or written together, for example, a good buy and a bigdecision, are called word partners or collocations. Knowing how to put the rightwords together is probably the most important skill for producing fluent, natural-sounding English. This dictionary has more information on word partners than anyother dictionary at this level.

Keywords You want to know which words are the most important to learn. The 2000 mostimportant words in the English language are shown in blue with a key symbol

F next to them.

New wordsEnglish is changing all the time. You can be confident that this dictionary is reallyup-to-date, with new words from many areas, such as technology, fashion andmusic.






vii

Self-studyYou want to be able to study English on your own. This dictionary has a centresection of 59 Extra help pages with lots of clear, useful information on importanttopics such as phrasal verbs and spelling. There are also 16 full-colour pages ofpictures and photographs to help you increase your vocabulary.

Cambridge International Corpus and Cambridge Learner Corpus All of the features described above were created using the CambridgeInternational Corpus, a collection of over one billion words of English. OnlyCambridge dictionaries are produced using this amazing resource. The English inour corpus comes from many places, for example newspapers, best-selling novels,websites, magazines, TV programmes and recordings of people's everydayconversations. We store all this language in a huge database and use it to see howEnglish is really used. The corpus gives us the evidence we need to be sure thatwhat we say in the dictionary is accurate. Another very valuable tool that we have is the Cambridge Learner Corpus, a largecollection of exam scripts written by students taking Cambridge ESOL Englishexams around the world. This learner corpus shows which words cause problemsfor learners. By looking at it, we can see real problems that real learners have. Thatmeans we can add useful information – often in the form of Common LearnerError Notes to help you avoid them.

The Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary is available with or without a CD-ROM. TheCD-ROM contains everything that is in the dictionary plus some great extrafeatures, such as spoken pronunciations in British and American accents, and theunique SMART thesaurus which gives synonym or topic lists for every single wordin the dictionary and is a fantastic tool for building your vocabulary.

We know you will enjoy using the Cambridge Learner’s Dictionary. Use it and seeyour English develop.

Visit the world’s favourite learner dictionaries at:http://dictionary.cambridge.org






Flanguage / ŋ id / noun 1 COMMUNICATION[U] communication between people, usuallyusing words She has done research into howchildren acquire language. 2 ENGLISH/SPANISH/JAPANESE ETC [C] a type of communication usedby the people of a particular country Howmany languages do you speak? 3 TYPE OFWORDS [U] words of a particular type, espe-cially the words used by people in a particularjob legal language the language of business4 COMPUTERS [C, U] a system of instructions thatis used to write computer programs 7See also:body language, modern languages, second lan-guage, sign language.

language la boratory UK (US languagelaboratory) noun [C] a room in a college or

school where you can use equipment to helpyou practise listening to and speaking a for-eign language

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How to use this dictionary

Each entry begins with the baseform of the word.

Finding a word

When two words have the same spellingbut different parts of speech (e.g. a nounand a verb), they have separate entries.

Words which are made of two separatewords (compounds) are found inalphabetical order. The stress marks (��)show you which part of the word to saystrongly.

When a word can be spelled anotherway, or when there is another word for it,this is shown.

dialogue (also US dialog) / daiəlɒ noun [C, U]1 the talking in a book, play, or film 2 aformal discussion between countries orgroups of people

interface1 / ntəfe is/ noun [C] 1 a connectionbetween two pieces of electronic equipment,or between a person and a computer a simpleuser interface 2 a situation, way, or placewhere two things can come together and havean effect on each other the interface betweentechnology and tradition

interface2 / nt fe is/ verb [I, T] to communicatewith people or electronic equipment, or tomake people or electronic equipment com-municate We use email to interface with ourcustomers.






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Each word has a part of speech label (e.g.noun, verb, adj) For a list of the parts ofspeech, see inside the front cover.

Where a word has more than onemeaning, the most frequent meaning isshown first.

Words which have several meanings haveto help you find the

meaning you are looking for.GUIDEWORDS

Some words which are formed from themain word are shown at the end of anentry. If a word is not formed with aregular pattern, or if its meaning is noteasy to guess, it has its own explanation.See Word Beginnings and Endings onpage 830.

Example sentences, based on theCambridge International Corpus, showhow words are used in typical situations.

Grammar labels tell you how a word isused. See grammar labels on page xiii.

Understanding an entry

fluent / flu nt/ adjective 1 able to use a lan-guage naturally without stopping or makingmistakes She is fluent in six languages. 2 pro-duced or done in a smooth, natural styleHendrik speaks fluent English. fluency/ flu nsi/ noun [U] fluently adverb

Fvoice1 /vɔis/ noun 1 SOUNDS [C] the sounds thatyou make when you speak or sing I could hearvoices in the next room. Jessie has a beautifulsinging voice. Could you please keep yourvoices down (= speak more quietly)? 2 loseyour voice to become unable to speak, often be-cause of an illness She had a bad cold and waslosing her voice. 3 OPINION [C] someone’s opin-ion about a particular subject The programmegives people the opportunity to make theirvoices heard. 4 PERSON [no plural] someone whoexpresses the opinions or wishes of a group ofpeople It’s important that students have a voiceon the committee. 7See also: the passive.

Fsay1 /se i/ verb [T] says, past said 1 WORDS to speakwords "I’d like to go home," she said. Icouldn’t hear what they were saying. How doyou say this word? 2 TELL to tell someone abouta fact, thought, or opinion [+ question word] Didshe say where she was going? [+ (that)] Thejury said that he was guilty. 3 INFORMATION togive information in writing, numbers, or signsMy watch says one o’clock. What do thepapers say about the election? 4 say sth to your-self to think something but not speak "I hopeshe likes me," he said to himself.






x

This symbol shows very frequent wordswhich are important to learn.

Learning more about a word

Pronunciations use the InternationalPhonetic Alphabet (IPA). There is a list ofthese symbols inside the back cover ofthe dictionary. The most difficultsymbols are also explained at the bottomof each page.There is an explanation ofthe pronunciation system on page xvi.

Irregular inflections of words are clearlyshown. There is a list of irregular verbinflections on page 827 and anexplanation of regular inflections onpage 825.

These labels show you when a word isused in British English or AmericanEnglish. See explanation of these labelson page xv.

These labels tell you how formal,informal, etc a word is. See explanationof all these labels on page xv.

Cross references show you where youcan find related information such asopposites, pictures, study pages, andidioms.

Fspeak /spi k/ verb past tense spoke, past participlespoken 1 [I] to say something using your voiceto speak loudly/quietly There was complete si-lence - nobody spoke. 2 speak to sb mainly UK(mainly US speak with sb) to talk to someoneCould I speak to Mr Davis, please? Have youspoken with your new neighbors yet? 3 speakabout/of sth to talk about something He re-fused to speak about the matter in public.4 speak English/French/German, etc to be able tocommunicate in English/French/German, etcDo you speak English? 5 [I] to make a speech toa large group of people She was invited tospeak at a conference in Madrid. 6 speak for/onbehalf of sb to express the feelings, opinions,etc of another person or of a group of peopleI’ve been chosen to speak on behalf of the wholeclass.

Fchat1 /tʃ verb [I] chatting, past chatted to talkwith someone in a friendly and informal way Iwanted to chat to you about the party onSaturday.chat sb up UK informal to talk to someonein a way that shows them that you are sexu-ally attracted to them

Fask / sk/ verb 1 QUESTION [I, T] to say somethingto someone as a question which you wantthem to answer [+ two objects] Can I ask you afew questions? I asked him about his hob-bies. [+ question word] I asked why the planewas so late. She asked whether I knew whatIan’s plans were. I asked him what time theparty started. 7See Common learner error at ques-tion. 2 WANT SOMETHING [I, T] to say something tosomeone because you want them to give yousomething He’s asked for a bike for his birth-day.






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Some words are used as part of a phrase.This is shown clearly at the start of thedefinition.

Phrasal verbs come after the entry for theverb in alphabetical order.

Some words are used as part of an idiom.These are shown in dark type at the endof the entry.

Words which are often used together(collocations or word partners) are shownin dark type in examples.

All our explanations use very simplewords. Where we have had to use a moredifficult word than usual, that word isexplained in brackets.

communicate /k mju nikeit/ verb [I, T] 1 toshare information with others by speaking,writing, moving your body, or using other sig-nals We can now communicate instantly withpeople on the other side of the world. 2 to talkabout your thoughts and feelings, and helpother people to understand them He can’t com-municate with his parents.

Fspell1 /spel/ verb past spelled also UK spelt 1 [T] towrite down or tell someone the letters whichare used to make a word How do you spell that?

Her name’s spelt S-I-A-N. 2 [I] If you canspell, you know how to write the words of alanguage correctly. My grammar’s all right,but I can’t spell. 3 spell disaster/trouble, etc Ifsomething spells disaster, trouble, etc, youthink it will cause something bad to happen inthe future. The new regulations could spell dis-aster for small businesses.spell sth out to explain something in avery clear way with details They sent me aletter, spelling out the details of the agree-ment.

Fmessage1 / mes id / noun [C] 1 a piece of writ-ten or spoken information which one persongives to another Did you get my message? Ileft her several messages, but she hasn’treturned my call. 2 the most important idea ofa film, book, etc The book conveys a complexmessage. 3 get the message informal to under-stand what someone wants you to do by theiractions Don’t return any of his calls - he’ll soonget the message and leave you alone.

Fexpress1 /ik spres/ verb [T] to show what youthink or how you feel using words or actionsI’m simply expressing my opinion. [oftenreflexive] You’re not expressing yourself(=saying what you mean) very clearly.






xii

These thesaurus boxes show youall the different words which havethe same or a similar meaning.There are 80 of these boxes in thisdictionary.

These word partner boxes give youinformation on words that areoften spoken or written together,often called ‘collocations’ or ‘wordpartners’. There are over 1000 ofthese boxes in this dictionary.

Common Learner Error notesbased on the Cambridge LearnerCorpus give extra informationabout words which often causeproblems for learners.

The information in the boxes

WORD PARTNERS FOR text messageget/send a text message a text messagesaying sth a text message from/to sb

COMMON LEARNER ERROR

mentionNo preposition is normally needed after the verbmention.He didn’t mention the price.

He didn’t mention about the price.

OTHER WAYS OF SAYING talk

The most common alternatives are speakand say: Could you speak more quietly,please? I couldn’t hear what they weresaying.The verb chat or the expression have achat are often used if a person is talkingwith someone in a friendly, informal way:We were just chatting about the party onSaturday. Give me a call and we’ll have achat.If people talk for a long time about thingsthat are not important, verbs such as chat-ter, natter (UK, informal), and the ex-pression have a natter (UK, informal) aresometimes used: She spent the morningchattering away to her friends. We had along natter over coffee.






xiii

More information on using the dictionary

Nouns

C countable noun pencil, friend, house

U uncountable noun, does not water, advice, healthhave a plural

C, U noun which can be countable ability, quantity, exerciseor uncountable � You should take some exercise.

� I do my exercises every morning.

7 see also Extra help page Countable and uncountable nouns, on page Centre 20

group noun which refers to government, class, teama group of people or things � The French team are Europeanand can be used with either champions.a singular or a plural verb � His team is top of the league.

plural plural noun, used with trousers, scissors, pliersa plural verb

no plural noun which can be used rush, vicious circle, waitwith a and an, but does not � Sorry, I’m in a rush.have a plural

usually plural noun usually used in the statistics, resources, regulationsplural form

usually noun usually used in the mess, range, worldsingular singular form

Verbs

I intransitive verb, does not sleep, glance, fallhave an object � Anna’s sleeping.

T transitive verb, must cure, hit, catchhave an object � Fiona hit her sister.

I, T verb that can be intransitive sing, explain, driveor transitive � I always sing in the bath.

� He sang a love song.

ditransitive verb, that give, send, lendhas two objects � She gave me the keys.

Grammar labels

When a word must always be used in a particular grammatical form, that form isshown at the beginning of the entry or the beginning of the meaning. Patternswhich are common and typical, but are not always used, are given next toexample sentences showing how they are used.

+ two objects






xiv

often passive verb often used in the passive allow� Smoking is not allowed in

the restaurant.

often verb often used with a reflexive defendreflexive pronoun (myself, yourself, � He can defend himself.

herself, etc)

If a verb or a meaning of a verb is always passive (e.g. inundate,demote, affiliate) or always reflexive (e.g. brace, ingratiate, steel),the whole grammar pattern is shown at the beginning of the entry.

Some verb or meanings of verbs are always followed by an adverb or preposition (e.g. creep, flick, trickle) . When thishappens, common examples of adverbs and prepositions used are shown at the beginning of the entry or the meaning.

7 see also Extra help page Verb patterns, on page Centre 27

Adjectives

always attributive adjective, major, basic, staunchbefore noun always comes before the noun � a staunch supporter

never before predicative adjective, used with afraid, ready, donenoun verbs such as be, seem, feel � She’s afraid of water.

always after adjective always used directly galore, proper, incarnatenoun after the noun � the devil incarnate

Other grammar patterns

The following patterns can refer to nouns, adjectives, and verbs:

+ that the word is followed by a that boast, assertion, evidentclause, and the word that � It was evident from her voicemust be included that she was upset.

+ (that) the word is followed by a that hope, amazed, doubtclause but the word that does � I hope that the bus won’t be not have to be used late.

I hope the bus won’t be late.

+ doing sth the word is followed by a verb enjoy, busy, difficultyin the –ing form � I enjoy going to the beach.

+ to do sth the word is followed by a verb confidence, careful, decidein the infinitive � I didn’t have the confidence

to speak up.

+ for/of, etc the word is followed by a apologize, idea, guilty+ doing sth preposition (e.g. for/of) and � She apologized for being

then a verb in the –ing form late.

+ question the word is followed by ask, certain, clueword a question word � I’m not certain who to ask.

(e.g. who, what, how)

used in the word is used in questions mind, much, yetquestions and and negative sentences � Do you mind if I come in?

negatives I haven’t seen him yet.






xv

Usage labels

informal used when you are speaking, brainy, freebie, goalieor communicating with people you know but not normally in serious writing

formal used in serious writing or for examination, moreover, communicating with people purchaseabout things like law or business

very used when you are talking to prat, barf, crapinformal people you know well, and not

usually in writing. Some of these words may offend people,and this is explained in the entry.

spoken a way of writing a word which yeah, hey, ehis used in conversation

humorous used in order to be funny or couch potato, snail mailto make a joke

literary used in books and poems, beloved, slumber, weepnot in ordinary conversation

old- not used in modern English – gramophone, spectacles, fashioned you might find these words in farewell

books, used by older people, or used in order to be funny

trademark the name of a product that is Coke, Hoover, Sellotapemade by one company. Sometimesa trademark is used as a general word

UK/US labels

The spelling used in definitions and examples in this dictionary isBritish English. However, American English is also explainedclearly, and where there is a difference between British andAmerican English, this is shown.

UK only used in British English pavement, petrol station

US only used in American English sidewalk, gas station

mainly UK mainly used in British English, but lecturer, rubbish, nightdresssometimes in American English

mainly US mainly used in American movie, apartment, semesterEnglish, but sometimes in British English

also UK another word that can also be truck (also UK lorry)used in British English ■ truck is used in

Britain and US lorry is also used in Britain

also US another word that can also be railway (also US railroad)used in American English ■ railway is used in Britain

and USrailroad is also used in US

7 see also Extra help page UK and US English, on page Centre 38






xvi

All pronunciations use theInternational Phonetic Alphabet.There is a complete list of phoneticsymbols inside the back cover.

Many phonetic symbols, e.g. /p/, /s/,/k/, sound exactly like the mostcommon pronunciation of the letterthey look like. Those that do not areexplained at the bottom of every pageof the dictionary.

Where more than one pronunciation isshown, the more common one is first,but both are often used.

British and American pronunciation

Most words are given only one pronun-ciation, which is acceptable in Britishand American English. There aresome regular differences betweenBritish and American English whichare not shown for every word.

The main ones are:

1 In American English, the r in wordssuch as hard or teacheris pronounced, and in BritishEnglish it is silent.

2 In American English, t and tt inwords such as later and butter, arepronounced in a soft way, almostlike a /d/ sound.

Where there is a big differencebetween British and American pro-nunciation, both forms are shown.The symbol b is shown before anAmerican pronunciation, e.g. sched-ule /�ʃedjul b �skedul/

Stress patterns

Stress patterns show you which partsof the word you should emphasize when you say them.

/�/ shows the main emphasis on a word.For example, in the word picture/�piktʃər/, you should emphasize thefirst part, and in the word deny/di�nai/ you should emphasize thesecond part.

/�/ shows the second most importantemphasis on the word. For example,in the word submarine/�s�bmər�in/,the main emphasis is on the last partof the word, but you should alsoemphasize the first part of the wordslightly.

Compound words (words made of twoor more separate words) have theirstress patterns shown on them. Forexample in the word de�signer �baby,the main emphasis is on the first partof the second word, but you should alsoemphasize the first part of the firstword slightly.

Strong forms and weak forms

Some common words (e.g. and, them,of) have strong forms and weak forms.The weak forms are more common.

For example, in the sentence ‘I sawthem leave.’, the weak form /ðəm/ would be used.

The strong form is used when youwant to emphasize the word. Forinstance, in the sentence ‘They saidthey saw me, but I didn’t see them.’, thestrong form /ðem/ would be used.

Pronunciation






xvii

All inflections (e.g. plurals, pasttenses) that are not regular (= are notformed in the usual way) are shown atthe entry for the word. The regularway of forming inflections is shownbelow.

Nouns

Most nouns form their plurals by adding –s� chair, chairs � plate, plates

Nouns which end in –s, –ss, –ch, –x, and –z, make their plurals by adding –es� mass, masses � match, matches

Nouns which end in a consonant (e.g. m, t, p) + –y, form their plurals bytaking away the –y and adding –ies� baby, babies � university,

universities

Adjectives

The comparative form of adjectives isused to show that someone or some-thing has more of a particular qualitythan someone or something else. Tomake the regular comparative form,you either add –er to the end of theadjective, or use the word morebefore it.

The superlative form of adjectives isused to show that someone or some-thing has more of a particular qualitythan anyone or anything else. To makethe regular superlative form, youeither add –est to the end of theadjective, or use the word mostbefore it.

One-syllable adjectives usually formtheir comparative and superlative with –er and –est� small, smaller, smallest

Two-syllable adjectives can all formtheir comparative and superlative with more and most.� complex, more complex, mostcomplex

Some two-syllable adjectives can use –er and –est too. The most common of these are: ■ adjectives ending in –y and –ow,

� happy, noisy, shallow■ adjectives ending in –le,

� able, noble, simple■ some other common two-syllable

adjectives, � common, cruel, handsome,

pleasant, polite, quiet, solid, wicked

Three-syllable adjectives usually formtheir comparative and superlative with more and most� beautiful, more beautiful,

most beautiful

When you are using the –er, –estforms, if the adjective ends in –e, takeaway the –e before adding the ending� pale, paler, palest

If the adjective ends in –y, change this to –i before adding the ending� happy, happier, happiest

Verbs

Regular verbs add the followingendings:

for the 3rd person singular add –s, or –es to verbs that end in –s, –ss, –ch, –x, and –z

for the present participle add –ing

for the past tense and the pastparticiple add –ed� pack, packs, packing, packed

For verbs ending in –e, take away the –e before adding the present participle, past tense, and past participle endings.� hate, hates, hating, hated

For verbs ending in –y, for the thirdperson singular take away the –y andadd –ies, and for the past tense and past participle take away the –y and add –ied.� cry, cries, crying, cried

Regular inflections






New words

xviii

These three pages contain new words and phrases which have recently appearedin the English language or have recently become more popular. Many of thesewords and phrases will continue to be used in years to come while some may

disappear from the language.

the arsenic hour noun [no plural] a busy timeof day in a house with young children, espe-cially the time after parents arrive home andbefore the evening meal Here are some tips forpreparing a meal during the arsenic hour.

baby hunger noun [U] the strong wish to havea baby, especially among older women whohave important jobs Men’s baby hunger isoften not as great as women’s.

body lift noun [C] a medical operation thattightens loose skin on someone’s body so thatthey look younger and more attractive Peoplesometimes have a body lift after they have lost alot of weight.

BOGOF abbreviation for buy one get one free: asupermarket offer in which you get two ofsomething but only pay for one of them

caller-ID noun [U] a system that makes it pos-sible for a telephone to show the telephonenumber of the person who is calling Getcaller-ID and then you don’t have to answer thephone when he calls.

Chelsea tractor noun [C] humorous a largefour-wheel-drive (= a car with big wheels fordriving on rough ground) which is only drivenin a town the Mums in their Chelsea tractorstaking children to school

chugger noun [C] someone who stands on thestreet on the street and asks people walkingpast to give money regularly to a charity

citizen journalist noun [C] someone whogives news stories to newspapers although itis not their job Citizen journalists gave theiraccounts of the explosion. � citizen journalismnoun [U]

climate-friendly adjective Something that isclimate-friendly does not cause any damagewhich will change the Earth’s weather pat-terns. climate-friendly technology � climate-friendly farming

competitive compassion noun [U] whenpeople give money to a charity (= an organiza-tion that helps people) because they want toseem kinder than other people It was com-petitive compassion which led people to give somuch money following the floods.

cyberslacking noun [U] when people at workspend time sending emails to their friends andusing the Internet for enjoyment instead ofworking Cyberslacking is becoming a problemfor many employers. � cyberslacker noun [C]

data fast noun [C] a period of time when youdo not use your computer, mobile phone, tele-vision, etc If you want to feel less stressed, try adata fast.

downtime noun [U] time when you relax anddo not do very much. We’ve had a busy week-end so I’m planning to have some downtime to-morrow.

earworm noun [C] a song or part of a song thatyou hear again and again in your head Peoplewho get the most earworms tend to listen tomusic frequently.

e-dress noun [C] an email or website addressPlease note the company’s change of e-dress.

ego surfing noun [U] searching on the Inter-net for your own name Ego surfing is certainlyeasier if you have an unusual name.

fat tax noun [C] a tax on food that is bad foryour body and will make you fat a fat tax onburgers and chips

firefighting noun [U] when you spend all yourtime dealing with problems at work that needyour immediate attention I seem to be so busyfirefighting that I never have time to do routinejobs.

flexitarian noun [C] someone who does not eatmeat or fish usually, but sometimes does She

� jyes � k cat � ŋ ring � ʃ she � θ thin � ð this � � decision � d� jar � tʃ chip � æ cat � e bed � ə ago � i sit � i cosy � ɒ hot � � run � υ put �






xix

eats chicken occasionally and describes herselfas a flexitarian.

future-proof verb [T] to design software, acomputer, etc so that it can still be used in thefuture, even when technology changes Hereare some tips for future-proofing your computernetwork.

Googlewhacking noun [U] the activity oftrying to find a set of words that will only pro-duce one result when you use GoogleTM (= acomputer program that finds information onthe Internet) Like a lot of bored office workers,I’ve done a bit of Googlewhacking in my time.� Googlewhack noun [C]

granny leave noun [U] a period of time whenyou do not go to work because you are lookingafter an old or ill parent Small business ownersare worried about the effect that granny leavewill have on their businesses.

greenwash verb [T] to make people believethat your company cares more about the en-vironment than it really does Many shoppershave been greenwashed by products claiming tobe "natural" and "kind to the environment".� greenwash noun [C] The government’s latestinitiative has been dismissed as a greenwash.

grief tourist noun [C] someone who visits aplace because something very bad has hap-pened there The site where the Twin Towerswere in New York is a favourite destination forgrief tourists.

half birthday noun [C] the day that is exactlyhalf a year from your birthday If you need anexcuse for a celebration, why not celebrate yourhalf birthday?

hand-me-up noun [C] something that you giveto an older person because you no longer useit, or because you now have something betterMy mobile phone is a hand-me-up from my son.

ICE number noun [C] abbreviation for In Caseof Emergency number: a telephone numberthat you store in your mobile phone under thename ‘ICE’ so that people know who to call ifyou are hurt in an accident The emergencyservices are urging people to enter an ICEnumber on their mobile phones.

infomania noun [U] when you cannot thinkclearly because you are spending too muchtime sending and reading emails and text mes-sages The study shows that there is a rise ininfomania, with growing numbers of peopleobsessively checking their email.

jobspill noun [U] when you spend time at homedoing things that are part of your job If yourboss calls you at the weekend, that’s jobspill.

kidult noun [C] an adult who likes doing orbuying things that are intended for children

latte factor noun [no plural] small amounts ofmoney that you spend without thinking,which are a lot of money if you add them to-gether You could save $50 a week if you cut outthe latte factor.

metrosexual noun [C] a man who is sexuallyattracted to women but is also interested infashion and the way he looks The typicalmetrosexual is a young man, living in a city,with money to spend. 7Compare retrosexual.

milk brain noun [U] the tired and confusedfeeling that many mothers of young babieshave Milk brain is a temporary effect broughton by lack of sleep.

muffin top noun [C] fat on someone’s stomachthat you can see because it hangs over the topof their trousers The appearance of muffin topshas increased with the fashion for low-cut trou-sers and short tops.

phat adjective very good informal The band hada really phat sound.

podjacking noun [U] 1 when someone takescontrol of how a podcast (= a radio programstored in digital form) is sent to people so thatpeople think it comes from him or her Thereare steps you can take to avoid podjacking.2 the act of putting the cord from your MP3player (= a piece of equipment that playsdigital music) into someone else’s MP3 playerso that you can listen to or copy their music

regifting noun [U] when you give someonesomething which someone else gave to you asa present Passing on gifts that we don’t want orneed, or regifting as it’s now called, is becomingmore acceptable.

rendition noun [U] the practice of sendingsomeone to another country to answer ques-tions about a crime or to be put in prison Sincethe terrorist attack of September 11, renditionhas been carried out on a greater scale.

rescue call noun [C] a call that you ask some-one to make to your mobile phone at a particu-lar time because you might need a reason toleave a place Nancy was not sure that shewould like her date so she arranged for a rescuecall at 8pm.

retrosexual noun [C] a man who is sexuallyattracted to women and is not interested infashion or the way he looks Retrosexualswould never use something like hair gel. 7Com-pare metrosexual.

saviour sibling UK (US savior sibling) noun [C]a child who is born with particular genes

� ɑ� arm � �� her � i� see � ɔ� saw �u� too � ai my � aυ how � eə hair � ei day �əυ no �iə near �ɔi boy �υə poor �aiə fire �aυə sour �






xx

which scientists have chosen so that he or shewill be able to help treat an older brother orsister who has a disease Baby James is a sa-viour sibling for his older brother John whohas a life-threatening blood disorder.

season creep noun [U] the fact that spring iscoming earlier which may be caused by globalwarming (= the fact that the Earth is be-coming warmer)

shouty adjective Someone who is shouty shoutsa lot because they get angry very easily.

slow food noun [U] good food that is grown lo-cally, cooked well, and eaten slowly so you canenjoy it The slow food movement was createdto combat fast food.

splitter noun [C] someone who owns twohomes, and spends some time in one home andsome time in the other Are you a splitter with ahome in Britain and a home in Spain?

springspotter noun [C] someone who looksfor ideas, products, clothes, etc that are be-coming fashionable, and tells people in busi-ness so they can develop new products Theyhave a team of springspotters who go round theneighbourhood and report back which trendsand products are becoming popular.

stealth tax noun [C] a new tax that is collectedin a way that it is not very obvious, so peoplemay not realise that they are paying it

Stepford adjective [always before noun] doingeverything that someone tells you to, and nothaving any ideas of your own a Stepford wife

Stepford employees

stress puppy noun [C] someone who seems toenjoy stress (= worry caused by difficult situ-ations), but complains about it often

supersize (also supersized) adjective describessomething that is much bigger than normal asupersize bacon cheeseburger

Swiss army phone noun [C] a mobile phonethat can do a lot of things such as play music,take photographs, etc

textual harassment noun [U] when some-one sends rude or unpleasant text messages (=written messages sent from one mobile phoneto another) to someone else Textual harass-ment is becoming a popular way for school bul-lies to reach their victims day and night.

TLA noun [C] abbreviation for three-letterabbreviation: a set of three letters that is ashort form of a word or phrase BBC and DVDare well-known TLAs.

trouser verb [T] to get a large amount of money,especially money that should not be yours Shedid all the work and yet her husband trouseredthe profits.

ubersexual noun [C] a man who is sexually at-tracted to women, is kind, and wants to helpother people The ultimate ubersexual is con-fident and passionate about his beliefs.

unibrow (also monobrow) noun [C] a line of hairthat joins someone’s eyebrows (= the lines ofhair over the eyes) so that it looks as if theyhave one long eyebrow If you have a unibrowshould you pluck it, shave it, or leave it alone?

universal release noun [C, U] when a newfilm becomes available in cinemas and onDVD on the same day ‘Bubble’ will be themovie industry’s first universal release. Uni-versal release will increase audience andprofits.

Winterval noun [U] the time during the middleof winter when people celebrate Christmasand other festivals The town renamed Christ-mas ‘Winterval’ in order to avoid offendingnon-Christians.

zombie computer (also zombie) noun [C] acomputer with a virus (= a program that is se-cretly put on a computer to cause damage)that makes it cause problems for other com-puters without the user knowing 50-80% of allemail spam is sent by zombie computers.

j yes k cat ŋ ring ʃ she θ thin ð this decision d jar tʃ chip æ cat e bed ə ago i sit i cosy ɒ hot run υ put






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