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A lot of people use the dictionary to find out how to spell words.

The trouble with the dictionary is that you have to know how a word is spelled before you can look it up to see how it is spelled.

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

We think people go to a dictionary to find out what a word means. Most people go to the dictionary because they don't want to look stupid.

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

Dictionaries are always fun, but not always reassuring.

Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.

I'm very sensitive to the English language. I studied the dictionary obsessively when I was a kid and collect old dictionaries. Words, I think, are very powerful and they convey an intention.

The dictionary is like a time capsule of all of human thinking ever since words began to be written down. And exploring where words have come from can increase your understanding of the words themselves and expand your understanding of how to use the words, and all of this change happens in your thinking when you read the words.

If you have a big enough dictionary, just about everything is a word.