Definition completion

·         Write on the board some definitions with one of the words missing, eg an area of short, regularly cut ______ in the garden of a house or in a public park (OALD 1998: 667). Do not give the word being defined.

·         If students can guess the defined word, in this case, lawn, they can go to the entry and find the missing word, grass. Alternatively they may be able to guess the missing word from clues in the definition, such as cut and garden, without knowing the word defined.

·         Either way, give the first group/student to complete the definition correctly a point each time.

Find the example

·         Choose a fairly long example sentence from the dictionary and write it on the board, eg Jane and Sarah used to be friends but now they are bitter enemies. (OALD 1998: 381)

·         Put students in teams to find this example in their dictionaries. To do this, they have to identify which word is being exemplified.

·         The first team to find the example wins. In this case the word is enemy.

Definition chain

·         Give a chain of words consisting of a first word chosen at random, plus other words, each of which is contained in the definition of the previous word. An example of a chain is: glass, break, space, place, city, king, ruler, wood. These words are linked by definitions as follows: Glass can easily break. A break is a gap or space. Space is also a place. A place can be a city. Cities can be made by a king, who is a ruler. Rulers are made of wood.

·         Write the words on the board in random order.

·         Tell them that glass is the first word. Ask students to put the words in order according to how they think they are connected.

·         Ask for students’ order and connections, which they can then compare with the definitions in the dictionary.