The examples in the entry for a word or phrase show you how that word or phrase is commonly used in written and spoken English. They can help you to use a word naturally and to check that you have found the right word.

Sometimes a word shown in an example is shown in bold. This tells you that it is a collocation (a word that is very commonly used with the word you have looked up).

Labels in small italics show you the part of speech of a word. Labels in square brackets give you extra grammatical information about the word. See 【7】common grammor labels used in the dictionary.

When grammar information is given before any numbered definitions, that grammar pattern is true for all uses of the word.

When grammar information is given before an individual definition, that grammar pattern is true only for that meaning of the word.

When grammar information is given after an example, that grammar pattern is true only for the particular use of the word shown in the example.

Plurals, verb forms, comparatives and superlatives are shown if they are irregular.