Do You Understand Monolingual Dictionaries, or Dictionaries in General?

Open Forum
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I was thinking about a short conversation we had earlier: [Is it Necessary to Switch to Monolingual Dictionaries].

The question then was whether it is necessary to switch to a monolingual dictionary instead of relying on a bilingual one.

But I’d like to go a little further, if you’re willing to dig deeper into the topic.

I’m trying to move from advanced to excellent, and one obstacle I face is the “not translating” effect—especially in writing. The nuances of the language are very difficult to grasp.

That pushes me toward “full immersion,” at home of course, since I’m not living in the country of my target language.

Now the dictionary itself becomes part of the obstacle. If I keep relying on a bilingual dictionary, I’ll have less immersion but faster understanding. If I switch to a monolingual dictionary, I’ll have more immersion but slower understanding. Reading in context is different from using a dictionary—it can lead to faster acquisition, but also to unnoticed mistakes and wrong interpretations (that could be fixed with dictionaries).

I find speaking easier, but when writing we have to pay more attention to details. Writing requires more careful handling of nuance, especially if we’re publishing, writing formal letters, or producing any other kind of polished text.

That brings me back to my earlier question: do you understand how dictionaries work? Many times, when I read a dictionary definition, I don’t fully grasp it—it describes the word, but doesn’t give me the same intuitive understanding I get from seeing it many times in LingQ, for example.

But even then, I don’t always capture the nuance when reading on LingQ, because my mind can misinterpret the meaning—getting close, but not quite right. Even worse when words have many different meanings.

ChatGPT is becoming very useful for clarifying these differences. Still, I wonder: is it sustainable to spend so much time asking ChatGPT for clarification?

Take Kindle, for example. If you only had access to a monolingual dictionary there (and no bilingual one at all), would that be a wise long-term choice? Would it be better to rely solely on context and monolingual definitions, instead of falling back on a bilingual dictionary—or even ChatGPT? Especially from the perspective of “full immersion,” without actually living in the target country?

Beyond theory, what’s your experience at advanced level? Even in your own language, what’s the best strategy to master the language?

Thanks for your insights.

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我觉得首先，你要改变一个观念，只需要在你喜欢的小块的领域达到卓越即可，因为一门语言的范围实在太广阔，怎么学都会有遗憾，只要学就会察觉自己可以修改，精进的表达，而且语言越是学习越会觉得自己缺少，这在我的母语中深有体会。

例如，我学日语只要读懂轻小说【ラノベ】和漫画漫画即可，并且只是读懂细分的一个类别的内容即可，只要给自己划分一个可以达到的范围，并且为之努力即可，不需要达到多么的渊博。

还有就是在掌握了大量输入的词汇以后，输出非常的重要，这就是肌肉记忆，我一直都很轻视输出，认为只要大量阅读，就可以阅读我想读的内容，但是缺少输出，我学习到的词汇从脑子中提取的反应很慢，有时会有记不清读音和面对复杂句子难以理解的情况，这都是缺乏输出导致的，我在最近尝试了一下大声朗读文章，对于我加深记忆非常有效。
所以我打算至少一天发声读一篇文章，好加深对词汇以及句子的理解，也正是因为我输出的缺乏，让我执着于大量输入，一直阅读尝试增加词汇以及熟练度量的死循环。

经过一番挣扎和探索以后，我的语言学习终极目标就是可以流畅口说，书写，已经在喜欢的内容流畅阅读，无需掌握那么多的词汇。在我看来，流畅的口说可以增加自信，自信可以让我在语言的进深上面没那么纠结。

所以，我给你的建议是通过肌肉记忆，换言之就是输出的方式，朗读和写作的方式来从高级迈向卓越，一天阅读一篇文章来加强理解，而不是纠结词典，lingq在开发ai上下文释义，不知道他们现在是什么进度，但是应该会强过所有的词典，然而我觉得这并没有肌肉记忆来的强劲，现在有很多应用即使有ai上下文释义，依旧免不了我对于词汇的那种模糊的感觉。

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I actually think using monolingual dictionaries has its advantages and we did use them back in the day from some point on in our English lessons in school, too. You can easely encounter words having dozens of different possible translations, especially verbs. Having descriptions might make it easier to understand what those have in common (as there might be a reason why one word is used in several at first glance different contexts or different meanings).

That beeing said I currently mainly use bilingual dictionaries, but that is due to my language level (far from advanced :D).

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Thank you for your reply. I hope the automatic translation did you justice, and I think it did.

I do many other things at the same time. In this post, I focused more on dictionaries because that’s one decision I constantly think about at the moment. But yes, reading articles or other texts out loud is also something I’m doing almost daily. You said something very interesting—the idea of reaching excellence in a small field first and then progressing from there. That’s true. A language is vast, and it’s something worth reflecting on. However, I always have many different interests at the same time. Still, your answer was very valuable, and I will definitely take it in consideration.

Thank you.

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Yeah — that’s going to make the difference: I need to push my language to the next level by embracing more effective strategies and dropping those that are limiting. I’m working on an action plan to reach the next level. :smiley:

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I’m self-studying English at a beginner level. I’ve tried using monolingual dictionaries, but I often find myself struggling to understand many words. Does this mean it’s not suitable for beginners?

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Personally, I wouldn’t use—or force myself to use—a monolingual dictionary as a beginner. It may be tempting and give you the impression that you’re learning or progressing faster, but the reality is that learning a language is a long journey. Each definition would probably include many other words you don’t know, as you described, which would make it difficult for you to progress. I would wait until you’ve reached a comfortable reading level. That said, I’m sure you could find stricter or opposing opinions as well. Good luck.

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I like your question. I am no expert, but I have learned a few languages to varying degrees of fluency. (English is my native language; I lived in Germany long ago and it is still my second strongest language; my wife is Venezuelan, and we have always only spoken Spanish together; we currently live in Brazil, so we speak Portuguese with everyone around us; I am currently learning French and Mandarin, B1 and A1 respectively.) I have found ChatGPT to be very helpful to practice writing in my target language. I have it respond ONLY in my target language–say, French–so if I need help with the nuances of a particular word, it knows it has to explain this word to me using only French. And I can ask it follow-up questions to clarify, again trying to write only in French. In this way I get the benefit of a (sort of) “living” monolingual dictionary in an artificial, immersive environment. I like the idea of only using a monolingual dictionary once you reach a certain level, probably a strong B1 or so. However, I remember even in my native language not fully grasping dictionary definitions until I heard or read a word being used (eventually) over and over and over again. As for the best strategy to “master” a language, mine is simply engaging with the language on a consistent basis for years, using whatever method(s) keep you coming back for more and more and more. Honestly, I feel I’ve only achieved “mastery” with English, German, and possibly Spanish, though even with Spanish I lose any and all arguments with my wife. To actually (finally) answer your question explicitly, I think if you enjoy the deeper, slower, more immersive experience of a monolingual dictionary, then yes, it would be a wise long-term choice for you. In the end, it probably doesn’t matter, as long as you have consistent, long-term, active contact with the language.

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Even if your wife will always win any argument — let’s face it, no master’s degree will ever help you with that skill — I completely understand your point of view.

Yesterday I was thinking that dictionaries describe words, but we absorb their meaning in context by encountering them multiple times and from different angles. Maybe, after a certain level, it might be better to stop relying on any dictionary, and use them only occasionally.

Take something simple, like the color red. You can read a dictionary definition, but you won’t really understand it until you see the color — unless you already have very advanced knowledge of color terminology. Dictionaries often repeat themselves and define words with other words because they can’t always do better.

ChatGPT becomes a more useful tool because we can interact with it, ask for context and examples for every word. But if we need to learn thousands of words, that interactive approach can be time consuming and sometimes less productive.

I was also thinking about sentence mining and ways to make it more effective. Maybe this is the best way to integrate those difficult nuances in our knowledge. Probably I should start using LingQ differently at my level.

Still, this argument is open for discussion. Thanks for sharing.

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For a beginner monolingual dictionaries are most likely no good starting point, but you could try picture dictionaries. Although I am not sure to which degree they are restricted to concrete objects. May depend on the language, too.

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