Alexis M,Tronado

Grade 10 Electrical
History:
Merriam-Webster dictionary, any of various lexicographic works
published by the G. & C. Merriam Co.—renamed Merriam-Webster, Incorporated, in
1982—which is located in Springfield, Massachusetts, and which since 1964 has been
a subsidiary of Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. Among the dictionaries are Webster’s
Third New International Dictionary of the English Language (1961), which contains more
than 476,000 entries and provides the most extensive record of American English
now available, and the 11th edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (2003).
The G. & C. Merriam Co., founded in 1831, acquired the rights after the death
of Noah Webster in 1843 to his An American Dictionary of the English Language. This
work had first been published in 1828 and was the first American unabridged
dictionary. A second edition had been published in 1840, and subsequent editions
were published by the company in 1847 and 1864. The 1890 revision was given the
title Webster’s International Dictionary and was followed in 1909 by Webster’s New
International Dictionary, Second Edition, and in 1961 by Webster’s Third New International
Dictionary.
Merriam-Webster dictionaries began to be published in electronic formats, including
CD-ROMs and handheld devices, in the 1980s. In 1996 Merriam-Webster introduced Merriam-
Webster OnLine, a Web site offering language-related features, including access to the full text
of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Thesaurus. In
2002 Webster’s Third New International Dictionary was made available online at a subscription
Web site

Developer:
Merriam-Webster just announced its new Dictionary API, which gives developers
access to the full dictionary and thesaurus, along with more specialized content like medical,
Spanish, ESL and student-targeted vocabulary lists. The API will let app makers integrate word
definitions, etymologies, audio pronunciations and more. While this content will no doubt make
it into a slew of educational apps, Merriam-Webster says it will also enhance word games, so
maybe Scramble and Words with Friends will finally start accepting those obscure three-letter
words you have up your sleeve.
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary API gives developers access to comprehensive
dictionary and thesaurus content from a wide range of best-selling references including Merriam-
Webster's Collegiate® Dictionary and its popular series of grade-appropriate student
dictionaries. Specialized resources include medical, Spanish-English, and English-language
learners' dictionaries, thus allowing developers to integrate content into applications at
appropriate age and learning levels.
Purpose:
The Merriam-Webster company once used a unique set
of phonetic symbols in their dictionaries—intended to help people from
different parts of the United States learn how to pronounce words the
same way as others who spoke with the same accent or dialect
did. Unicode accommodated IPA symbols, but did not specify room for
Merriam-Webster phonetics. Hence, to enable computerized access to
the pronunciation without having to rework all dictionaries to IPA
notation, the online services of Merriam-Webster specify phonetics
using a less-specific set of ASCII characters.
Merriam creates entries by finding uses of a particular word
in print and recording them in a database of citations.[5] Editors at
Merriam spend about an hour a day looking at print sources, from books
and newspapers to less formal publications, like advertisements and
product packaging, to study the uses of individual words and choose
things that should be preserved in the citation file. Merriam-Webster's
citation file contains more than 16 million entries documenting
individual uses of words. Millions of these citations are recorded on 3-
by-5 cards in their paper citation files. The earliest entries in the paper
citation files date back to the late 19th century. Since 2009, all new
entries are recorded in an electronic database.