Dictionaries

What are dictionaries?

• Dictionaries are books of words and phrases of a language with their meanings or their translations given in another language(s).
• Words and phrases are usually listed in dictionaries in alphabetical order (by strokes for some Chinese dictionaries).
• There are different kinds of dictionaries:
  • Conventional dictionaries, e.g. Oxford English Dictionary.
  • Judicial dictionaries of words and phrases, namely, words and phrases that have been considered by the Courts, e.g.
    • those listed in the annual bound volumes of Hong Kong Law Reports & Digest.
    • Stroud's judicial dictionaries of Words and Phrases .
    • Black's Law Dictionary (used for the study of U.S. law)
  • General law dictionaries, e.g.
    • Chinese-English Glossary of Legal Terms 漢英法律詞彙
    • English-Chinese Glossary of Legal Terms 英漢法律詞彙
    • Hong Kong English-Chinese Legal Dictionary
    • Hong Kong Legal Dictionary
    • Osborn's Concise Law Dictionary
    • Oxford Dictionary of Law
  • Biographical dictionaries contain lists of 'who's who' or 'who was who' in the legal profession, e.g. Who's Who of the Law.