Dictionary Entries explained

A simple entry has three or four parts. First is the Tampuan headword. This begins each entry and is shown both in Tampuan orthography and in IPA. Second is the grammatical part of speech which is shown in an abbreviated form in italic type. (See the List of Abbreviations where these are expanded). Third is the definition which shows the meaning of the Tampuan headword in English. In many of the definitions there are a number of equivalent English words that can be used to describe the Tampuan meaning. These are listed separated by semicolons. Many entries have a fourth part which is an example sentence in Tampuan followed by an English translation of that sentence.

In the first example given above, The Tampuan word, ‘…’, only has one meaning. Sometimes however, words have multiple meanings. These multiple meanings are called senses and they are indicated in the dictionary by sense numbers. The various senses in an entry have distinct meanings, but they are all related in some way. That is why they are given numbers and listed under a single Tampuan headword.

Occasionally you will notice that the headword is immediately followed by a small lowered number. The lowered number is used to distinguish what we call homonyms. Homonyms are words that have the same spelling but are unrelated in meaning. 

For some Tampuan words we have given variants. These may either be the same word spelled slightly differently to reflect a different pronunciation or it may be a completely different word for the same thing. If a variant is given it will be listed at the end of the entry with the label Var.

Sometimes you will see an entry which is the second part of a doublet or ideophone. In this case, there will be a link to the entry for the first part or the whole doublet.

Some plant and animal terms have been given their proper scientific names. This name, if known, will be underlined and italicised.