A.
The dictionary is often used to determine the correct spelling of words, or to find out the accepted pronunciation. But such (67) is perhaps not the most important (68) an intellectual point of view. Dictionaries may, (69) , have social importance. It is often a matter of some (70) to the person using the dictionary that he should not suggest to others, by misspelling a word in a letter, or mispronouncing it in conversation, that he is not (71) .
B.
Yet, (72) familiarity with the dictionary, the (73) person is likely to have many wrong ideas about it, and no real (74) of how to use it profitably, or (75) it correctly. For example, it is often believed that the (76) presence of a word in a dictionary is (77) that it is acceptable in good writing. Though most dictionaries have a system of marking words as (78) , or in use only (79) slang, many people, more especially if their use of a particular word has been (80) , are likely to conclude, if they find it in a dictionary, that it is accepted as being used by writers of established reputation. This would certainly have been (81) of dictionaries a hundred years ago. For a long time after they were first (82) established in the eighteenth century, their aim was to (83) only what was used by the best writers, and all else was (84) , and the compiler frequently (85) that his dictionary contained no "low" words. Apparently this aspect of the dictionary achieved such importance in the mind of the average person the most people today are unaware (86) the great change which has taken place in the compilation of present-day dictionaries.