The Macquarie Dictionary is a dictionary of Australian English. Originally a project of the Linguistics department of Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, it is published by Macquarie Library Pty Ltd, a company specifically established for the task.

Since its first publication in 1981, it has been progressively adopted by Australian schools, businesses and courts as their standard dictionary. The second edition was published in 1991, and introduced encyclopedic content to many entries. The third edition, published in 1997, made use of computer technology to add a large number of examples of Australian usage, reminiscent of the original Oxford English Dictionary.

The dictionary generally follows British spelling (colour, centre, defence) for the main entries. It also gives -ise spellings first and lists -ize spellings as acceptable variants, unlike the OED and many other dictionaries which prefer -ize to -ise.

Again like the much-loved Oxford English Dictionary, as well as the comprehensive dictionary, a number of smaller versions are available, as well as companion volumes such as a thesaurus.

External links

• Macquarie Dictionary home page