Picture dictionary

A picture dictionary is a dictionary containing word entries that, for all or most such entries, are accompanied by photos or drawings illustrating what the words mean. Picture dictionaries are usually used with young children. Related to this, many picture dictionaries exist to help children learn foreign languages. There do exist, however, several foreign-language-teaching picture dictionaries that are geared towards, or also suitable for, older audiences.

Another beneficial use of picture dictionaries, aside from the aforementioned, is for when one knows (or has an idea of) what something looks like, but lacks the correct term for it. For example, an adult or teenager may not be familiar with the term "platen," but wants to know what a particular part of an old typewriter is called, which happens to be (it will be learned) the platen. To find out the term, one consults a "comprehensive, image-sleuthing" picture dictionary (usually using a table of contents or index) and finds an image of a typewriter — then locates the part of the dictionary-image typewriter that one wants a word/descriptor for. If the pre-existing image "in the term-hunter's mind" reasonably verifiably matches the typewriter-image part "in the dictionary" that's labeled "platen," he or she now has a word learned (and available) for the researched item/concept — as well as having found its correct spelling.