What are the best Latin-English dictionaries for Learning Latin?

What is the best Latin dic­tio­nary? There is no “best” dic­tio­nary because it depends on your needs. In this arti­cle we’ll exam­ine six pop­u­lar dic­tio­nar­ies, so that you can make an informed deci­sion when get­ting a dic­tio­nary. The focus here is on dic­tio­nar­ies for read­ing Latin pro­duced dur­ing antiquity.

The best Latin-Eng­lish dic­tio­nary for begin­ners, and peo­ple with a casu­al inter­est in Latin, is The Ban­tam New Col­lege Latin & Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary. For inter­me­di­ate to advanced read­ers, both Cas­sel­l’s Stan­dard Latin Dic­tio­nary and Cham­bers Mur­ray Latin-Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary are excel­lent choic­es. For more advanced stu­dents and schol­ars, the stan­dard lex­i­cons are Lewis & Short and Oxford Latin Dictionary.

That’s the short answer, but there are many things to con­sid­er when decid­ing on a dic­tio­nary, so you don’t get the wrong one. In this arti­cle, we’ll dis­cuss all you need to know to make an informed choice, and we will com­pare entries from var­i­ous dictionaries. 

Let’s begin.

What do you need from a Latin Dictionary?

Before decid­ing on a dic­tio­nary, you have to know what you want to use it for. Latin-Eng­lish dic­tio­nar­ies dif­fer wide­ly and are writ­ten for very dif­fer­ent audi­ences. It’s impor­tant that you choose one suit­ed for your needs.

If you are in school, your teacher may want you to use a par­tic­u­lar one. Ask for sug­ges­tions. Some­times, you might not even need a dic­tio­nary, for instance if you are using a text­book with a full glossary. 

If you decide you need a Latin dic­tio­nary, here are four things to consider:

• Con­tents
• Size
• Time peri­od
• Com­pre­hen­sive­ness

Con­tents: Do you want more than just definitions?

Many Eng­lish-Latin dic­tio­nar­ies con­tain much more than Eng­lish def­i­n­i­tions of Latin words. Some also have an Eng­lish-Latin sec­tion, sec­tions on pro­nun­ci­a­tion, con­ju­ga­tions and dec­li­na­tions, Roman his­to­ry, poet­ry, etc. Ask your­self what you think you will need. Remem­ber that you can also find con­ju­ga­tions, dec­li­na­tions, and pro­nun­ci­a­tion in any Latin gram­mar. How­ev­er, if you are still unsure of the forms, it might be prac­ti­cal to have them in the dictionary.

Sug­gest­ed read­ing: How to Learn and Mem­o­rize Latin Declen­sions (and conjugations)

Size: How many words do you need your Latin dic­tio­nary to have? 

Some dic­tio­nar­ies have 40’000 words and phras­es, while oth­ers aim to con­tain all attest­ed words from the lit­er­a­ture of a cer­tain peri­od. If you want to look up rare or a wide vari­ety of words, make sure your dic­tio­nary is a large one! 

Note that if you want to look up spe­cial­ized ter­mi­nol­o­gy, e.g., botan­i­cal terms, make sure to find a dic­tio­nary spe­cial­ized in that area or one with mod­ern Latin ter­mi­nol­o­gy. Most Latin dic­tio­nar­ies are writ­ten for read­ers of clas­si­cal Latin and, in some cas­es, medieval and neo-Latin.

Time peri­od: What peri­od of Latin are you reading?

Most Latin dic­tio­nar­ies spe­cial­ize in the usage of a par­tic­u­lar peri­od. This is nat­ur­al since Latin was used in many domains not only by the Romans but dur­ing the Mid­dle Ages and beyond. One dic­tio­nary might con­tain words from, e.g., 200 B.C. to 100 A.D., while anoth­er might cov­er the words up to 400 A.D.

Lev­el of Detail: What infor­ma­tion do you want? 

This is the most impor­tant ques­tion. Some dic­tio­nar­ies only give you the Eng­lish def­i­n­i­tion, while oth­ers also pro­vide exam­ples and notes on how the word is used. The most com­pre­hen­sive dic­tio­nar­ies will show how the usage and mean­ing of the word are dif­fer­ent depend­ing on, e.g., genre, author, and time peri­ods. So ask yourself:

1. Do you want to look up a word to get a gen­er­al idea of its meaning? 
2. Do you want to get an in-depth under­stand­ing of the usage and var­i­ous meanings?

Note! If you are trans­lat­ing to or from Latin, use a dic­tio­nary that is rich with exam­ples and notes on usage so you can find the right definition.

Addi­tion­al things to con­sid­er: paper vs digital

You might also con­sid­er if you want a paper or a dig­i­tal dic­tio­nary. Paper dic­tio­nar­ies may have their charm–and weight–but dig­i­tal ones are supe­ri­or in speed. If read­abil­i­ty is a con­cern for you, note that most dic­tio­nar­ies have a rather small font size, while a dig­i­tal one can usu­al­ly be adapt­ed to the user’s needs.

Now, it might seem like I am against paper dic­tio­nar­ies. Far from it, I love them. Fur­ther­more, most Latin dic­tio­nar­ies exist only in paper for­mat. So, if you decide you need a dig­i­tal one, your options are much fewer.

Six popular dictionaries

Now that you know what you need the dic­tio­nary for, let’s con­sid­er some pop­u­lar and often rec­om­mend­ed Latin dic­tio­nar­ies. Since no dic­tio­nary fits every­one, we will look at dic­tio­nar­ies geared towards dif­fer­ent audiences. 

• Collins Latin dictionary
• Ban­tams New Col­lege Dictionary
• Cas­sel­l’s Stan­dard Latin Dictionary
• The Ban­tam New Col­lege Latin & Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary
• Lewis & Short
• Oxford Latin Dictionary

I have divid­ed these dic­tio­nar­ies into three cat­e­gories termed tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3.

• Tier I are small­er dic­tio­nar­ies that pro­vide only the most rudi­men­ta­ry infor­ma­tion, e.g., Eng­lish def­i­n­i­tions of a Latin word with no exam­ples from Latin lit­er­a­ture. They usu­al­ly have an Eng­lish-Latin sec­tion and addi­tion­al sec­tions on gram­mar, his­to­ry, etc.
• Tier 2 are medi­um-sized dic­tio­nar­ies that pro­vide the Eng­lish def­i­n­i­tions and exam­ples of usage tak­en from Latin literature. 
• Tier 3 are the largest Latin-Eng­lish dic­tio­nar­ies and con­tain most or all attest­ed words dur­ing a par­tic­u­lar time peri­od and give com­pre­hen­sive infor­ma­tion on mean­ings across time and gen­res with ample exam­ples and notes on usage.

Pros, cons, and recommendations

For each dic­tio­nary we’ll give a brief overview of its con­tents, before con­sid­er­ing the pros and cons and what pur­pose it might serve. In all dic­tio­nar­ies, we will look up the same word so that you can get a bet­ter idea of what infor­ma­tion they pro­vide and how it is pre­sent­ed. Final­ly, I will give my thoughts on whether a cer­tain dic­tio­nary is worth get­ting or not. 

   Note! Dic­tio­nar­ies are like shoes, you use them a lot. So, before you make up your mind, pre­view the dic­tio­nary, and look up a few words.        

Tier 1: Basic–intermediate dictionaries

These are all-in-one dic­tio­nar­ies with no or very lim­it­ed infor­ma­tion on word usage.

Collins Latin Dictionary: Dictionary & Grammar

• 640 pages
• Basic Eng­lish definitions
• Latin-Eng­lish
• Eng­lish-Latin
• Addi­tion­al sections
• App ver­sion

This dic­tio­nary is only on this list because it is often rec­om­mend­ed to begin­ners. Collins Latin Dic­tio­nary is a basic Latin dic­tio­nary, with ca. 47’000 thou­sand Latin head­words. Like many small­er dic­tio­nar­ies geared towards schools and begin­ners, Collins has a Latin-Eng­lish, an Eng­lish-Latin sec­tion, and a basic gram­mar sec­tion, includ­ing tables of declen­sions and con­ju­ga­tions. There is an app ver­sion of this dic­tio­nary-mak­ing queries much more efficient.

When it comes to the dic­tio­nary entries them­selves, they are, of course, very lim­it­ed, most­ly giv­ing basic infor­ma­tion on dec­li­na­tion, con­ju­ga­tion, and parts of speech togeth­er with Eng­lish definitions. 

Sam­ple entry

Below is a sam­ple entry of the verb acce­do from Collins Latin Dictionary:

What is the verdict?

It’s an ele­men­tary Latin dic­tio­nary that aims to be an all-in-one resource for stu­dents. It does the job of pre­sent­ing lists of words with def­i­n­i­tions. How­ev­er, one thing I don’t like is that only the mas­cu­line form of adjec­tives is list­ed, e.g., Absonus and acclivis, instead of absonus, ‑a, ‑um, or acclivis, ‑is, ‑e. Fur­ther­more, even for a basic dic­tio­nary, I would like to see some more infor­ma­tion on usage, but maybe that’s just me.

So if you only want to look up com­mon Latin words and get a sim­ple def­i­n­i­tion in Eng­lish, it might suf­fice. But I would not rec­om­mend it. I would rather sug­gest you get a slight­ly larg­er dic­tio­nary with many of the same fea­tures, which still avoids being overwhelming.

If you want a large num­ber or head­words with notes and exam­ples of usage, this is def­i­nite­ly not the Latin dic­tio­nary for you.

The Bantam New College Latin & English Dictionary by John Traupman

Overview

• 708 pages
• Latin-Eng­lish
• Eng­lish-Latin
• Notes on constructions
• Sec­tion on basic grammar
• His­tor­i­cal, geo­graph­i­cal, mytho­log­i­cal names

The Ban­tam New Col­lege Latin & Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary is a pop­u­lar dic­tio­nary with over 200 rat­ings on Ama­zon. It’s a medi­um sized dic­tio­nary with 70’000 words and phras­es, and, like Collins, has addi­tion­al sec­tions that might be of inter­est to begin­ners (e.g. pro­nun­ci­a­tion, gram­mar, his­to­ry, mythol­o­gy). In addi­tion it also has an Eng­lish-Latin sec­tion. Ban­tam stands out with some inter­est­ing addi­tions, such as slang and vul­gar expres­sions and neo-Latin vocabulary.

Sam­ple entry.

Below is the entire entry for the Latin verb acce­do in the Ban­tam New Col­lege Latin & Eng­lish Dictionary:

Ver­dict

This is a great dic­tio­nary for any­one start­ing out or with a casu­al inter­est in Latin. It has rather suc­cinct arti­cles giv­ing the Eng­lish def­i­n­i­tion and a note on var­i­ous con­struc­tions of the word (e.g. if it is used with the dative or accusative). A wel­come addi­tion to a basic dic­tio­nary is the addi­tion of lat­er Latin and neo-latin! Latin is indeed more than just Cicero and Vergil!

Like Collins, Bantham’s is more than just a Latin-Eng­lish dic­tio­nary, with an Eng­lish-Latin dic­tio­nary and sec­tions on gram­mar and history. 

For any­one want­i­ng to read lit­er­a­ture or use Latin active­ly, I think the lack of exam­ples from lit­er­a­ture and lim­it­ed info on con­struc­tions makes this less than ideal. 

If, how­ev­er, you want a good all-in-one resource, and be able to look up a word and get a gen­er­al idea of its mean­ing, I would absolute­ly rec­om­mend this dictionary.

Tier 2: Intermediate-Advanced Dictionaries

We now come to the next tier of Latin lex­i­cons. Here we are look­ing at dic­tio­nar­ies with exam­ples of usage tak­en from Latin literature.

Cassell’s (standard) Latin Dictionary

• 883 pages
• Latin-Eng­lish
• Eng­lish-Latin
• Exam­ples from Latin literature
• Sec­tions with idiomat­ic expressions

Cassell’s Latin Dic­tio­nary is anoth­er very pop­u­lar dic­tio­nary with over 100 reviews on Ama­zon and an aver­age of 4.5 stars.

It is a rather com­pre­hen­sive Latin dic­tio­nary, but what sets this apart from Collins and the Ban­tam New Col­lege Latin Dic­tio­nary are the many exam­ples of usage tak­en from Latin lit­er­a­ture. This is a key resource for under­stand­ing how Latin words are used and change mean­ing in var­i­ous con­texts. Like the pre­vi­ous dic­tio­nar­ies, this too has an Eng­lish-Latin section.

I espe­cial­ly like the sep­a­rate sec­tion in the entries where idiomat­ic expres­sions con­tain­ing the head­word are presented.

Cons.

While the Ban­tam dic­tio­nary con­tains a wel­come addi­tion of late and neo-Latin words, Cas­sells cov­ers only the peri­od of 200 B.C. to 100 A.D. Anoth­er draw­back is that the full source is not giv­en for exam­ples, only the author’s name! Let’s look up the word acces­sio:

We see an exam­ple suis acces­sion­ibus from Cicero since it says Cic. But it does not say where in his vast body of work the expres­sion occurs. So if we want to look at the con­text to real­ly under­stand how to use it, we have to search using a Latin cor­pus. (It’s from Cicero’s sec­ond speech against Ver­res (2.2).)

Sam­ple entry

Below is a sam­ple entry of the verb acce­do from Cassell’s Latin Dic­tio­nary:

What’s the verdict?

If you are study­ing Latin and read­ing Clas­si­cal texts beyond a few sen­tences here and there, it is an excel­lent dic­tio­nary. It gives most of what you need with­out being (too) over­whelm­ing: a vari­ety of Eng­lish def­i­n­i­tions with notes on con­struc­tions and exam­ples of usage from Latin literature. 

In addi­tion to being a rather com­pre­hen­sive Latin-Eng­lish dic­tio­nary, it also has a sec­tion for trans­lat­ing from Eng­lish into Latin. For advanced Latin com­po­si­tion, how­ev­er, you would need to use a ded­i­cat­ed Eng­lish-Latin dic­tio­nary such as Smith-Hall.

As you advance in your stud­ies, I rec­om­mend you start using either Lewis & Short or the Oxford Latin Dic­tio­nary in con­junc­tion with this. (See below.)

Chambers Murray Latin-English Dictionary

• 832 pages
• Latin-Eng­lish dictionary
• Includes some lat­er latin
• Notes on usage
• Exam­ples from Latin literature

Cham­bers Mur­ray Latin-Eng­lish Dic­tio­nary is anoth­er com­mon­ly rec­om­mend­ed dic­tio­nary. It is very sim­i­lar to Cas­sells but is more com­pre­hen­sive, cov­er­ing a some­what longer time peri­od (ca. 200 B.C.–200 A.D. with some lat­er authors, e.g., Clau­di­anus and Auso­nius.) Like Cas­sel­l’s, this dic­tio­nary gives exam­ples from Latin lit­er­a­ture and some notes on usage.

Cons.

The major draw­back of this dic­tio­nary, like Cassell’s, is that it does not give full sources for the quotes from Latin authors. 

Sam­ple entry

Ver­dict

As Cas­sells, this is an excel­lent dic­tio­nary for read­ing clas­si­cal Latin and would suf­fice for most inter­me­di­ate to advanced students.

I lean towards Cas­sel­l’s due to the Eng­lish-Latin sec­tion and the col­lec­tion of idiomat­ic expres­sions in the arti­cles. How­ev­er, if you want to read any­thing beyond clas­si­cal Latin, Cham­bers-Mur­ray is a bet­ter choice since it includes lat­er authors. 

I would, how­ev­er, sug­gest that stu­dents start using Lewis & Short as well, to get used to sort­ing through the longer entries. This is the first dic­tio­nary thus far that does not have an Eng­lish-Latin dictionary.

Tier 3: Advanced and Scholarly Dictionaries

Now we turn to the most com­pre­hen­sive Latin-Eng­lish dic­tio­nar­ies. These are writ­ten for advanced stu­dents and schol­ars and are com­pre­hen­sive.

Lewis & Short

• 2019 pages
• Latin-Eng­lish
• 2nd cen­tu­ry B.C. –8th cen­tu­ry A.D. 
• Exam­ples from literature
• Notes on usage and etymology

Lewis & Short is, with­out a doubt, the most com­mon­ly used Latin dic­tio­nary for learn­ers and schol­ars out there. This is because it is one of the most com­pre­hen­sive Latin dic­tio­nar­ies cov­er­ing clas­si­cal Latin and much lat­er writ­ers. It is also freely avail­able online.

Lewis & Short was pub­lished in 1879 under the title Harper’s Latin Dic­tio­nary. It was based on the trans­la­tion of the Ger­man dic­tio­nary Wörter­buch der Lateinis­chen Sprache. Although it has been crit­i­cized through­out the years for slight inac­cu­ra­cies, both regard­ing def­i­n­i­tions and, more par­tic­u­lar­ly, vow­el quan­ti­ties, it is still the stan­dard dic­tio­nary used by schol­ars today.

Sam­ple entry from Lewis & Short

Let’s look up acce­do in Lewis & Short as well:

• 

• 

As you can see, the entries are very dense, but very comprehensive.

Ver­dict

Lewis & Short is a vast dic­tio­nary cov­er­ing writ­ers from 200 B.C. to 800 A.D. It gives ample notes and exam­ples of usage, giv­ing the read­er a clear sense of a par­tic­u­lar word’s mean­ing and, some­times, even register.

One of the crit­i­cisms levied against it is its rather dense and con­fus­ing dis­po­si­tion, which takes quite some time to get used to. Nev­er­the­less, for most advanced study and research, it is the only Latin dic­tio­nary you’ll need 

Oxford Latin Dictionary

• 2400 pages
• Ca. 200 B.C. to 200 A.D.
• Latin-Eng­lish
• Exam­ples from literature
• Based on mod­ern editions
• Notes on usage and etymology

Note! This dic­tio­nary should not be con­fused with the Oxford Latin desk dic­tio­nary.

The Oxford Latin Dic­tio­nary was com­mis­sioned at the start of the 20th cen­tu­ry to replace the aging Lewis & Short. It can hard­ly be said to have suc­ceed­ed in that endeavour. 

It stands apart from Lewis & Short in that it is not based on pre­vi­ous dic­tio­nar­ies but is a new work rely­ing on new­er edi­tions and read­ings of texts.

Togeth­er with its elder foe Lewis & Short, the OLD is a stan­dard for advanced stu­dents and schol­ars of Latin. How­ev­er, it’s an enor­mous work of 2400 pages, cov­er­ing Latin up to 200 A.D., exclud­ing most Chris­t­ian writers. 

Its arti­cles are very com­pre­hen­sive with many exam­ples. One strength lies in the clear dis­po­si­tion of arti­cles mak­ing find­ing the rel­e­vant sense com­par­a­tive­ly easy for the read­er. The OLD is also a rather new dic­tio­nary (1968–88), using mod­ern read­ings and edi­tions of texts, thus con­sid­er­ing much of the research done since the pub­li­ca­tion of Lewis and Short at the end of the 19th century. 

This also means that the Eng­lish used in the def­i­n­i­tions is mod­ern, elim­i­nat­ing the risk of mis­in­ter­pret­ing the def­i­n­i­tion due to seman­tic drift since 19th century.

Sam­ple entry from Oxford Latin Dictionary

Here is the entry for acce­do:

• 

• 

As you can see from the image above, the entries are vast. They pro­vide count­less exam­ples of usage across gen­res and time.

What’s the verdict?

If you are an advanced learn­er and want to dive deep into the dif­fer­ent nuances and usages of words, it is a great resource. This is, how­ev­er, by no means a per­fect dic­tio­nary. The major draw­back is the lim­it­ed time peri­od of the dic­tio­nary and the hefty price tag of $300–400. Fur­ther­more, the absence of infor­ma­tion regard­ing ante clas­si­cal, clas­si­cal, and post-clas­si­cal usage is unfor­tu­nate. This is in stark con­trast to Lewis & Short, where you will often find this type of infor­ma­tion. The strength of OLD is its clear lay­out and mod­ern read­ings and def­i­n­i­tions, which makes this dic­tio­nary very read­able and not only consultable. 

It is judi­cial to use the OLD in con­junc­tion with Lewis & Short to give you more exam­ples and more infor­ma­tion on the usage of a par­tic­u­lar word. 

Conclusion

We’ve looked at three types of dic­tio­nar­ies, from the very basic to the most com­pre­hen­sive. Some are suit­able for begin­ners or peo­ple with a casu­al inter­est in Latin, while oth­ers are suit­able for inter­me­di­ate stu­dents, and yet oth­ers for advanced stu­dents and schol­ars. Ban­tams New Col­lege Dic­tio­nary, Cas­sel­l’s Latin Dic­tio­nary, Cham­bers Mur­ray, Lewis & Short, and OLD are all great dic­tio­nar­ies. They can all be the best dic­tio­nary, depend­ing on the situation.

In the end, the best dic­tio­nary is the one that will meet your needs, that you like and that you will actu­al­ly use. If you plan to do your study­ing on the sub­way, the OLD with its 2400 pages might get left at home. 

Additional Latin Dictionaries

What dic­tio­nar­ies are there for medieval and neo-Latin?

First, there is the “sup­ple­ment” to OLD cov­er­ing late antiq­ui­ty up to 600 A.D., A. Souter, A Glos­sary of Lat­er Latin to 600 A.D. (1949). Next is the stan­dard dic­tio­nary for medieval Latin Ducange Glos­sar­i­um ad scrip­tores medi­ae et infi­mae Latini­tatis (Niort 1883–87), which is freely avail­able online. For Renais­sance Latin there is R. Hov­en, Lex­ique de la Prose Latine de la Renais­sance (Lei­den 1994).

Which is the best Eng­lish-Latin Dic­tio­nary for trans­lat­ing into Latin?

One of the best and most com­pre­hen­sive is Smith & Hal­l’s Eng­lish-Latin Dic­tio­nary, freely avail­able online here at Latinitium.com. Although they are very detailed, I would sug­gest you con­sult dic­tio­nar­ies of Latin syn­onyms to know which word is suit­able for which con­text. You can find a guide to the best dic­tio­nar­ies of Latin syn­onyms here.

What mono­lin­gual Latin-Latin dic­tio­nar­ies are there?

Totius Latini­tatis Lex­i­con (For­celli­ni) and The­saurus Lin­guae Lati­nae (TLL). For­celli­ni is a cen­turies’ old clas­sic with def­i­n­i­tions in a clear Latin style. For­celli­ni is a great resource (avail­able here), but due to its age, it relies on old edi­tions and read­ings of texts. TLL is set to be the largest Latin dic­tio­nary ever cre­at­ed. Begun in the 19th cen­tu­ry, it is not yet fin­ished. Like For­celli­ni, it is entire­ly in Latin.

This is the best resource for get­ting a deep and chrono­log­i­cal under­stand­ing for the mean­ing and usage of words. As of 2019 the The­saurus Lin­guae Lati­nae is freely avail­able online!

*This arti­cle con­tains affil­i­ate links, which means that we make a small com­mis­sion from any sales—without affect­ing the price for you.