Question

what do the abbreviations after a word in the dictionary tell you about the word

Answer 1

The abreviation after a word in a dictionary tell you what part of speech the defined word is.

The defined word can be a noun (n), pronoun (pron), adjective (adj), adverb (adv), verb (vb), conjunction (conj), preposition (prep), or interjection (interj).


Other parts of a dictionary are:

Entry word - word to be defined
pronunciation - how to pronounce the entry word
part of speech - what part of speech the entry word is
definition - literal meaning of the entry word
plural form - how the entry word is writted in plural form
origin - shows the origin of the entry word

Guide words - tells the first and last words found in the page
pronunciation guides - explains the meaning of the symbols used in the pronunciation.

Answer 2

part of speech

The abbreviations after a word in the dictionary tell you the part of speech. This is important because when looking up a word in a dictionary it is important to know how the word can function in a sentence. Some words also have different forms when it changes part of speech. For example, happy is an adjective, happiness is a noun. Common abbreviations for the parts of speech are: noun (n), pronoun (pron), adjective (adj), adverb (adv), verb (vb), conjunction (conj), preposition (prep), or interjection (interj).

Dictionary entries also contain information about the word's pronunciation, definition, origin, and alternative forms.