It enlarges on where words come from and how they acquired their present meaning. The general purpose dictionary lies somewhere between these two extremes. This is the most common version that people would have in their home and is the best for everyday use. The functions of the general purpose dictionary are to provide definitions, proper pronounciation, correct spelling and derivations as well as any restrictive labels attached to a word. Lets consider these individually.
Many words have more than one meaning.
By using a dictionary you can determine which meaning applies to the sentence you are considering. Some dictionaries help you out further by giving specimen phrases of correct word useage. There are at least 47 sounds in the English language. Dictionary compilers have devised ways to represent these sounds. The most commonly used method is to use accent marks above emphasized letters.