The term “commercial dictionary” comprises numerous species of dictionary marketed to the public or identified cohorts of the public. Colloquial references to “the dictionary” likely refer to a commercial dictionary. English dictionaries began to develop in Britain along with the development of printing and by the end of the 18th century, the idea of the dictionary as a language authority of practical use to the ordinary person was well established in England. In the US, development of dictionaries began soon after colonial times, thanks largely to Noah Webster. The market for commercial dictionaries flourished and diversified in the 19th and 20th centuries, resulting in a robust and competitive market for them in the US and the UK, which remained beacons of English lexicographic endeavor. With the arrival of computers in the mid−20th century, the commercial dictionary began its slow decline in prominence and authority, owing to the widespread availability of dictionary definitions online via computers and hand-held devices. Today, very few names in publishing are associated with commercial dictionaries and all publishers still in the market have other means of profiting from dictionary data.

Documents attitudes of makers and users toward dictionaries and analyzes attitudes of makers and users and the sometime tension between what users expect and makers provide. Dictionaries evoke strong feelings – often of respect, even reverence, sometimes of disrespect and outrage; they play an outsized role in people’s lives because of the profoundly intimate link between a lexicon and the culture and values of the society whose lexicon it is. A dictionary is viewed by speakers of the enregistered language as a mirror reflecting their culture, and by outsiders as a window into the culture. Creation of a dictionary is itself a kind of enactment – viewed, especially by speakers whose language has not been regarded as real or equal, as recognizing their language. A few nations have instituted academies to patrol their language, in part by crafting dictionaries. Dictionary makers’ attitudes are expressed in the frontmatter and, more reliably, in the entries and contents. In recent decades, users have addressed makers directly, insisting that dictionaries speak not only to their lexical needs but that they accurately mirror their social, political, and ethical values.