— The American Language Academy —
Standard American Dictionary
Reference work for the Standard American register, ratified through the public ballot of Standard American 250.
The Standard American Dictionary populates the lexicon under Garner's Standard American, the canonical reference work for the Standard American register, edited by Bryan Garner as part of Standard American 250. The dictionary records the headwords, pronunciations, parts of speech, definitions, and citations that the named volume ratifies through the Academy's public ballot.
The reference work accumulates from the contest dataset. Each contested point voted in the ballot ratifies a parallel entry across both registers' reference works — the Standard American Dictionary and the Black American Dictionary populate simultaneously, recording the lexicon at full architectural depth in both registers as the public adjudicates.
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A Specimen of the Forthcoming Reference Work
The reference work populates in real time following publication on the Fourth of July, Two Thousand and Twenty-Six. The entries below are a specimen of the typesetting and editorial method.
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color
/ˈkʌlər/
n.
The visual perception arising from the wavelengths of reflected or emitted light. The Standard American spelling, distinguished from the British colour; standardized through Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language in 1828 and continuous in American convention since the founding of the Republic.
Plural colors; verb form color, past tense colored; adjectival colorful. The British colour-family forms appear in American writing only in proper names, deliberate archaism, and direct quotation.
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gotten
/ˈɡɒtn/
v., past participle of get
The Standard American past participle of get, used in perfect constructions ("she had gotten home before dark"). Preserves a Middle English form lost in modern British English, which uses got in both the past tense and the past participle. The Standard American register retains the distinction.
"Have you gotten the package?" — Standard American formal and informal. The British register would use got; the Standard American register codifies gotten.
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whom
/huːm/
pron., accusative of who
The accusative form of who, used as the object of a verb or preposition. A marker of the formal register in Standard American; the Standard American Dictionary codifies it for formal and legal writing while permitting who in the informal register where the accusative is grammatically required.
"To whom it may concern" (formal); "Whom did you see?" (formal). Recedes in informal speech but persists in formal writing where case-marking carries information.
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octopuses
/ˈɒktəpəsɪz/
n., pl. of octopus
The English plural of octopus, formed by the standard -es rule. Preferred in Standard American over the Latinate hypercorrection octopi, which is doubly mistaken: octopus derives from Greek (not Latin), and the Greek plural would be octopodes. The Standard American register applies the English rule to the naturalized form.
"The aquarium displayed three octopuses." Standard American formal and informal; octopi is recorded as a non-standard variant.
Full reference work activates upon publication. Until then, the ballot determines what enters the volume.
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The Reference Work Is Participatory
Electors of the Academy may propose entries for ratification through the standing submission process. Submitted entries enter editorial review under Bryan Garner, route through the public-ratification ballot, and — upon approval — enter the live reference work with full editorial provenance. The reference works are not edited from above. They are ratified from below, by the public that uses the language.