Methodological Rules in al-Muʿjam al-Wasīṭ in Its Fifth Edition

Abstract

The dictionary is a vessel for preserving language from loss and a fundamental reference to which students and learners return to clarify obscure words, thereby contributing to the understanding of religious and literary texts, enriching their linguistic repertoire, and improving their level. Al-Muʿjam al-Wasīṭ, issued by the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo, is regarded as a modern dictionary. It has acquired a distinguished scholarly status and is widely disseminated in Arabic libraries. It has five editions, the most recent of which was published in 2021, nearly 15 years after the fourth edition. This is a distinctive edition in which the Dictionary Compilation Committee attempted to keep pace with the rapid development of knowledge and the sciences. This led us to pose the following question: What changes have occurred in the fifth edition of al-Muʿjam al-Wasīṭ? To answer this question, we deemed it appropriate to examine the fifth edition of al-Muʿjam al-Wasīṭ, which we obtained from the Library of the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo. It is printed in two parts: the first begins with hamzah and ends with ḍād, and the second begins with ṭāʾ and ends with yāʾ. We also returned to the fourth edition to substantiate the additions and amendments with suitable examples.