Answered By: Gabe Gossett
Last Updated: Jul 07, 2021     Views: 176229

When citing a source in-text in APA, it helps to be certain about how your reference list entry will look first so you will know how to indicate in-text that is the source you are referring to. The in-text citation is composed of the first parts of a reference list entry. 

A reference list entry for dictionaries and encyclopedias should use a group as author. In this case, you could reasonably use Lexico or Oxford Lexico as the author. With online works that are continuously updated online you should use "n.d." in the place of a year and indicate the date of retrieval. So that would mean a reference list entry as follows:

Lexico. (n.d.). Money. In Lexico.com. Retrieved July 6, 2021, from https://www.lexico.com/definition/money

Then your in-text parenthetical citation would be (Lexico, n.d.) or for a narrative citation Lexico (n.d.)

For more information on citing dictionaries, and similar materials, in APA see the page 328 of the 7th edition Publication Manual.

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Comments (5)

  1. Gabe's answer was good but incorrect for the newest edition of the APA manual. The best answer I can give to original poster and anyone who happens upon this in the future: look in the most recent edition APA manual. The answer is there. As of the 6th edition, a parenthetical in-text citation for a dictionary reference would be (Organization Name, date) and an narrative in-text citation would be Organization Name (date). A reference for a dictionary would be: Organization Name. (date). Title of dictionary [in italics], Retrieved date, from [URL] [for online dictionaries] or place of publishing followed by a period and URL if retrieved from a URL. For example, I defined the word "stereotypy" in a paper from Merriam-Webster. The parenthetical in-text citation was (Merriam-Webster, n.d.) and the reference citation was: Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved June 30, 2021, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stereotypy/ "Merriam-Webster.com dictionary" was all italicized.
    by Vladimir Leontyev on Jul 03, 2021
  2. Thanks for catching the error on this entry that did not get updated to 7th edition, Vladimir. Fixing it now!
    by Gabe Gossett on Jul 06, 2021
  3. And in the case of mentioning several entries, you separate them in between commas in the citation, I'm assuming? Thanks in advance.
    by Wal on Jul 20, 2021
  4. How about citing two dictionary in one in text?
    by Frederick on Mar 02, 2024
  5. @Frederick, you cite multiple sources in one in-text citation by separating them with a semicolon. So for more than one dictionary it might look something like (Dictionary A, 2010; Dictionary B, 2020).
    by Gabe Gossett on Mar 04, 2024

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