As stated earlier, the number of languages represented is the criterion to call a dictionary a monolingual or bilingual or multilingual. As a matter of fact, any dictionary can be monolingual or bilingual. But there are some specific purposes for a dictionary which is either monolingual or bilingual. The important purposes of bilingual dictionary are:

           (a) to help in translation from the target language, and
           (b) to help the user in producing texts in target language (language other than his mother                     tongue).
           A monolingual dictionary is mainly to serve more descriptive tasks.

     As the name itself suggests, in a monolingual dictionary only one language, represented. In this type of dictionary both the words and their meanings or explanations are given in the same language. Any type of dictionary that we are discussing in this chapter can be monolingual, if only one language is used, irrespective of the information given by the dictionary. Ram Adhar Singh (1982:26) rightly says, "The term monolingual refers to the language only irrespective of the information given in it". Monolingual dictionaries are generally meant for native speakers. Usually "a standard-descriptive, an overall-descriptive or and academic dictionary is monolingual" (Zgusta 1971: 213)

     The following example from the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language shows how a monolingual dictionary is descriptive, and academic:

glass (glas, glas)n. 1. Any of a large class of materials with highly variable mechanical and optical properties that solidify from the molten state without crystallization, that are typically based on silicon dioxide, borix oxide, aluminium oxide, or phosphorous pentoxide, that are generally transparent or translucent, and are regarded physically as supercooled liquids rather than true solids. 2. Objects made of glass collectively; glassware 3. Something made of glass, especially; a . A drinking vessel. b. A mirror. c. A barometer. D. A windowpane. 4. a. Usually-plural. Any device containing a lens or lenses and used as an aid to vision. b. plural. Eyeglasses (see). 5. The quality contained by a drinking vessel: glassful -adj……………

     Since the word glass is known to almost all the native speakers no native speaker would consult a dictionary for knowing the 'meaning of such words. But the description given in 1. above may not be known to a common man. Hence such descriptions are provided. If it is a bilingual dictionary only an equivalent in the target language usually the language of the users will be given.

     "The basic purpose of a bilingual dictionary is to coordinate with the lexical units of one language those lexical units of another language which are equivalent in their lexical meaning" (Zgusta 1971:294). To put in simple terms a bilingual dictionary has words (lexical units) of language 'A' as entries and gives equivalents for them in language B. In that case language 'A' is called source language and language 'B' is called target language. For example, in an English-Telugu dictionary English words are given as entries and their equivalents are given in Telugu language. Here English is the source language and Telugu is the target language.

     The fundamental difficulty of preparing a bilingual dictionary lies in the fact that meanings of the lexical items in one language are not always equivalent to those in another language in all respects

     The American Heritage Dictionary of English language lists 35 'meanings' under verb transitive category. The so called equivalent word for 'run' in Indian languages does not have so many shades of meaning, and these languages use separate words to express certain shades of meanings. Consider the following examples:

          1. The dog is running
          Telugu: kukka parigettutunnadi
          Hindi: kuttaa bhaag rahaa he

          2. The train is running late.
          Telugu: railu alisamgaa nadustunnadi
          Hindi: rail derse cal rahaahe?

          3. The nose is running.
          Telugu: mukku karutunnadi
          Hindi : naak bah rahe the

          4. The film is running.
          Telugu: sinimaa adutannadi
          Hindi: sanimaa cal rahaa he?
       and so on.

     It can be seen in the above examples that the English verb run has different representations in Telugu and Hindi in different shades of meanings.