-entries, the variant entries, and the non-American entries. Counts of
-zero are replaced by hyphens. For instance, the entry
-
- 7: - 2# 5& aeroplane
-
-indicates that the word "aeroplane" is listed in 7 of the dictionaries.
-None list it as a primary American word, 2 list it as a variant form,
-and 5 list it as a non-American word. Note that words may be marked
-with a "&" for either of 2 reasons. They may represent a non-American
-spelling of an American word, such as "aeroplane" or "gaol", or they
-may represent a word not normally used in American English, such as
-"bloke" or "lorry".
-
-Words marked with a colon (":") after it are abbrivations which are
+entries, the variant entries, the non-American entries and the
+"second-class" entries (appearances without a separate definition).
+Counts of zero are replaced by hyphens. For instance, the entry
+
+7: - 2# 5& -= aeroplane
+
+indicates that the word "aeroplane" is listed in 7 of the
+dictionaries. None list it as a primary American word, 2 list it as a
+variant form, and 5 list it as a non-American word, and none list it
+as a second-class word. Note that words may be marked with a "&" for
+either of 2 reasons. They may represent a non-American spelling of an
+American word, such as "aeroplane" or "gaol", or they may represent a
+word not normally used in American English, such as "bloke" or
+"lorry". Also note that there are two main kinds of second-class words
+- ones listed in the entry for another word without definition
+(usually associated with the suffixes -ly, -ness or -er/or), and ones
+appearing in a list of undefined words with a common prefix. Finally,
+observe that the numbers of non-variant, variant and non-American
+entries will sum to the total dictionary count, while the scond-class
+entry count is independent of them, except that of course it is never
+greater than the total count.
+
+Words marked with a colon (":") after it are abbrevations which are