Language is a dynamic medium for the exchange of thoughts. When a new stimulus arises in a culture, people create new words or redefine existing words to use in its context. This is the culture’s “slang.” Known for being both colorful and cryptic, it can entertain while serving its purpose. Every small subdivision of human culture has slang. Even the few hundred itinerant residents of Antarctica have a surprisingly large body of specialized language for their unique use. A few common examples of the groups that have developed their own words or word usages are: those in specific geographic areas, such as in cities; cliques enjoying the same hobby or sport, such as mountain biking; the general population while it is engaged in a particular activity, such as using the Internet; fans of a television show; and readers of crime fiction. When encountering a new slang word, it is often possible to ascertain its meaning from its context. If the meaning is still unclear, however, there are innumerable slang dictionaries available to help you, both in print and online. The biggest challenge may be getting the right context, so you can look in the right dictionary. Entries in a regular dictionary are ordered alphabetically, with numbers ranking higher than letters (they appear in numerical order, before the letter “a”). After the word is a description of the word’s pronunciation (which is uncommon in most slang dictionaries), what part of speech it is, and all of the known definitions. In the case of online dictionaries, synonyms are usually indicated with a link to the other word. For example, in The Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang (http://world.std. com/~Jimf/biking/slang html), you’ll see that “soil sample” is synonymous with “face plant”, which are both nouns that mean falling in such a way that one’s face is the first part of the body to hit the ground! 語言是一種交換想法的有力工具。當文化中出現令人興奮的新事物，人們便會創造新字或重新定義現有的字以便用於文章脈落中，而這就是該文化的「俚語」。俚語以豐富的隱喻聞名，用對了就會帶來娛樂。 人類文化中的每個小分支都有俚語，就算是在只有幾百位流動居民的南極洲，他們也有多到令人出乎意料的專用語言，但也唯獨他們在使用而已。許多族群都創造了自己的用字或用語，常見的例子有：城市等特定的地區、單車登山社等志趣相投或同樣熱愛運動的社團、從事上網等特定活動的一般大眾、電視節目迷，以及犯罪小說的讀者。 遇到新俚語時，通常都能夠藉由上下文弄清楚其意思。若是仍不清楚其涵義，則可以藉助於一些俚語字典，實體和線上字典皆可。最大的挑戰是要掌握文意，如此一來才能夠查對字典。 一般正常字典的條目都是按照字母順序排列的，數字會出現在字母的前面（編號會出現在小寫 a 的前方）。字的後面是發音（而這在俚語字典中並不常見）、詞性，以及所有的定義。在線上字典中，同義字通常會指向另一個字的連結。舉例來說，在Dictionary of Mountain Bike Slang 網站上，你會發現soil sample 是face plant 的同義字，兩者皆為名詞，指「臉先著地的跌倒方式」！ | 
