According to S. I. Hayakawa in Language in Thought and Action, there are four steps in writing a dictionary: 1) collecting words, 2) alphabetizing and sorting the collection, 3) studying each word in context, and 4) writing definitions of each word based on its contexts. The first step is collecting words. Editors do this by reading all the important literature that might include words they want to define. As they read, they write down each of these words on a separate card. Below the word, they write the sentences in which it appears, since they must collect words in context. Once they have gathered all their words--on perhaps millions of cards--the editors are ready for the second step: sorting and alphabetizing the cards. They arrange the cards so that each word will be represented by a whole group of cards giving many examples of its uses. Next, the editors study each word in context. As they discover the possible meanings of a word, they group the cards around those meanings. Only then can they take the final step: writing definitions. In writing definitions, the editors can use only what the cards tell them about the meanings of each word; that is, they must define their words in context. You can see, then, that defining words plays only a small part in the production of a modern dictionary; before that, vast amounts of money, time, and energy go into collecting, sorting, and studying words.