The macrostructure of a list of entries is the principle of their order. As said in the section on dictionary structure, the term ‘macrostructure’ applies to an entry list, which is only part of the framing structure of a dictionary. Since a dictionary may contain more than one word lists, it may also have more than one macrostructure.
The ordering principles may be systematized as follows:
The relevant properties of the significans include phonological and morphological properties. Dictionaries are practically never ordered by phonological properties. Some semasiological dictionaries (German Wortkunden) are sorted by the morphological structure of the lemmas.
Semantic order is appropriate for an onomasiological dictionary. However, onomasiological dictionaries – e.g. a dictionary of synonyms – may have an alphabetical macrostructure, too.
Naturally, the macrostructure of a word list is fixed only in print. In a lexical database, the physical order of the records is of no relevance. They are displayed in the sort-order required by the user.
The alphabetical order may be strict. Often, however, it is infracted in favor of morpho-semantic relatedness. Derivational relations are often shown by nesting entries that share their base. This nesting or grouping serves to assemble word families. For instance, a section of the word list of a German–English dictionary reads as follows:
- erst first
- erstklassig first-rate
- erstrangig of first importance
- erstarken grow strong
- erstarren stiffen
In this example, nesting interferes with alphabetical order. It creates subentries of an entry. To that extent, nesting produces a hybrid transition between the macrostructure and the microstructure.