astronomy

The Klingon Dictionary

The Klingon Dictionary is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Klingon Dictionary rather than just read about it. In short: The Klingon Dictionary (TKD) is a book by Marc Okrand describing the Klingon language. First published in 1985 and then again with an addendum in 1992, it includes pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary.

Key takeaways

The Klingon Dictionary belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Klingon Dictionary to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Klingon Dictionary from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Klingon Dictionary (TKD) is a book by Marc Okrand describing the Klingon language. First published in 1985 and then again with an addendum in 1992, it includes pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary. It has sold more than three hundred thousand copies and has been translated into five languages. The book is a description of the grammar with a few examples for every rule. It is not suitable for active learning and practice of the language, because it does not contain any exercises. It has never been intended as a learning book. Its source was intended as a guide for scriptwriters and actors. It was only later sold for merchandising for Star Trek fans.

Summary The dictionary is written from an in-universe perspective. After a brief introduction about the Klingon culture and also how the book has been written, the pronunciation of the Klingon letters is described. Instead of using phonetic symbols, the letters of the Latin alphabet are used, some of them written in upper case to distinguish special pronunciations. For instance, q and Q represent different voiceless uvular consonants, the voiceless uvular affricate and the voiceless uvular plosive, respectively. The largest part of the book is a description of the grammar, including briefly described rules sorted by type of words, accompanied by a few examples for each grammatical topic. The last part of the book contains a list of vocabulary with roughly 1,500 words, followed by a list of useful phrases. The addendum of 1992 contains some new grammatical details and a list of about 200 new words that appeared in or were created for later movies and in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Digital editions Since 2008, the book is available for E-book readers. In 2009, publisher Simon & Schuster introduced an iPhone application version of The Klingon Dictionary as part of three applications rolled into a Klingon Language Suite. The new digital format features a precise pronunciation guide, rules for proper use of affixes and suffixes, and a search menu.

Translations The dictionary was first translated into Portuguese and published in Brazil in 1995. Its title was simply Dicionário da língua klingon. The following translation was German in 1996 bearing the title Das offizielle Wörterbuch Klingonisch/Deutsch ("The Official Klingon-German Dictionary"). That book contains many typos and incorrect translations, which can be misleading when learning the language. A revised version, corrected by Klingon teacher Lieven Litaer, was released in 2013. The Italian translation was published in 1998 by the Roman publisher Fanucci Editore and named Il dizionario Klingon-Italiano ("The Klingon-Italian Dictionary"). In 2008, the dictionary was translated into Czech with the title Klingonský slovník (Klingon Dictionary). An Arabic translation was published in 2024. This version is the first one to include Klingon letters to display Klingon words. In 2025, a Japanese translation was published. It includes a QR code leading to an online list of new Klingon words that have appeared after the publication of the original book.

In popular culture In the season 2 episode "The Panty Piñata Polarization" of The Big Bang Theory, the dictionary is used during a game of Klingon Boggle.

Follow up New vocabulary and grammar rules, published after 1992, can be found in two audio-courses and two more books by Marc Okrand, and in the scholarly journal HolQeD published by the Klingon Language Institute (1992-2004):

Conversational Klingon (1992) - audiocourse Power Klingon (1993) - audiocourse The Klingon Way (1996) Klingon for the Galactic Traveler (1997).

See also Klingon grammar Klingons The Klingon Way List of Star Trek reference books Alien language

References

External links Klingon Language Institute Klingon Dictionary for iPhone

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Klingon Dictionary

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Klingon Dictionary claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Klingon Dictionary before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Klingon Dictionary ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Klingon Dictionary

In research: The Klingon Dictionary appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Klingon Dictionary in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Klingon Dictionary is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1985 non-fiction books, Constructed languages resources, English bilingual dictionaries, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Klingon Dictionary outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Klingon Dictionary in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Klingon Dictionary means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Klingon Dictionary out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Klingon Dictionary in simple terms?

Why does The Klingon Dictionary matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Klingon Dictionary?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Klingon Dictionary.